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General Don Bolduc, a Republican Senate candidate, criticizes Trump’s praise of Putin, “This is serious business. Putin is not our friend. He’s got a lot of experience, and he’s set his chess board up very well. And I’m not going to compliment him.”
In an interview with WGIR’s Chris Ryan, Brigadier General Don Bolduc, who is a decorated Afghan War veteran and a candidate for Maggie Hassan’s Senate seat, gives a negative assessment of President Biden’s handling of the Russian invasion of Ukraine; outlines our areas of weakness which Russia might exploit; reacts to recent comments about Vladimir Putin by President Trump; and calls for a reversal of our energy policy and a return to American energy independence.
General Bolduc believes that President Biden’s response to Russian aggression in Ukraine is basically too little and too late to be an effective deterrent. In addition to placing stronger sanctions earlier in the confrontation, the General would favor a greater show of force by moving our navy into the Black Sea and moving our armored and mechanized forces into NATO countries in the region.
The possibility of Russia using cyber attacks as a form of retaliation is very real. General Bolduc reveals that the US has fallen behind in air defense and missile technology. In addition, Russia has done five cyber attacks on us since 2016 without a response from the United States.
The General believes that we have been playing checkers against a chess master. We need to stop reacting to Putin’s moves and make a combination of offensive moves to give the Russian leader reason to pause.
In a recent interview, President Trump criticized President Biden and lavished Putin with praise. General Bolduc, who is a Republican candidate for the US Senate, gave a quick response.
“Putin is not our friend. We can all agree that the current national security leadership is not getting the job done. We have to recognize that we have a formidable opponent here who is willing to do anything to put the former Soviet Union back in place. We have to stand up to that.”
The General is concerned that other “bad actors” in China, Iran, and North Korea might take advantage of the United States if we mishandle the situation in Ukraine.
In the last segment of the interview, General Bolduc calls for a reversal of our current energy policy which has caused higher prices for gasoline and heating oil and a dependence on imported oil. That would include 800,000 barrels per day from Russia. The General favors increased drilling and building pipelines which would bring a return to energy independence.