Today on ABC News, Martha Raddatz asked Tim Kaine about Hillary Clinton’s Russian reset:
Hillary Clinton was in charge with the so-called reset with Russia. Can you make an argument that it worked, given what happened in Crimea and Syria?
Kaine could not. He answered:
I don’t think you can make an argument that the relationship with Russia is in a good place right now.
That’s a “no.”
“But,” Kaine added, “that’s not the U.S.’ fault, that’s Vladimir Putin’s aggressive and imperialist ambitions.”
Kaine used the same dodge when, after he tried to switch the subject to Donald Trump, Raddatz returned to the “reset.” She showed Kaine a quote from a Polish foreign minister who, stating the obvious, said that Russia viewed the 2009 reset as a sign of weakness Kaine responded:
To say that Putin’s imperial ambitions are the fault of anybody in the United States is ridiculous.
No one is saying that Putin’s ambitions are the fault of anybody in the United States. But many, including the Polish foreign minister, are saying that Putin’s willingness to act on his ambitions so aggressively is the fault of U.S. weakness as first manifested by the “reset.” Based on Russian sources, I said in 2009 that the Obama-Clinton approach would embolden Russia. So it has.
Kaine’s argument, if you can call it that, is akin to Neville Chamberlain saying it’s ridiculous to blame Hitler’s ambition to conquer Europe on anyone in England. Imperialist ambitions are commonplace. Great power appeasement, mercifully, is not. When it occurs, those who engaged in it, as Hillary Clinton clearly did, should be held accountable for the predictable consequences.
Via Alex Pfeiffer at the Daily Caller. Video below.
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