On CNN’s State of the Union on Sunday, during a panel discussion on the tensions between Russia and Ukraine CNN contributor and former Bush administration advisor Scott Jennings schooled host Dana Bash and her fellow leftist panelists on Russian sanctions.
At the beginning of the segment, Bash turned to Jennings and lectured him on the GOP’s stance on Russia. “you have a Republican Party which historically, largely, almost entirely has been about pushing back on Russian aggression” Bash observed before turning around and trashing the GOP. “And now you have some pretty loud voices in the GOP, Scott Jennings, from Fox News to Capitol Hill, questioning why the U.S. even cares about this, whether there's even an interest there?”
Jennings set the record straight “I would just point you to January when the Republican Party led by Ted Cruz in the Senate tried to put sanctions on Vladimir Putin and Joe Biden and the Democrats led a filibuster, a Jim Crow filibuster, their words, not mine, against these sanctions.”
He then made the same point Zelenski made about sanctions on Russia remarking “sanctions in January might have helped. And it was Biden and the Democrats. So, for all the voices you talk about, it was the Republican Party that tried to put Putin in his place in January and Biden stopped it.”
Later on in the segment, Democrat Texas Congressman Colin Allred tried to gaslight viewers by claiming “Vladimir Putin has effectively united the Congress at the very least around resisting him and his aggression.”
In response, Jennings let him have it saying that “there is no consensus. We literally in January had a vote in the U.S. Senate about whether to hold Putin accountable to put sanctions on this pipeline and the Democrats stopped it from happening.”
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To read the relevant transcript click “expand”:
CNN’s State of the Union
2/20/2022
9:47:32 AM ESTDANA BASH: Meanwhile, you have a Republican Party which historically, largely, almost entirely has been about pushing back on Russian aggression. And now you have some pretty loud voices in the GOP, Scott Jennings, from Fox News to Capitol Hill, questioning why the U.S. even cares about this, whether there's even an interest there?
SCOTT JENNINGS: Well as a political matter, I do think there's a fatigue in the United States about foreign intervention. It's the impulse, the political impulse that led Joe Biden to pull out of Afghanistan last year and put us in that debacle. But I would just point you to January when the Republican Party led by Ted Cruz in the Senate tried to put sanctions on Vladimir Putin and Joe Biden and the Democrats led a filibuster, a Jim Crow filibuster, their words, not mine, against these sanctions. There’s fifty-five votes in the Senate. Now, I'm kinda with Zelensky, sanctions after they take over doesn't help me. Sanctions in January might have helped. And it was Biden and the Democrats. So, for all the voices you talk about, it was the Republican Party that tried to put Putin in his place in January and Biden stopped it.
(...)
CONGRESSMAN COLIN ALLRED: Dana, if I could I would just say, I was part of a bipartisan delegation to Ukraine, I actually think that Vladimir Putin has effectively united the Congress at the very least around resisting him and his aggression. So it's not all -- not all hope is lost. We can have some bipartisan agreement around this.
JENNINGS: But there is no consensus. We literally in January had a vote in the U.S. Senate about whether to hold Putin accountable to put sanctions on this pipeline and the Democrats stopped it from happening.
[crosstalk]
ALLRED: The nord stream 2 pipeline --
JENNINGS: They stopped it and they were encouraged to do it by the Biden administration.
ALLRED: That's a separate issue.
JENNINGS: It is not a separate issue.
ALLRED: Yes it is.
JENNINGS: It is one of his most important issues. Biden waived the sanctions and they stopped the sanctions.
ALLRED: I think it's actually a shame that you're coming on here and putting this as a Democrat/Republican issue this should be an American response.
JENNINGS: I agree. I wish the Democrats were willing to stand up to Putin before he invades.
