Sen. Bill Hagerty (R-TN) defended President Donald Trump‘s strategy in negotiating with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
This week, Ukraine marked the third anniversary of Russia’s invasion. While Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has maintained control of its capital, Kyiv, Putin has claimed to have annexed Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhzhia, and Kherson regions in the south and east of Ukraine since September 2022.
Fox News’s America’s Newsroom host Bill Hemmer asked Hagerty about the resolution between the United States, Russia, Belarus, and North Korea that does not blame Moscow for the outbreak of the war. Hagerty avoided making a comment on who’s to blame for the war but was faced with another question about whether it is “self-evident that you have to suck up to Putin in order to get him to the table.”
“I wouldn’t put it in terms of sucking up to Putin. What I would say is that the president is actually trying to shift the conversation. President Trump has not lifted any sanctions on Putin,” Hagerty said. “In fact, he’s talking about getting back in the energy business, putting Keystone Pipeline back in. It was Joe Biden that killed the Keystone XL pipeline and okayed Nord Stream 2, which funded Russia’s war effort.”
Trump began teasing the return of the Keystone pipeline in a Truth Social post on Monday night. The pipeline would transport 830,000 barrels of crude oil from Alberta, Canada, to U.S. refineries a day. Meanwhile, the Nord Stream 2 pipeline is slated to be the largest of any in the world to transport oil all over Europe.
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According to the president, he is also “in serious discussions with President Vladimir Putin of Russia concerning the ending of the War, and also major Economic Development transactions which will take place between the United States and Russia. Talks are proceeding very well!”
Russian casualties are approaching a million, while Trump has suggested 700,000 Ukrainian troops are also dead. However, Zelensky has said the Ukrainian death toll is 43,000.