GOP Sen. Bill Cassidy (LA) explained Sunday that he backs President Joe Biden's refusal to send U.S. troops to Ukraine to help Americans evacuate from the region should Russia invade.
During an appearance on "Fox News Sunday," host Sandra Smith asked the senator if the U.S. should be doing more to aid Americans in evacuating Ukraine. But Cassidy expressed that he supported Biden's decision to keep U.S. military personnel out of harm's way.
"I agree with the president 100 percent," Cassidy said. "Use some common sense. We should not be endangering our soldiers or Marines, etc. because somebody decides not to evacuate until after the fact. Get out. If there's a pending invasion, use common sense. Leave."
Biden said last week during an interview with NBC News that U.S. troops would not be sent to Ukraine to support Americans' evacuation efforts should a Russian invasion occur.
Cassidy also said during his interview Sunday the U.S. should increase its own energy production to replace potential losses resulting from Russian-made energy being cut off because of sanctions. The Louisiana senator sits on the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee.
"We must resume using America's resources, ramping them up in order to provide or replace that which Russia would provide," Cassidy said. "By the way, that means beginning to lease in the Outer Continental Shelf off Louisiana, allowing development of oil and natural gas and public lands on the inland and speeding up permitting for the [liquified natural gas] export facilities and pipelines that are currently not occurring. It could also include, by the way, permitting for the renewables to be able to ship their electrons."
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"Right now this administration is putting in amber, the ability of the U.S. to expand its energy supply," he continued. "That's why we're paying more for gas and natural gas, it's why the EU is. We have to ease that not only for ourselves but also for the EU."
Smith noted that Cassidy and a few other Republican senators met with the EU's energy commissioner and asked if any promises were made that the U.S. would be able to meet Europe's energy demands in the future.
Cassidy explained that senators could not promise anything that the administration "slow walks." He also said that the White House attempting to lower carbon intensity was putting European allies at threat of an economic downturn.
"This administration's energy policy is a failure in terms of the climate, in terms of national security, the economy," he said.
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