Hannity: Putin not afraid of Biden, sanctions
Putin makes forceful speech 2 years to the day Biden claimed he feared his 2020 election
Then-candidate Joe Biden made a bold proclamation 2 years ago Monday, when he claimed Russian leader Vladimir Putin didn't want him to win the 2020 election because he's "the only person in the field who's ever gone toe to toe with him," Sean Hannity said Monday.
In his Opening Monologue, the "Hannity" host pointed out how "badly that [message] aged" – as Biden now potentially will become party to another catastrophe on the other side of the world following his disastrous Afghanistan withdrawal.
Hannity reported that Putin has already sent military personnel into the eastern part of Ukraine under the guise of a "peacekeeping" mission to back up so-called Russian-friendly "separatists" there.
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"In reality, nothing could be further from the truth: according to analysts and officials, we could be witnessing what is the beginning of a prolonged and bloody war," Hannity said.
Hannity said experts also warn Putin's potential plans may become the largest invasion to take place in Europe since 1939 when former German Chancellor Adolf Hitler invaded the Sudetenland, a portion of western then-Czechoslovakia largely populated by ethnic Germans. Months later, Hitler's Nazis invaded France, Luxembourg, Belgium and Holland.
"Now remember just two years ago to the day then-candidate Joe Biden, he made a bold declaration: This did not age well on Twitter – 'Vladimir Putin doesn't want me to be president. He doesn't want me to be our nominee. If you're wondering why, it's because I'm the only person in the field who's ever gone toe to toe with him."
US President Joe Biden delivers a national update on the situation at the Russia-Ukraine border. (Photo by JIM WATSON/AFP via Getty Images)
"It turns out Joe was everything Putin, in fact, did want, and more," Hannity added. "Putin watched as Biden abandoned how many Americans, how many green card holders, how many of our Afghan allies in the Islamic Emirates of Afghanistan and the most shameful and chaotic way possible Americans held hostage, abandoned behind enemy lines."
Hannity said Biden has also doubled down on essentially aiding Putin's cause by shutting down American energy production and exploration, as a Russian invasion of Ukraine is projected to send gas prices, and thereby overall inflation, soaring – compounded by the now-lack of American energy production due to Biden's own intentional actions.
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"[In July 2020], Putin declared his lust for Ukraine … all the while Russian troops and equipment, they were amassing at Ukraine's border for the better part of a year. And yet Biden failed to turn the screws. He failed to turn Vladimir in any way," the host went on. "He failed to re-impose sanctions until today, and they're pathetic at that, with two measly economic limits on just the separate so-called separatist regions now in eastern Ukraine. Far too little. Far too late."
"And as Russia's Ambassador Sweden put it, Moscow doesn't give an 'Adamschiff' about sanctions," he said.
Putin, in the wake of Biden's comments, says Russia knows "how to defend our own interests." (Reuters)
"Excuse my language, but we don’t give a s--t about all their sanctions," ambassador Viktor Tatarintsev told Stockholm's "Aftonbladet" newspaper.
"Now there's virtually nothing Biden can do to prevent conflict," Hannity warned. "And of course, the United States will not get into a shooting war with Ukraine, nor should we. But Americans will pay a steep financial cost."
"The price of a barrel of oil is now very high at $94 per barrel. But a war between two massive oil-producing countries in Europe, that price could shoot right through the roof with some people, economic experts expecting it could go to higher than $150 a barrel, you'll pay for that. Too bad President Biden spent the first year of his presidency basically taking a wrecking ball to the US oil and gas production in this country."
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