The Daily Signal - Putin Won’t Stop With Ukraine, KT McFarland Says

Episode Date: February 28, 2022

Russia will succeed in its invasion of Ukraine, national security expert KT McFarland predicts. And once Russian President Vladimir Putin takes Ukraine, he won’t stop there, she says.  “I think [Putin’s] going to start looking to the Baltics, those three little countries—Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania,” McFarland says on “The Daily Signal Podcast.” America is now in another Cold War with Russia, one that the United States has not prepared for as well as it should, according to McFarland, whose government posts in national security date to the 1970s and who was deputy national security adviser early in the Trump administration.  McFarland joins the podcast from the Conservative Political Action Conference in Orlando, Florida, to discuss Putin’s ultimate goal in invading Ukraine and what America should be doing in response.  Enjoy the show! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This is the Daily Signal podcast for Monday, February 28th. I'm Rob Bluey. And I'm Virginia Allen. The Daily Signal team recently traveled down to Florida for the conservative political action conference. While there, I had the opportunity to sit down with K.T. McFarland. She served as the deputy national security advisor in the Trump administration and as a regular guest on Fox News. We discussed the reality of the threat China and Russia opposed to America and the entire free world. Also on today's show, we read your letters to the editor and share a good news story about how a nonprofit is providing ongoing hope and assistance to the people of Western Kentucky who were devastated by tornadoes in December.

But before we get to today's show, we want to tell you about the Heritage Foundation's new election integrity scorecard. At Heritage, we believe voting is a sacred duty. It's how people express what course they want the nation to take. Given the importance of the ballot box, it's necessary to have. have a transparent and fraud-free system that can be trusted. This is why Heritage created the election integrity scorecard. This scorecard compares the laws and regulations for elections state-to-state and ranks them on their security and transparency.

Check out the election integrity scorecard today at heritage.org slash election scorecard. Now stay tuned for today's show coming up next. It is my honor to be joined by KT. McFarland. She is the former deputy national security advisor under former president Donald Trump. Katie, thank you so much for being here. It's an honor and a pleasure. And Virginia, if I could just say, as a proud woman of a much older generation, it really is great for me to see a woman in your generation who's taking advantage of the things that's sort of my generation.

I'm a retired lady. Okay, but in my generation, we had to fight for. There were women who were not in the national security field. They were not in broadcasting. And then to see someone like you who's making full use of those opportunities, you know, it makes me feel really proud. Well, the Lord opens doors and it's exciting to get to walk through them. And thank you for what you have done to forge that path forward for people like me.

Thank you. It's a privilege to get to talk to you today. I want to dive right in and talk about what is happening with Russia and Ukraine. So Russian President Vladimir Putin has launched a full-on invasion of Ukraine. what is Putin's ultimate goal? Is it just to take over Ukraine? Does he have a larger mission in mind? And how far do you think he's going to go in order to achieve the goal?

You know, the thing about Putin, so I studied Putin for 30 years. And he wrote a graduate dissertation. So he was in the KGB, and then the Soviet Union collapsed in the early 1990s. And he left the KGB, went to grad school. And he wrote a dissertation. And in the dissertation, he said, here's how we're going to make Russia great again. We are going to take the oil and natural gas and natural resources of Russia, take them out of the arms of the oligarchs, put them under state control, and then Russia will use the government of Russia will use those energy resources to do two things. One, to make Russia rich, because it would export oil and natural gas to Europe, which needed it.

And number two, it would give them political leverage. And that's exactly the roadmap he's followed for 30 years. His ultimate goal is to break the back of NATO and to separate the United States from our European allies and to not only sort of restore Russia to greatness in his mind, but to really take a, just to undo the Cold War victory. You know, we may have won, and we think we won Cold War. He thinks that was only Cold War 1.0. He's in Cold War 2.0, and he plans to win that one, and he's going to use it with his energy resources and his vicious, brutal invasion of Ukraine.

not think he stops with Ukraine. I think he digests it. And then I think he's going to start looking to the Baltics. Those three little countries, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania. And there's a very narrow, I think it's like a hundred mile long corridor that goes between Russia and Kaliningrad, which is a Russian port on the Baltic Sea. So I think that's where he looks next. So then are we looking at entering another Cold War air? as America with Russia? Oh, Virginia. I think we're in the Cold War with Russia.

