Judging Freedom - Biden & Sanctions - Does he know what he's doing?

Episode Date: March 26, 2022

#Biden #Ukraine #Russia #PutinSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Hello there, everyone. Judge Andrew Napolitano here for Judging Freedom. Today is Friday, March 25th, 2022. It's about 9.35 in the morning here on the East Coast. Some of us, your humble correspondent among them, have been arguing for the past month that sanctions are unconstitutional, that they interfere with the free transaction of commercial activities, that they seize property without search warrants, and that they take property without due process. And we've also been arguing that sanctions don't work, that they don't change the minds of the people at the top. They hurt poor people and they hurt middle class people. As an example, I have pointed, and others have as well, to Cuba,

which has been suffering under American sanctions since they were imposed by JFK in 1962. It is still a totalitarian society, and the people are repressed and living in an economic squalor, driving infamously 1956 Chevrolets where they can't get parts to repair them. Yesterday in Brussels, President Biden was asked if sanctions work. You're not going to believe his answer. Sanctions never deter. You keep talking about that. Sanctions never deter. The maintenance of sanctions, the maintenance of sanctions, the increasing the pain and the demonstration why I asked for this NATO meeting today is to be sure that after a month we will sustain what we're doing, not just next month, the following month,

but for the remainder of this entire year. That's what will stop him. Do you believe the actions today will have an impact on making Russia change course in Ukraine? That's not what I said. You're playing a game with me. I know. The answer is no. With regard to food shortages,

yes, we did talk about food shortages. And it's going to be real the price of these sanctions is not just imposed upon russia it's imposed upon an awful lot of countries as well including european countries in our country as well hard to believe that the president has made such a big deal out of sanctions as the appropriate response to the war, the Russian war in Ukraine now concedes that sanctions don't work. You know, I have a lot of friends who attack Joe Biden personally and say he's not mentally sound. I don't like those of you know me know that I don't like to go there. Those of you who know me well know that I know Joe Biden. We were faculty members together at Delaware Law School back in the late 1970s when I was a young assistant

professor of law, the youngest, lowest on the totem pole member of the faculty. And Joe Biden, then Congressman Biden, was an adjunct faculty member. And we've maintained a friendly relationship since then. He's a great guy. But sometimes you got to think he doesn't know what the hell he's talking about. Why would he be imposing these sanctions if they don't work? What do they succeed in doing? They succeed in suppressing economic activity, which has a domino effect around the world. And that part he's admitted. Is he warning about food shortages in the United States because of these sanctions? Well, you may not know this, but the Ukraine is called the breadbasket of Europe. It produces more wheat than anywhere else in the world. We would produce more wheat if we didn't pay farmers not to grow wheat, but that's

another story for another time. The story for today is, does the President of the United States know what he's talking about? Either sanctions work or they don't work. They don't change government policy. They harm lower and middle class people and occasionally people in the upper ranks, but they have enough financial insulation to tolerate it. They violate the Constitution, which prohibits the government. That's my dog, Chris. They violate the Constitution, which prohibits the government from taking property without due process and from seizing assets without a search warrant. I don't know where this is going to go, but the first thing we need is a president who knows what the heck he's doing.

Chris, calm down. Judge Napolitano, see how he listens. Judge Napolitano, judging freedom.