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March 25, 2022

Mike Pence: Start ‘Berlin Airlift for the 21st Century’ for Ukraine

The Biden administration should “immediately” transfer MiG fighter jets now in Poland to Ukraine, and continue to provide ground-based anti-aircraft systems, but first, humanitarian aid is needed for the refugees and people remaining in Ukraine while it has come under attack from Russia, former Vice President Mike Pence said Friday.

“We need a Berlin Airlift for the 21st century,” Pence said on Fox News’ “Fox and Friends.” “We need to marshal the resources of the free world and make sure that the beleaguered people of Ukraine suffering under this invasion have the food and the water, and the medicine they need to prevail.”

He also called for humanitarian assistance for the Ukrainians that have been unable to get out.

“My wife, Karen, and I were in Poland two weeks ago,” Pence said. “We went to the border and went into Ukraine with Franklin Graham and we saw the incredible heartbreaking images of women and children by the thousands coming across the border.” Meanwhile, it’s vital that Ukraine’s military gets the equipment it needs to fight back the Russians’ attacks.

“They’ve got pilots in Ukraine that know how to fly [the MiGs],” Pence said of the Soviet-era jets. “But just as important, we need to continue to provide the kind of ground-based anti-aircraft systems that can take out Russian aircraft that are doing the high stratosphere bombing.”

He also insisted that the Trump administration “armed the Ukrainian military” and now the military is using those weapons to fight back against Russia.

“The Obama-Biden administration only sent them meals and blankets,” he told “Fox and Friends.” “We armed the Ukrainian military.”

Pence, who was speaking from Seoul, South Korea, commented that the Biden administration has to redouble its efforts to help Ukraine win.

“We’ve got to give them the tools to be able to defend themselves,” said Pence. “We’ve got to isolate Russia even more than was announced today, and we need to launch that massive Western humanitarian effort for the people of Ukraine. That’s the pathway to victory.”

Pence, however, said he is glad President Joe Biden has increased sanctions on Russia, but thinks the administration was “frankly slow” on that.

“They failed to provide even a threat of a significant deterrent,” said Pence. “But right now what we ought to be doing is redoubling our effort to give President [Volodymyr] Zelenskyy and the Ukrainian military everything they need to defend themselves. We need to continue to increase economic pressure.”

Pence added that while he has been in South Korea, he has met with many congressional leaders and called on them to stand with the United States and its allies to isolate Russia economically.

Ukraine’s military, he added, has demonstrated that they can hold the Russians and even turn them back, but more pressure needs to be put on Russia economically.

This article was published on Newsmax.com

Pence on Russia: ‘We Need to Meet This Moment with American Strength’

During Friday’s FNC broadcast of “Fox & Friends,” former Vice President Mike Pence called on the Biden administration to exhibit “American strength” to deter Russia from its aggression toward Ukraine.”

According to Pence, the White House needs “to meet this moment with American strength” and increase sanctions and pressure on Russia. He also emphasized the importance of humanitarian assistance for the Ukrainian people.

Host Ainsley Earhardt asked the former vice president, “What are we expecting in the months to come?”

“Well, I think it all depends on how America leads in the world stage, Ainsley,” Pence replied. “I mean, we need to meet this moment with American strength. Look, I’m glad that President Biden has increased the sanctions. The administration was frankly slow on that. And they did fail to provide — even the threat of them failed to provide a significant deterrent. But right now, what we ought to be doing is redoubling our effort to give President Zelensky and the Ukrainian military everything they need to defend themselves. We need to continue to increase economic pressure.”

He added, “I truly believe that the Ukrainian military has demonstrated they’ve been able to turn back the Russians, hold them back. We need to give them the arms. We need to put pressure on Russia on economic terms more every day. And we need what I said last week was something akin to a Berlin Airlift for the 21st century. We should be marshaling the resources of the free world and making sure the beleaguered people of Ukraine suffering under this Russian invasion have the food, the water, the medicine that they need to prevail.”

This article was published on Breitbart.com

Mike Pence on ‘Fox & Friends’: Ukraine fighting Russia with weapons provided by Trump admin

Former Vice President Mike Pence said on Friday that the United States needs to provide anti-aircraft systems to help Ukraine win in its fight against Russia.

“The Biden administration should transfer those MiG [fighter jets] out of Poland to Ukraine, do it immediately. They’ve got pilots in Ukraine that know how to fly them. But just as important, we need to continue to provide the kind of ground-based anti-aircraft systems that can take out Russian aircraft that are doing the high stratosphere bombing,” Pence told “Fox & Friends.”

Pence stressed that Ukraine is fighting with weapons provided by the Trump administration.

