The following is a transcript of an interview with Sen. Lindsey Graham, Republican of South Carolina, on.
The following is a transcript of an interview with Sen. Lindsey Graham, Republican of South Carolina, on “Face the Nation” that aired on June 9, 2024.
MARGARET BRENNAN: We turn now to Republican Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina. He joins us from London. Good morning to you, Senator.
SEN. LINDSEY GRAHAM (R-SC): Thank you.
MARGARET BRENNAN: I know you were at those D-Day remembrances earlier in the week, and you met with President Zelensky as well. He has asked for more training for his forces, and for that to happen faster and inside of Ukraine. Do you support the U.S. doing that?
SEN. GRAHAM: Yes, I do support us training inside the country. You know, the delay in weapons because of House inaction, we did lose momentum. But from the very beginning, the Biden administration, they did not impose pre-invasion sanctions to deter Putin. They didn’t give weapons to Ukraine early on to deter Putin. And now we’ve got a chance to reset this war that they have the weapons. Here’s what he wanted most of all, for us to go after the Russian assets all over the world, take the money from the sovereign wealth funds of Russia and give it to Ukraine. There’s $300 billion sitting in Europe from Russian sovereign wealth, assets that we should seize and give to Ukraine. We have Russian money in America we should seize. We should make Russia a state sponsor of terrorism under U.S. law. When I suggested that to President Zelensky, he lit up like a Christmas tree. Making Russia a state sponsor of U.S.- state sponsor of terrorism under U.S. law would be a very big blow to Russia.
MARGARET BRENNAN: Right. I don’t know that the Biden administration would sign off on that, though, but in terms of what you just mentioned, with–
SEN. GRAHAM: They won’t.
MARGARET BRENNAN: –with the assets, President Biden did say this morning he had reached an agreement with President Macron of France on the use of profits from those frozen Russian assets to help Ukraine. I know the Europeans haven’t wanted to go ahead and seize assets because it would hurt their banks.
SEN. GRAHAM: Well, they- they want to use the interest to help people- either we’re going to help Ukraine or we’re not. It’s now time to give them the F-16s, let them fly the planes, long range artillery to hit targets inside of Russia. Go after Putin’s assets, wherever they’re at, all over the world. Go on the offensive. I think this summer, Ukraine will regain military momentum. Everything we’ve done with Ukraine has been slow. It’s been indecisive. But if we went after the assets that Putin has all over the world, take his money that’s stolen from the Russian people, and help the victims in Ukraine, I think it would do a lot to end this war.
MARGARET BRENNAN: Your Republican colleague, Senator Tommy Tuberville, just this past week, said on Steve Bannon’s show that Volodomyr Zelensky is a dictator and unconstitutional. And he said this about Vladimir Putin.
BEGIN SOUND ON TAPE
SEN. TOMMY TUBERVILLE (R-AL): He doesn’t want Ukraine. He doesn’t want Europe. Hell, he- he’s got enough land of his own. He just wants to make sure that he does not have United States weapons in Ukraine pointing at Moscow.
END SOUND ON TAPE
MARGARET BRENNAN: Those echo some Russian talking points. Senator, I- I wonder if those remarks from your fellow Senator represent the GOP?
SEN. GRAHAM: No, it represents him and him alone. If you spent 15 minutes studying Putin and what he wants, he wants to re- recreate the Russian Empire. He’s not going to stop in Ukraine. We celebrated the 80th anniversary of D-Day. It was a failure. It was the unnecessary war, described by Winston Churchill. We had a dozen chances to stop Hitler. It’s not about NATO. It’s not about American weapons in Ukraine. It’s about a megalomaniac wanting to create the Russian Empire by force of arms.