The question is, if he goes after those three nations that I've said, Estonia, Lafay, Lithuania, they are our NATO allies. So we have a treaty obligation. We, the United States, Germany, France, Canada, to come to their defense. And that's what Putin wants to break. Ukraine for him is an easier thing,

because it's not a NATO ally. And so I think that has ultimate goal though, is if he gets Ukraine and the Germans don't help and the French don't help, he's going to say, well, I'll go for the rest of it. How concerned should we be about Russia's use of nuclear weapons? Well, any nuclear power, you should be concerned with their nuclear weapons. I mean, I taught nuclear weapons at MIT in the 70s, so I certainly have been worried about that forever. I think the far more likely thing that Putin will use is energy weapon, but the cyber attacks

and the hackings and, you know, every time he's done cyber attacks, the United States, especially in the last year, we've sort of raised an eyebrow but done nothing much. And that's where the direction I think it goes next. But whenever you have nuclear powers, you have to remember there are nuclear weapons and there are consequences. I guess my big concern now with regard to Putin and Ukraine is that somebody miscalculates, that he miscalculates. That Putin miscalculates.

Yeah, Putin has overreach, overstretch. Okay. Okay, and what would that lead to? Okay, so let's say, for example, Putin is now, he's been in Ukraine, he thought he would have it sort of sewn up by now, it's not sewn up by now. What if he has massive cyber attacks on Ukraine? Now with those cyber weapons, we're kind of new to this world of cyber weapons. Would it spill over to Poland?

Would those cyber attacks sort of hit the U.S. banking system? If so, what is our response? We're kind of in uncharted territories, and that's what I'm concerned with. And are we prepared for cyber attacks, for whatever we're? Russia could throw out. I don't think were nearly well prepared enough. You know, the United States, because if you think about it, so Russia, China, everything is under the control of the government, right? Even if it pretends to be an independent company, it's not. It's under the control of the government and the government's cyber offenses and defenses. In the U.S., we have that separation between

government and private sector. So if you're a bank, let's say you're a small bank and somewhere in the Midwest, and you have a cyber attack, who's defending you? Right? Nobody. Maybe you tell your customers, well, change your password, but nobody's really defending you. So the difficulty the United States has, it's our strength, but it's our great weakness, is that we do not have a national policy of how to defend against cyber attack. Okay. So speaking of Ukraine, specifically, the president there, Vladimir Zelensky, he's digging in his heels. He's staying with his people.

He's not leaving the nation. Is Ukraine prepared to fend off Russia? Can they withstand this full-on-offront from Russia? Not for long, but God bless the Ukrainian people. Everyone assumed that they would cut and run, that the leaders Zelensky and the other leaders of Ukraine would disappear with their suitcases full of cash and be bought off and then replaced by Russian puppets.

Everyone assumed that the Ukrainian military would throw down its arms and kind of disappear into the subways of Kiev. That's not happened. I was in touch with some people who are with the mayor of Kiev, Klitsko, last night. And they are fighting street to street in Kiev. So I think the Ukrainian people are really just an inspiration to the world. Ultimately, sadly, I think Russia wins. But God bless the people of Ukraine.

Yeah, their courage is true. Their courage is inspirational to everyone in the world. Well, the State Department, they have. have said that they're going to provide up to 350 million in immediate support for Ukrainian security and defense. Is there more the U.S. should be doing? Well, there's more that the U.S. should have done. It's too late at this point. We could have given them more lethal weapons in the last year. President Biden and then President Obama before him did not give Ukraine what we call lethal weapons.

They would give them soft powers, you know, blankets, food stuff. Trump actually reversed that and gave significant lethal weapons, offensive and defensive weapons to the Ukrainians. There's not much more we can do at this point. I mean, this is all going to be over in the next 72 hours. So if you could sit down and talk with President Joe Biden this afternoon, how would you advise him? Well, they'd never let me in the White House. Well, you know that. But if they would.

What would you advise him to be doing right now? But I would, if he really wanted to break the back of Putin and to stop Putin, now from doing the next step. I think Ukraine is lost, has been lost. But to stop him from doing the next power grab, go to the American people and say to the American people, I'm reversing course. When I came into office, I shut down American oil and natural gas. I shut down the export of liquefied natural gas around the world. I'm reversing course. I'm going to reopen the Keystone pipeline. I'm going to reopen American energy. I'm going to increase the number of terminals of liquefied natural gas exports.

So that's what you would say to the American people. We're reversing course today. He should then say to the Europeans who are dependent upon Russia, he should say to them, look, you may have liked the fact that you were getting your energy from your neighbors in Russia, but look at the prices caused you, political price. How about we help you, even in our expense? We will build liquefied natural gas terminals in Europe. You can have American natural gas.

Lickified natural gas is cheap, it's clean. It's reliable, and then get off of the Russian blackmail. And then I think what I would tell them is to go to the Russian people and say, look, here's the deal. When America becomes energy independent again, which we can do in a very short period of time, we are going to drive the price of oil and natural gas down. You are going to be bankrupt. We are going to encourage the Saudis to pump more oil as well. And so Russia, you're finished.

