President Joe Biden's surprise visit to Ukraine was "gutsy" but "extremely irresponsible," former National Security Council chief of staff and CIA analyst Fred Fleitz told Newsmax on Monday.
In an interview on Newsmax's "Wake Up America," Fleitz said he's worried the trip "was a PR stunt."
"It was a gutsy move by President Biden. It certainly is going to be an enormous boost to the morale of the people of Ukraine," he said.
"I hate to rain on his parade, but I think this is an extremely irresponsible thing for an American president to do, to go to a war zone where there are no American troops, to an area where there are not U.S. strategic interests," Fleitz asserted.
"The amount of money, the risks we took to get him in there. He had opportunities to do this before but he didn't do it for security reasons," Fleitz continued. " I have to worry that this was a PR stunt because the president's poll ratings are down so far because of other mistakes he made."
Fleitz added that he hopes "some good will come out of this" — and that Biden will tell the Ukrainian government there has to be "a way out of this war" and that negotiations have to begin.
Republicans are concerned the Biden administration strategy is to keep the United States engaged in the Ukraine-Russia conflict indefinitely.
Biden's trip "doesn't address concerns we're seeing in Congress among Republicans — that they don't know what the Americans strategy is," Fleitz said. "The American strategy seems to be 'we're in as long as it takes.' Most Republicans are not going to stand with that position indefinitely… We have to find a way to stop the killing and to wrap this up."
Fran Beyer ✉
Fran Beyer is a writer with Newsmax and covers national politics.
© 2024 Newsmax. All rights reserved.