Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and Donald Trump Jr. are demanding that the Biden Administration negotiate with Moscow to end the war with Ukraine.
In a joint op-ed published in The Hill on Tuesday, the authors argue that we are approaching the brink of a nuclear firestorm.
“At a time when American leaders should be focused on finding a diplomatic off-ramp to a war that should never have been allowed to take place, the Biden-Harris administration is instead pursuing a policy that Russia says it will interpret as an act of war,” they write.
The op-ed cites a recent article in The New York Times that reported President Joe Biden is poised to approve Ukraine using long-range weapons in Russia.
In response to the news, Russian President Vladimir Putin said they would be forced to “make appropriate decisions in response.”
“This will mean that NATO countries – the United States and European countries – are at war with Russia,” he said.
Kennedy and Trump dismissed claims from analysts that Putin is merely bluffing.
“These analysts are mistaking restraint for weakness,” they write. “In essence, they are advocating a strategy of brinksmanship. Each escalation … draws the world closer to the brink of Armageddon. Their logic seems to be that if you goad a bear five times and it doesn’t respond, it is safe to goad him even harder a sixth time. Such a strategy might be reasonable if the bear had no teeth.”
The authors go on to say that “this game of nuclear ‘chicken’ has gone far enough.”
“The war fever in the U.S. foreign policy establishment is at such a pitch that it is hard to tell whether they believe their own rhetoric,” they continue. “In last Tuesday’s debate, Vice President Kamala Harris conjured up images of Russian forces rolling across Europe. Surely she must know how absurd that is. For one thing, Russia can barely wrest a few provinces from Ukraine, which is by no means one of Europe’s great powers.”
The authors note that Putin stated his goals of Ukraine neutrality and an end to NATO’s eastward expansion early on. Moreover, the loss of hundreds of thousands of lives and hundreds of billions of dollars have not benefitted Europe, America, or Ukraine, they argue.
“It is past time to de-escalate this conflict,” Kennedy and Trump wrote. “This is more important than any of the political issues our nation argues about. Nuclear war would mean the end of civilization as we know it, maybe even the end of the human species.”
They conclude: “Former President Donald Trump has vowed to end this war, but by the time he takes office, it might be too late. We need to demand, right now, that Harris and President Biden reverse their insane war agenda and open direct negotiations with Moscow.”
Earlier this month, Putin said he would prefer Vice President Kamala Harris to beat former President Donald Trump in the election.
“I told you, we have a ‘favorite,’ so to speak, was the incumbent president, Mr. [Joe] Biden. He was removed from the race, but he recommended all his supporters support Ms. Harris. So we will do that, too. We will support her,” Putin said in remarks cited by Russian state news agency TASS.
“Ultimately, the choice is with the American people, and we will respect this choice,” Putin added. “As for the favorites, it’s not for us to determine this. This is still the choice of the American people.”
Putin jokingly said, “She laughs so expressively and infectiously that it means that she is doing well.”
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that Moscow prefers Democratic candidates because Moscow believes that Democrats are more predictable than Republicans: “And what Putin said about Biden's predictability applies to almost all Democrats, including Ms. Harris.”
During a rally on Sept. 7, Trump wondered aloud if he should be upset by Putin’s endorsement of his opponent.
“I think it was done maybe with a smile. I don’t know. Who the hell knows?” he said. “Nobody’s going to figure it out. They’re about 19 steps ahead of us. … Nobody was tougher on Russia in history than Trump. And the person that knows that better than anyone is President Vladimir Putin.”
