A former top security aide to Donald Trump on Monday accused the Biden administration of trying to intentionally "sabotage" the President-elect's efforts to bring an end to the Russian war against Ukraine.
Former National Security Council chief of staff Fred Fleitz said President Joe Biden was repeatedly unwilling to authorize Ukraine to use U.S.-made missiles to strike deep inside Russia before the election, and his lame-duck decision this weekend to authorize it now smacks of an effort to thwart Trump's effort to create a ceasefire and peace deal.
"The timing is really curious, because Biden was reluctant to do this before the election, because he was worried he would escalate the war. He would take a lot of criticism for possibly escalating the war," Fleitz told the John Solomon Reports podcast. "And now that the election is over, he's made this decision, which Putin has said is a red line and could put Russia at war with the United States.
"I don't think this is an effort to give Ukraine leverage in negotiations with Russia, because it's going to make the war worse," he added. "I think this is a deliberate attempt by Joe Biden to sabotage President Trump's efforts to negotiate a ceasefire."
Biden raised eyebrows over the weekend when he reported authorized the first-time use of U.S.-supplied long-range missiles by Ukraine to strike deeper inside Russia than previously allowed. This latest easing of restrictions by Biden is meant to keep the war from spiraling further out of control, officials told The Associated Press.
The decision to authorize the new use of these missiles, the Army Tactical Missile System, or ATACMs, is apparently in response to the decision and employment of North Korean troops being used to support Russian President Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine.
Putin immediately warned the authorization may be viewed as an act of war, and he also cut off vital uranium exports needed by America's nuclear energy industry.
The timing of the authorization raises questions over whether this has anything to do with Donald Trump, who has expressed his intent to try to quickly end the war when he moves back into the White House on January 20 of next year.
The New York Times reported that these weapons, long requested by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, will initially be used against Russian and North Korean troops and to defend Ukrainian forces in the Kursk region of western Russia.
This is clearly a major change in U.S. policy, a choice that not only divided Biden's advisers but also security experts across the political spectrum worried that a lame-duck president was handicapping his successor.
Rep. Thomas Massie, R-Ky., said Monday he believed Biden was taking a war action that wasn't approved by Congress and could be impeached.
"By authorizing long range missiles to strike inside Russia, Biden is committing an unconstitutional Act of War that endangers the lives of all U.S. citizens," Massie wrote on X. "This is an impeachable offense, but the reality is he’s an emasculated puppet of a deep state."
Liberal commentator Cenk Uygur was similarly unmerciful.
"What the f@#* is Biden doing authorizing Ukraine to use US missiles inside Russia?," he wrote on X. "Which side of the political spectrum is this on? The right hates it, the left hates it. Only establishment Democrats and Republicans, who are all neocons serving the donor class, like this. "
Former Trump Deputy National Security Adviser Victoria Coates told the Just the News, No Noise television show on Monday night that Biden's action was a thumb in the eye of the American electorate and risked a dangerous escalation with a nuclear superpower.
"Why isn't that a decision for the president-elect, who clearly has the support of the American people to make?" Coates asked. "Putin has said he might respond with a nuclear strike. You can't handcuff your successor with that kind of responsibility, because you're going to do something rash and not well thought through at the tail end of your presidency."
