Corker: Putin ‘Reshaping’ Russia’s Role in the World with No Pushback from U.S.

RUSH TRANSCRIPT:

SCARBOROUGH: “With us now from Capitol Hill the chairman of the senator foreign relations committee Republican senator Bob corker of Tennessee. First Ukraine, then Syria, now Afghanistan. It appears this threat from Russia continues to grow.”
CORKER: “Yeah, if you talk to leaders in the region, Joe, what they tell you when they meet with Putin is Putin says, hey, look, I’m getting no push back, I have no price to pay for what I’m doing, it’s playing really well domestically as we have other issues that this sort of clouds so, you know, I think it’s going to continue. I was in Munich the weekend before last at the secret council there. I don’t think I’ve ever seen Europe in such a state of depression relative to security issues, just economic issues, refugee issues where Putin is using refugees as a weapon of war. Then of course is the eu even going to stay in place. He is reshaping in many ways Russia’s role in the world with almost no push back from NATO or the United States.”
SCARBOROUGH: “The criticism, Richard Haas was saying from the Munich conference as well obviously from Republicans on Capitol Hill is that the president is not doing enough to check the expansion of Russia’s influence. What could the president of the United States do to stop a megillah maniac like Vladimir Putin.”
CORKER: “So, you know, we’ve missed so many opportunities, especially in Syria, Joe. I think you remember in August/September of 2013 we jumped in his lap, didn’t we? When we got them involved in dealing with the chemical weapons and in many ways what we did was assure that Assad would stay in power for some time which is exactly what Putin wished. I think he understands right now as you we talk about plan B in Syria if he doesn’t do X, I think he understands there really is no plan B or no plan B really and there’s not much left there. Let’s face it. I mean, they are now dominating and so look, I think where we can push back, though, is certainly in Ukraine, we can continue — I know general love is building up our efforts to defend the Baltics, try to do things there, but, look, I think under this administration not much. I’m concerned that Europe with all the duress they’re having and the breaking apart of their agreements internally, I’m concerned that even with the Ukraine issue there is a sense that sanctions will not continue and over time Putin may get the upper hand there.”