CNN Newsroom: Rep. Mike Quigley (D-IL) is Interviewed about Russia and China

Interview

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Well, look, there's a certain symmetry here.

Xi signed an agreement with Russia just days before the invasion in 2022 and really didn't back off on supporting him except when Putin talked about using nuclear weapons. And currently they're cushioning the blow of western sanctions by continuing to buy the natural gas and oil and supplying electronics and chips, which concern to me, dual use could conceivably use in weapons as well. So, at what point in these discussions do we get to the point where China possibly talks about sending actual weapons directly to Russia? Obviously, that's an area of concern.

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Well, I think they're going to get to the battlefield and they're much needed. That's the best tank in the world. I don't expect it to happen before probably fall, maybe the beginning of next year. And it's that concern I voiced from the beginning. What did Zelenskyy say when I met him in Kyiv? He said, help us win quickly. That's exactly what he said when he visited Washington, D.C. recently. And it's even what Secretary Austin said. He said, Ukraine doesn't have time. This spring offensive is coming.

So, they're firing, what, something like 11,000 shells every couple days there. That's about what we're producing in our Scranton plant in a month. So, this is now at a stage of the conflict where it's no longer just maintaining a unified west, it's maintaining the production capabilities to give Ukraine the tools they need to win this war quickly.

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Sure, it's the isolationism from what (ph) generations ago, but it also shows an extraordinary lack of depth on foreign policy issues. Now, you can take any view you want. To call it a territorial dispute, I would ask Governor DeSantis, was the Soviet and German invasion of Poland and the German invasion of France in World War II a territorial dispute?

Because basically it's the same concept. A sovereign, democratic country in Europe being rolled over. And without our help, without NATO's help, that would have happened. And the genocide I saw evidence of standing on a mass grave in Bucha would have been far more widespread. I would ask him, what would he say to the parents of Ukrainian children that have been taken to Russia for reeducation? This isn't a territorial dispute, it's humanitarian and a war crisis and we have to play a critical role in that.

But I'll say this finally, the majority of Republicans disagree with him that I serve with in Congress.

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Yes, I'm about 200 trials more than Jim Jordan has in actual criminal trial experience. Never saw such a thing. Wildly inappropriate. I'm not sure what they're basing this on other than just the fact that the Trump base wants them to do something like this. It - you've got to appreciate, it's a little surreal for me to watch all this. I voted to impeach President Trump because I thought he attempted to extort an ally for political gain. I voted to impeach President Trump because he incited an insurrection that almost brought our country down. And now he possibly could get indicted for something so seemly and messy. This -- maybe that's appropriate. Maybe that speaks more of the man that he's never been held accountable and it's something like this that maybe finally catches up to him.

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Thank you.

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