Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) on Sunday stressed the urgency of support to Ukraine, warning Russian President Vladimir Putin “will not stop,” even if successful in Russia’s war with Kyiv.
“Here’s what I will tell you. If you give Putin Ukraine, he will not stop,” Graham said during an interview on “Fox News Sunday.” “This is not about containing NATO and if you give him Ukraine, there goes Taiwan because China’s watching to see what we do.”
Graham, a vocal supporter of Ukraine, was discussing the Senate’s two-year reauthorization of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act’s (FISA) warrantless surveillance program. The legislation extends the government’s ability to spy on foreigners located abroad for another two years. The process has faced some scrutiny from privacy hawks as it also sweeps up communications of Americans they are in contact with.
“I want to know what they’re talking about over there before they kill us here. And if you shut this thing down, you’ve turned the war into a crime,” Graham said. “We’re not fighting our crime, we’re finding a bunch of people who would kill all of us if they could get here. So, when you intercept information from a foreigner overseas talking about America, I want to know what they’re talking about.”
Graham’s remarks regarding the threats of foreign adversaries and Putin come one day after the House passed a massive foreign aid bill after months of stalemate and division among lawmakers.
The package — passed in four separate votes — includes about $61 billion for Ukraine, $26 billion for Israel, $8 billion for allies in the Indo-Pacific and a package of other national security measures, including a potential ban on the TikTok app.
The package now goes to the Senate, which is expected to pass it in the middle of the week.
“The Ukranian military, with our help, has killed about 50 percent of the combat power of the Russians,” Graham said Sunday. “This is the year [of] more. They’re going to have more weapons, but we also want them to have new weapons.”
“So, this idea ‘give up on Ukraine makes the world safer…’ if you pull the plug on Ukraine cause you don’t have enough capability. There goes Taiwan. Ukrainians are fighting like tigers,” he continued. “So this idea that we can’t help Ukraine, Israel, and Taiwan at the same time, I reject that. I reject it totally.”
Tyler Mitchell