And that would be the way to deal with the Russians. You know, I worked in the Reagan administration when we won the first Cold War. And the way we did it was pushing the price of oil down, bankrupting Russia, preventing Russia from getting bank loans, and then finally preventing the export of American technology to Russia. That's how we won the first Cold War. We can win the second Cold War exactly the same way. Is China a wild card, though, in the equation that's different from the first Cold War? How should we be thinking about China's involvement?

Should we be concerned about China? That's about the only thing we should be really concerned about. You know, look, for 20 years, we've been fighting the Forever Wars in the Middle East, and we took our eye off the real strategic threat, which was China. We always thought, I mean, 20, 30 years ago, well, we'll help China modernize, they'll get rich, they'll have a middle class, then there'll be an open society, a trading partner with ours, just like what happened with Japan and Korea and Germany. That wasn't China's plan.

China's plan was we're going to get rich and then we're going to really go after American power in the world. And that's so I think our greatest strategic adversary is a China, not a China that wants to compete, but a China which wants to crush and replace. Okay. Katie McFarland, thank you so much for your time today. It's been great. Thank you so much, Virginia. Thank you.

Thank you. God bless you. Are you looking for an easy and entertaining way to keep up with the news you care about? The Daily Signal and Heritage Foundation YouTube channels offer interviews with policy experts on the most critical issues and debates America is facing today, as well as short explainer videos that break down complex issues and documentaries that dive deep into the way its policy actually impacts people. Go ahead and subscribe to both the Daily Signal and Heritage Foundation YouTube channels today. You can search for either on your YouTube app or visit YouTube.com slash. Heritage Foundation and YouTube.com slash DailySignal. Thanks for sending us your letters to the editor.

Each Monday we feature our favorites on this show. Virginia, who's up first? Kathy Griggs writes, Dear Daily Signal, I would like to applaud Kate Trinko's article What's Driving the Witch Hunt Against Joe Rogan. Thank you for putting this out there. It needed to be said. You did a terrific job writing it.

Thank you again. And in response to Cully Stimson and Zach Smith's commentary. Meet Alvin Bragg, rogue prosecutor whose policies are wreaking havoc in Manhattan, Mike and Don Dersh of New Jersey, right? Great article by Cully Stimson and Zach Smith, with lots of great information on Manhattan DA, Alvin Bragg. Not great is what these George Soros-funded criminals are doing to America, but good to be informed. Any plans for an article about what we can do about it? Sure, we'll vote against these people, but in those cities, lives and progresses rule. Keep up the good work.

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Thank you so much, Rob. Well, many of you may remember that just a couple weeks before Christmas, 2021, tornadoes ripped through Western Kentucky. And in the wake of that devastation, nonprofits and aid organizations, they rushed in to help. And two months later, some of those groups are still there, helping families and communities pick up the pieces of their lives. And an organization called Mercy Chefs is one such group that's still there. Mercy Chefs is a Christian Disaster Relief Organization that provides professional high-quality meals to victims, volunteers, and first responders in natural disaster and national disaster and national emergency situations.

Based in Virginia, Mercy Chefs wasted no time bringing hot meals to the people of Western Kentucky after the devastation. Less than 24 hours after the tornadoes swept through the town, they were already there on the ground

serving meals. Chef Gary LeBlanc is the founder of Mercy Chefs and started the organization after he realized that the food offered to victims of natural disasters, often lacks quality and nutrition. Mercy Chef's has served over 43,000 meals in Western Kentucky since the tornadoes struck,

and Chef LeBlanc says his organization plans to stay and continue feeding the people affected by the storm. We're here. We're still sending meals into the affected counties. We're feeding nearly 600 people a day that lost everything in the December storms. We're taking care of shelters. We're taking care of volunteer teams. still taking care of some of the first responders. The nonprofit has set up a long-term operation center in western Kentucky, which they are calling the Beacon of Hope.

They have transformed an old school building into a distribution center for the meals they make and also a place for volunteers to stay who come to town to help the community. We have 50 beds ready now in bunk rooms. We have rooms for VIPs and couples. We also have shower trailers on site. So teams will be able to come in and get their three meals a day and be housed and cared for while they're providing hope for the people of Western Kentucky. LeBlanc says that ultimately his goal is to give hope to the people of Western Kentucky. If you or maybe your family or your church community are interested in going down and volunteering with Mercy Chefs in Kentucky,

you can visit Mercychefs.com to learn how you can get involved. And of course, our thoughts and prayers remain. with the people of Western Kentucky. But it is so powerful and wonderful to see an organization like Mercy Chefs choosing to serve long term in this community, a community that has been so devastated. What a great inspiration and sign of hope for the people there. And Virginia, thank you for telling our listeners all about it.

Absolutely, Rob. I love to see these smaller nonprofits organizations that are doing such great and practical work. And we love featuring them on the Daily Signal podcast, That's for sure. Well, we're going to leave it there for today. You can find the Daily Single podcast and the Rickashay Audio Network.

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