FOX News "Your World with Neil Cavuto" - Transcript: Current Situation in Ukraine
Interview
CHARLES PAYNE, GUEST HOST: Hey, what should the United States do now?
Pennsylvania Congressman Scott Perry is a member of the Foreign Affairs Committee.
Congressman, welcome to the show.
What exactly should...
REP. SCOTT PERRY, R-PENN.: Thank you, Neil.
PAYNE: Well, I'm Charles, sitting for Neil. But what should we be doing?
PERRY: Oh, sorry, Charles.
PAYNE: What should we be doing right now? What's the proper response at this moment?
PERRY: Well, the there's a couple proper responses.
First of all, signaling to the world and to Russia that we're going to expert LNG, number one. Number two, Keystone pipeline, signaling that we're going to export Canadian oil on and flood the market with that, lower the cost and -- and get the boot, their -- the Russian boot off of Western Europe's neck and throat recording their fuel prices and -- and fuel availability.
I think that would be number one, the economic pressure. Number two, we have to get the U.N. involved. Ukraine has asked for the U.N. since April to come in. We can't get the Security Council to do it. Oh, I wonder why. Because Russia is on the Security Council and won't vote for it. Meanwhile, they're telling the rest of the world there's nothing to see there, nothing to see here.
There obviously is something to see here. An SA-11 is not your garden variety shoulder-fired MANPAD. It's a sophisticated piece of armament usually on a track vehicle, missiles about 20-feet long probably or longer, and a fire control radar to boot that goes with it to shoot down this airplane.
Russia is heavily involved in this -- in this fight, and the international community needs to recognize that and start working towards sanctions, and really isolating Russia so we don't have a resurgent USSR-type activity happening all over Eastern Europe and that European continent.
(CROSSTALK)
PAYNE: Right.
Well, here the thing. Answer one ask answer two, what they have in common is, we're asking Europe to go against their own economic interests at this particular point. Now, I agree with you with respect to LNG and Keystone. So, what do you make of the idea that today, when the president spoke, he took Europe to task, without acknowledging that, hey, we could actually free them so that they can make these independent decisions?
I'm sure Europe doesn't want to help -- they don't want to embolden a Vladimir Putin. They don't want the USSR casting a shadow over them anymore. What don't we embolden them, to your point? What is stopping this message from reaching the White House?
PERRY: What is stopping the environment -- this message is the radical environmentalist left. They refuse to acknowledge the importance of LNG and exporting LNG. They absolutely refuse to acknowledge the importance of Keystone pipeline, not only for our country, but for the geopolitical situation.
And the president is so wed to that radical left-wing base that he simply just can't utter the words.
PAYNE: How embarrassed should we be as Americans right now? Listen, we know that Vladimir Putin is the -- the evil Darth Vader guy here in this, all of this.
But to a certain degree -- and you have already laid it out with your points here -- we could have been pushing these things a long time ago. How embarrassed should we be? And do you think this will be enough maybe to get the American public to nudge the administration?
PERRY: What is really tragic -- I don't know if it's embarrassing, because I think, unfortunately, whether this is the president's policy, this is the not necessarily what most Americans believe in.
What is tragic is, is that most of this can -- could have been avoided, and most of this can be avoided in the future with a couple reasonable policies that -- that take into consideration the geopolitical situation of reality, as opposed to what some of these folks want to believe is this pie-in-the- sky situation where realpolitik doesn't exist.
That is the tragedy here, that we're living under this fantasy and we don't have to be. And most Americans don't agree with it. It's just this administration and a couple individuals at the top of it running it that -- again favoring the ultra-left-wing of their party. That's the tragedy.
PAYNE: It is a tragedy.
Representative Perry, thank you very much. Appreciate it.
PERRY: Thank you.
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