Former member of President Donald Trump’s Cabinet Richard Grenell blasted Secretary of State Antony Blinken and his team for lacking leadership on diplomacy efforts within Europe amid the war in Ukraine.
Grenell, a former ambassador to Germany and acting director of national intelligence under Trump, told Newsmax’s Saturday Agenda that it’s time to think about replacing Blinken and his team, noting that other world leaders have risen to the forefront in leading diplomatic discussions.
“They’ve demonstrated that from the beginning that they’re too weak and not creative enough to do tough diplomacy and put America first,” Grenell said.
The Republican said President Joe Biden has shoved diplomacy aside, leading to many people losing their lives. Grenell pointed to giving Russian President Vladimir Putin the “green light to go into Ukraine” when sanctions on the Nord Stream 2 pipeline were dropped.
“What we saw through this last situation in Ukraine is Joe Biden’s message that ‘there is going to be a bloody war, starting next week,'” Grenell said. “He kept saying that this bloody, terrible war is coming, but yet he refused to put sanctions on the Russian pipeline. He refused to cripple the Russian plan to start this war, and now we’ve seen thousands of people dead because we didn’t diplomatically rush in and do, kind of, a shock and awe diplomatically.”
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Grenell blasted the Biden administration for not working with Turkey or other countries who have influence over Russia. He noted that the lack of leadership paints a weak picture of the United States.
“This has been a disaster on the diplomatic front, and now we are seeing that lack of leadership really impacted around the world by others trying to step up and say, ‘We better do something because the Americans aren’t,” Grenell said.
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The former ambassador added that Biden’s announcement to visit NATO next week signals weak messaging. He raised concern that there will be a ripple effect from weak policies impacting the U.S. in years to come.
