The White House is distancing itself from a key Capitol Hill ally who appears to be pushing President Joe Biden and congressional leaders to be more aggressive against Russian President Vladimir Putin over his invasion of Ukraine.
Sen. Chris Coons, who replaced Biden as Delaware’s senator, is “a close friend” of the president and the administration’s, according to White House press secretary Jen Psaki.
BIDEN’S STUDENT DEBT GAMBLE MAY NOT PAY OFF WITH VOTER ENTHUSIASM
“We just respectfully disagree with his proposal,” she said. “The president has no plans to send troops to fight a war with Russia. He doesn’t think that’s in our national security interests, in the interests of the American people.”
She added Biden has been focused on providing “this historic amount of security assistance, military assistance, weapons to the Ukrainians, that has helped them effectively fight this war and economic assistance as well.”
Psaki similarly dismissed Coons’s suggestion Ukraine could deteriorate into a Syria-like situation without the U.S., NATO, and European allies more “forcefully” defending it.
“What we’ve seen to date is the Ukrainians bravely fighting back against the Russians,” she said. “We would not share that assessment.”
Coons told the University of Michigan last week that “it is important” for the White House and Congress to come to “a common position about when we are willing to go to the next steps and to send not just arms but troops to the aid and defense of Ukraine.”
CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER
The senator then told CBS last weekend “Putin will only stop when we stop him,” sidestepping a question regarding whether Biden was wrong not to deploy forces to Ukraine or whether he was asking the president to draw a red line.
