At today’s House Intelligence Committee hearing on National Security Implications of the Rise of Authoritarianism Around the World, Congressman Mike Turner (OH-10) asked the witnesses about Russian aggression.
“It’s just recent that we all now agree that Russia is an adversary,” said Turner. “I mean we all recall that when Obama openly mocked his opponent in 2012 for saying Russia was an adversary, that that was so 1990s, that has changed. We are now all in agreement. In 2014, Russia invaded Ukraine and annexed Crimea. In 2015, Russia went into Syria. In 2017, there was an attempted assassination in Montenegro as they were ascending into NATO...We had all that in the context of the invasion of Georgia under President Bush.”
In 2012, presidential candidate Mitt Romney called Russia “without question, our number one geopolitical foe.” At a debate in 2012, President Barack Obama told candidate Mitt Romney the “1980s are now calling to ask for their foreign policy back because the Cold War’s been over for 20 years.” At the time, former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright stated that Romney’s views of Russia “show little understanding of what is actually going on in the 21st century,” also saying Romney was “not up to date and that is a very dangerous aspect. That’s just an example of his 20th century approach to 21st century issues.”
Today, Secretary Albright apologized to Romney for her remarks.
“...We underestimated where Russia was going,” said Secretary Albright. “I think we thought with the Cold War--well the Cold War is over, we thought we’d won it...I personally owe an apology to now-Senator Romney because I think that we underestimated what was going on in Russia.” She added, “We underestimated Russia and Putin has put them back on the scene.”
You can watch the full questioning by clicking here.
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