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Interview

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Joining us now to discuss, Republican Senator Dan Sullivan of Alaska. He's a Marine Corps veteran who served in Afghanistan. He's also on the Senate Armed Services Committee.

Senator, thanks for joining us.

SEN. DAN SULLIVAN (R-AK): Good to be on the show, Jake.

TAPPER: Do you agree with Zelenskyy's assessment that this new Russian offensive might have already begun?

SULLIVAN: I do. And I think it's a concern. And I think it's something that we need to help them on, and by the way, shout-out to your reporter and all the other reporters doing incredible work there. But he highlights an issue, and President Zelenskyy highlights an issue that I think it's really important, and that's this slow rolling of the ability to get the Ukrainians the weapons systems they need.

You know, Jake, since the begin beginning of this war, there's been a consistent pattern. The Biden administration -- and look, I agree with what they're doing, especially not committing -- not committing U.S. forces, but when the Ukrainians make requests to do something, it takes months and usually the bipartisan pressure from the U.S. Senate in particular, think about it, whether it's Patriots, whether it's HIMARS, whether it's tanks, now F-16s, the pattern is the same. It takes forever.

We put pressure on them, they finally relent. And a couple days ago, it looked like they were going to do something in terms of making a commitment on F-16s at the pentagon, the president came out of nowhere, said, we're not going to do that. Mark my words, I bet that happens in about a month or two, but it should be happening now.

TAPPER: Yeah.

SULLIVAN: And that's one of the big problems we're seeing.

TAPPER: So, on the point you just made, today, the Polish prime minister said that he would be willing to send F-16 fighter jets to Ukraine if NATO partners all agree. The U.S. and Germany, however, have ruled out F-16s as an option for now.

SULLIVAN: For now.

TAPPER: What is your understanding about why they're saying no, the U.S.?

SULLIVAN: Well, you know, I don't know. There was Ukrainian pilots that were in D.C., I hosted them, with a bunch of senators, I got them meetings in the Pentagon. This past summer, I followed up with the letter to General Milley on the need for F-16s for these pilots. They can fly these after some training. They've shown the capability to do really good flying missions with their MiGs, but they want something more advanced.

And as I mention, it looked like the Pentagon was moving that way, you know, I have my sources there, and I think it makes sense. And then all of a sudden, we get to this idea that the Biden administration keeps raising it's going to be somehow escalatory. And I think we get into this point where we're self-deterring ourselves.

It's not going to be escalatory to get the Ukrainians the weapon systems they need. And right now, I think there's a good argument to get them F-16s or help our NATO allies like Poland get them F-16s and sign off on that.

But again, this is a pattern that's literally happened with every single advanced weapon systems, they end up getting it. By the way, as you know, it's bipartisan pressure that we keep putting on the administration, but it just takes too long. We're losing months in this battle and the Ukrainians don't have months.

TAPPER: Right. And Russian President Putin said that the West is threatening Russia with the Leopard tanks being sent to Ukraine. Putin said, we're not sending our tanks to their borders, but we have something to answer with and it will not end with the use of armored vehicles, unquote. That's Putin.

What do you make of that threat?

SULLIVAN: Look, Putin has been saber rattling, including nuclear saber rattling, throughout this entire conflict. What they always forget, you know, what he always forgets to address is that they are clearly the aggressor, they've been using tanks in the east, so, this is just more Putin saber rattling.

Now, we have to be careful of that, of course, but what I -- as I mentioned earlier, what I think is happening is that some of this idea at senior levels in the Pentagon that our actions are going to be escalatory, it's their actions that are escalatory, and when we delay, you know, it's self-deterrence on us and it doesn't help with regard to what we want, which is to eject the Russians from Ukrainian territory.

TAPPER: Yeah. Turning to China and the Asian -- the Pacific area, the U.S. and the Philippines have announced that the U.S. is going to get expanded access to the Philippines military bases. The deal, of course, gives the U.S. closer access to Taiwan. China says that jeopardizes peace and stability in the region.

What are your concerns there? Do you think this move could further provoke China?

SULLIVAN: Well, look, what's happening in Ukraine, as you know, the Chinese are watching very, very closely.

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So -- they're very linked, and they're linked in other ways. You know, I've been referring to this Ukraine invasion as the beginning of the new era of authoritarian aggression, led by Xi Jinping and Putin. They are increasingly isolated. They're working together. They have no problem invading their neighbors, if they think they pose threats. Not security threats, but threats because they're democracies.

And I think, you know, the United States, we need to be ready with our allies to deal with this new era of authoritarian aggression for years to come. We have strategic advantages way more than they do, these dictatorships, and one of them is our professional lethal military. I support what Secretary Austin announced today, having more distributed forces in the region is good, in terms of our posture.

Right now, I've been telling the Pentagon this, we have -- we're too heavily concentrated in Guam, so, this is a good move with regard to distributing our forces. But you know, Jake, we have so many other strategic advantages, our network of allies, our energy, our dynamic, economy.

And here's the one thing I don't think we don't talk about it enough, our commitment to liberty. TAPPER: Yeah.

SULLIVAN: That helped us win the Cold War. You know, Xi Jinping and Vladimir Putin, the biggest thing they fear, their biggest vulnerability, they fear their own people, and we need to play that up a lot more.

TAPPER: All right. Republican Senator Dan Sullivan of Alaska and the Senate Armed Services Committee, thank you so much. Appreciate your time as always.

SULLIVAN: Thanks, Jake.

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