The United States will not be bullied by Russian President Vladimir Putin and his threats of a nuclear response if NATO defends Ukraine, but he must be treated as the "madman" that he is, former acting director of National Intelligence Ric Grenell said on Newsmax Friday.
"We're the United States of America," Grenell said on Newsmax's "Newsline," but added that "we need to be very clear-eyed about who he is."
He also praised the thousands of people in Russia who gathered around the church where the funeral of Putin opponent Alexei Navalny was held Friday.
"I think that the United States of America needs to understand that when we have moments like this where people are petitioning their government and standing up to brutality like this, we need to support them," Grenell said.
"We need to be united across the aisle — Republicans, Democrats, everyone — in recognizing people who stand up for greater freedoms. They're doing it in their own country. This is something that Republicans should absolutely be applauding because we like it when people stand up for democracy, human rights, and the rule of law."
Grenell also discussed the upcoming meeting between former President Donald Trump and Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, scheduled to take place at Trump's Mar-a-Lago estate in about a week, and criticized The New York Times on its coverage.
The Times' article said that Orban is at odds with NATO and European leaders over the war in Ukraine and that he has sometimes appeared to be sympathetic or admiring of Putin.
"The left with their charges of Russia, Russia, Russia on everything is really, honestly, undermining our democracy," said Grenell. "The New York Times has been so wrong on this issue.
"They were cheerleaders for not having borders in Europe ... They were on the wrong side of history. When the EU shrank, the U.K. decided to get out of the EU because of immigration because Chancellor [Angela] Merkel, the chancellor of Germany at the time, was hell-bent on opening borders and having more immigrants come into Europe; and they weren't vetting them."
He added that the EU's border weakness "is a lesson for American conservatives."
Orban and Hungarians who are standing up for border security want to have rules and know who is coming into their country, said Grenell.
"This is not about not being generous or nice," he said. "This is about having rules. If you don't have rules, you don't have a country."
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