Former DNI John Ratcliffe: ‘This Truly Is a Ukraine First, Ohio Last Policy’

(CNSNews.com) – Former Director of National Intelligence (DNI) John Ratcliffe criticized President Biden for visiting Ukraine on President’s Day instead of visiting East Palestine, Ohio, where residents are dealing with the aftermath of a train derailment that resulted in hazardous chemicals being released into the environment.

“Even if you look at how badly the Biden administration has mismanaged Ukraine up to this point and a war that many of us believe a strong president could have avoided. We believe that it was Biden’s weakness in Afghanistan that prompted Putin to move on Ukraine in the first place,” Ratcliffe told Fox News’ “Hannity” on Monday.

“Even if you set that aside, if you set aside on the second day of the Russian invasion, Biden essentially wanted to surrender Ukraine. He offered him a ride out of the country. If you set that aside and set aside the past year no matter whether we’re talking about stinger missiles or javelins or anti-artillery or tanks, the Biden administration in delivering support has been slow and late and indecisive,” he said.

“When you set that aside, it’s Just hard to fathom what a blender this was that this national security team would send him 5,000 away to Ukraine when they haven’t sent him 250 miles to East Palestine,” Ratcliffe said.

“For him to go and to talk about Ukrainian, not just providing weapons but talking about welfare and Ukraine pensions and support to the Ukrainian people when there’s a train derailment and an environmental disaster, this truly is a Ukraine first, Ohio last policy, and you’re right,” he said.

“All at the same while, this only encourages and emboldens China to help Russia and for them to work together on what has been and will continue to be a multidirectional assault on American supremacy that they have done for the last two years and we can expect to continue for the next two years,” Ratcliffe said.

The former director of national intelligence said that “China has been involved in China since day one.”

“Everybody saw what happened in Afghanistan. China certainly did. Make no mistake, Pete, China has been involved in Ukraine since day one. The day that China said we’ll take from Russia all of the oil and gas that you want to sell us, they essentially said to Vladimir Putin, we’ll fund your war against Ukraine,” Ratcliffe said.

“So now that they’re talking about getting more directly involved with weapons and ammunition, it’s really, it’s not a lot different from what they have already been doing. In fact, I suspect that they have been providing lethal aid already through the Wagner group proving drones and other things, so they’re going to continue to support Russia against — to work with Russia against us because there are no consequences,” he said.

“That’s the calculation. A million Americans died from a virus that they haven’t been confronted about. 100,000 Americans have been died from fentanyl that they haven’t been confronted about. A spy balloon flew over our whole country, and not only did we not get an apology, they essentially demanded an apology from us while we return their spycraft to them,” Ratcliffe said.

“No offense is too great. They’ve been able to get away with everything with this administration, and why wouldn’t they see this as a window of opportunity? I hate to say it, Pete, but the fear of many of us is that they see a two-year window of opportunity for continued aggression that may not exist after two more years,” he said.

Ratcliffe said that the concern is that China will “move militarily on Taiwan while there’s a window of opportunity, and essentially, we’ve given no indications that they’re ever going to be considered by the Biden administration anything but a friendly competitor, because that’s what we keep telling them no matter what aggression against our country and our citizens. They just keep getting away with it.”

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