“The Ukrainian soldiers are using the arms that our administration provided to them, and they were suspended by the Biden administration. The Obama-Biden administration only sent them meals and blankets. We armed the Ukrainian military,” he told hosts Brian Kilmeade, Ainsley Earhardt and Steve Doocy.

Pence’s comments came shortly after Biden said Thursday that a food shortage is “gonna be real” following the sanctions that were placed on Russia by the U.S. government as a result of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s invasion into Ukraine.

“With regard to food shortage, yes we did talk about food shortages, and it’s gonna be real,” Biden said during a press conference at a NATO summit in Brussels, Belgium, following a meeting with other world leaders.

“The price of the sanctions is not just imposed upon Russia,” he added. “It’s imposed upon an awful lot of countries as well, including European countries and our country as well.”

Biden said “Russia and Ukraine have been the breadbasket of Europe in terms of wheat” and insisted that he and other leaders had a “long discussion in the G7” about the need to “increase and disseminate” food production.

Biden’s warning of a “real” food shortage and the impact it will have on America and European countries following the implementation of sanctions on the Russian economy comes after White House press secretary Jen Psaki said this week that Americans are unlikely to face a food shortage.

Speaking from Seoul, South Korea, Pence said that the Biden administration needs to be redoubling its efforts to help Ukraine win the war.

“We’ve got to give them the tools to be able to defend themselves. We’ve got to isolate Russia even more than was announced today. And we need to launch that massive Western humanitarian effort for the people of Ukraine. That’s the pathway to victory.”

Pence went on to say, “As people talk about food shortages, the way that we avert food shortages, that would affect the wider region and the world is give Ukraine the ability to win.”

This article was published on FoxNews.com

VP Mike Pence joins Fox and Friends

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Biden’s Great Energy and Climate Contradiction

The good news is that the U.S. finally agreed Friday to help Europe replace Russia as its main natural gas supplier. The bad news is that President Biden is still telling U.S. gas producers he wants to put them out of business.

It sounds crazy, but listen to Mr. Biden’s remarks Friday. “We’re going to have to make sure the families in Europe can get through this winter and the next,” he said in announcing the deal to provide 15 billion cubic meters of gas this year, though not all from the U.S.

But he added “at the same time, this crisis also presents an opportunity” that will “drive the investments we need to double-down on our clean energy goals and accelerate progress toward our net-zero emissions future.”

The White House underlined the contradiction by saying the U.S. “will maintain its regulatory environment.” More U.S. LNG exports will only be permitted to the extent they reduce emissions—for instance, by running on “clean energy.”

This is magical thinking. Liquefying gas requires long-term investment and reliable power. Facilities can’t run on intermittent renewables, and companies won’t invest billions of dollars if they think regulators will kill them once a crisis passes.

The reality today is the U.S. doesn’t have enough LNG export capacity to replace the 170 billion or so cubic meters that Russia sends Europe every year. Much of the 124 bcm/year of exports that the U.S. can technically ship are tied up in long-term contracts with Asia.

But EQT CEO Toby Rice said this month he thinks the U.S. gas exports could “easily” replace Russian supply over a matter of years, and the U.S. has the potential to quadruple its gas production by 2030. EQT is the largest U.S. natural gas producer.

One major obstacle is a shortage of pipeline capacity. Several large pipelines and LNG export projects have been scrapped in recent years amid opposition from progressive states and green groups. It can take four to five years to get a federal permit for a pipeline that can be built in six to nine months. The Trump Administration accelerated permitting, but Biden regulators have slow-rolled approvals.

Two applications to increase LNG exports sat at the Energy Department for more than two years. They were finally approved two weeks ago as the Administration scrambled to supply Europe with more gas. But that was too late to help this winter.

Europe long resisted signing long-term contracts for U.S. LNG because Russia provided cheap gas. This hampered U.S. investment in LNG export facilities and is one reason there are 13 approved terminals that could ship 258 billion cubic meters each year that still aren’t under construction. Most were approved in the Trump years.

Now Europe is finally agreeing to long-term contracts, but the Administration says it opposes long-term U.S. gas investment. Listen to no less a power player than Gina McCarthy, the White House national climate adviser, this week. U.S. climate policy “is not a fight about coal anymore. It is a challenge about natural gas and infrastructure investments because we don’t want to invest in things that are time limited. Because we are time limited,” she said at an American Council on Renewable Energy forum.

What sane CEO is going to invest with Ms. McCarthy holding the sword of “time limited” over his head? There’s a reason the Energy Department’s LNG export permits are good through 2050. It can take decades to recoup investment.

At least Europe is finally reckoning with its climate and energy follies. The European Commission this week committed to streamline regulations to fast-track LNG import projects. Germany is planning to extend the life of its coal plants, and the U.K. is embracing oil and gas exploration in the North Sea.

Too bad the Biden Administration is still living in la-la land.

This article was published on WSJ.com.