Washington, DC – Wyoming Congresswoman Liz Cheney (R-WY) spoke to Wyoming reporters and answered questions from them following Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s remarks to Congress. Rep. Cheney’s opening remarks from the press call can be found below:
REP. LIZ CHENEY: “It was, I think, a very important and unprecedented speech this morning to have a foreign leader address the Congress virtually. And I will say, it really hit home in a number of ways: the assault that the Ukrainian people are facing and just also the nature of President Zelensky as a leader. When he finished his remarks, it was clear he seemed to be running his own tech. He stood up out of his chair to go and basically turn things off in the same way that all of us do when we’re on Zoom meetings. And it’s just really — the combination of sort of the human aspects of hearing from him and seeing him, knowing the threat that he’s under.
“And then he also, in the middle of his remarks, stopped and showed a video that really illustrated very clearly what major cities in Ukraine looked like, three or four weeks ago and a video that featured young children and young families. You know, I was just speaking to Susan Anderson a few minutes ago from Casper — and it looks like the parks in towns all over Wyoming. People living their lives. And then the contrast is the images of those sort of everyday life moments from a few weeks ago with the unbelievable deaths and tragedy and just attack that has now confronted cities across Ukraine. He asked for our support, and asked for the United States to do more than we’ve been doing.
“I think that there are many things that we can do. I think that we have seen a West that is united in response to these attacks — the assault by Russia. But I think that the response could be much faster than it has been and much more complete than it’s been. I’d like to see us, for example, impose sanctions against the top 100 oligarchs and their families. I’d like to see us not have selective restrictions put in place with respect to the SWIFT system, for example. I think those ought to be complete with respect to all the banks in Russia. I think it’s a very good thing that we — the Administration moved to stop the import of Russian oil. But I think that the Administration needs to couple that with unleashing America’s own domestic energy production. And, right now, we’ve got a situation where the Administration is continuing to engage in negotiations with Iran — negotiations that are being led by the Russians to try to re-enter the Iranian Nuclear Deal. That is really inexcusable, at this moment, to be contemplating providing Iran with a pathway to a nuclear weapon, providing Iran with sanctions relief, and providing the Russians with the potential economic benefits of that kind of relief. And doing so at a time when Russia really — it ought to be clear that Russia has made itself a pariah state. They shouldn’t be engaging in these — the Administration shouldn’t be continuing to engage in those kinds of discussions and negotiations.
“I also think that we need to be moving much more quickly. I was disappointed when the Administration blocked the transfer of the MiG Aircraft to the Ukrainians. I think that that is something that should go forward. So, there are a whole range of things we can do and we should do to make sure that we are providing support for the Ukrainians in this battle. And I think you’ll see bipartisan support for those things. It’s not a partisan issue.
“Maybe I’ll stop there. I know we’ve got a number of people who have questions, I’d be happy to answer those.”
Original source can be found here.
