WASHINGTON – U.S. Senator Lindsey Graham (R-South Carolina) today spoke in Pendleton, South Carolina on the developing situation in Ukraine.

• GRAHAM: “To President Biden: you said a couple years ago that Putin did not want you to win because you're the only person that could go toe-to-toe with him. Well right now, Mr. President, you're playing footsie with Putin. He's walking all over you and our allies…President Zelensky of Ukraine rose to the occasion when he gave his speech in Munich. He told the audience the Western world, the smart people, that everything you've done is now in question. It didn't work. [Ukraine] is being savaged. You need to adjust your policies…So I thought that the President of Ukraine did his part, now it's time for Congress and the President of the United States, working with Western allies, to give such a firm and forceful response to Putin that this will end sooner rather than later.”

• GRAHAM: “All I can say is I support President Biden's decision to beef up American presence and NATO allies surrounding Russia to make NATO stronger, not weaker. We have one President at a time. President Biden is the President of the United States, and to the extent that I can help him push back against Putin and bring stability to the world, I will gladly do so. I will not be part of an appeasement movement that will lead to further conflict.”

• GRAHAM: “I've been on the phone with Democratic Senators for the last two days. We're talking about an emergency supplemental to be created next week that would create a task force of the Department of Justice, Department of State, Treasury, and maybe DOD to go after the oligarchs who enrich themselves from Putin's misadventures. It's now time for that crowd to lose their yachts, lose their luxury apartments, and to pay a price for being part of a thuggish group – a nation-state that really is a mafia-state.”

• GRAHAM: “I want the [Russian] oligarchs to understand what's coming their way – the price that you're going to pay. I literally want to work with the British government and the German government to have a sort of united front, because a lot of these assets are in London. They're in Berlin. They're in New York. These assets have been generated by an association with Putin to the detriment of the Russian people and world stability. That's one thing that I think is very bipartisan. I want to see cops go in and take apartments, fine art, and seize yachts from a bunch of thugs and crooks. I want to put money on the table to have more weapons for Ukraine to fight. I want more protection when it comes to cyber, and I want to go at this big and I want to go at it hard.”

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