Fox News correspondent clashes with Fox host over Ukraine aid negotiations
Jennifer Griffin: “Lawrence, there was a Senate bill to secure the border that the House wouldn't take up, so that is a false comparison.”
Published
Citation From the February 16, 2023, edition of Fox News' Fox & Friends
JENNIFER GRIFFIN (FOX CORRESPONDENT): It's very clear that Vice President Harris said off the bat, Russia is responsible for the death of Alexei Navalny. It was not, ‘We're going to wait and see.' It was not, ‘We need to know more,' so that was a very strong statement from the vice president. It also was notable to me — because I have covered many Munich conferences, Security Conferences over the years — and usually the leaders, American leaders, are addressing Europeans, addressing allies. This had a domestic message, as Lawrence pointed out, and it was a very strong domestic message, and it talked about how Americans have a choice to make right now about whether to be global leaders, about America's role in the world. You heard the vice president talk about whether it is in America's interest to fight for democracy or accept the rise of dictators. That's the message that she is sending to a domestic audience back here that is debating whether to send aid to Ukraine, whether to stand up to Vladimir Putin, or whether to appease Vladimir Putin. And the backdrop of Munich — which, anyone who knows their history, is that Munich was the site of the great appeasement ahead of World War II, so it is no coincidence that Munich has chosen to have this very important security conference for decades now. She was addressing those, as Lawrence mentioned, she said — and you can quibble with the wording — but there is, certainly, a mood within the country and on Capitol Hill, a debate among those who choose to isolate. Isolationism is not a new thing for Americans to debate. It goes back to, you remember, the Charles Lindbergh days ahead of World War II, before Pearl Harbor that was the debate in the United States. We have the benefit of having two oceans that separate us from most of our enemies. So she is making a case to a domestic audience here. The Biden administration, and many members, including Republicans, on Capitol Hill have been making the case for why aid to Ukraine — military aid, weapons to Ukraine — are so important in terms of sending a message to Vladimir Putin that he cannot erase land borderers, he cannot erase countries, he cannot gobble up a country like Ukraine, he cannot change the rules-based order, or the map of Europe.
LAWRENCE JONES (CO-HOST): But Jennifer —
JENNIFER GRIFFIN: Lawrence, just a minute —
LAWRENCE JONES: Respectfully, she is phrasing it as a binary choice, and that's not what many members of Congress are saying. They are saying, yes we will talk about Ukraine, yes, we will talk about Israel, but can we put on the table securing the border first?
JENNIFER GRIFFIN: Lawrence, there was a Senate bill to secure the border that the House wouldn't take up, so that is a false comparison in terms of the choices being made —
LAWRENCE JONES: No, it's not false, because there are people that have been very critical of the bill and say that it would not secure the border.
JENNIFER GRIFFIN: There was a Senate bill negotiated by Senator Lankford of Oklahoma, and the House would not take it up. Now they're trying to revisit, and Brian Fitzpatrick, member of the problem-solvers caucus, he has put forward a way to bring the border back into it. It's very strong language, from what I saw this morning, but we can't say that nobody wants to talk about the border in this Ukraine legislation, that's what the Senate sent to the House.