CNN "The Lead with Jake Tapper" - Transcript: Ukraine

Interview

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Joining me now to talk about this, Republican senator from New Hampshire, Kelly Ayotte. Senator, thanks for being with us.

SENATOR KELLY AYOTTE (R), NEW HAMPSHIRE: Good to be with you.

KEILAR: As you look at this, how do you think that the U.S. and Europe can hold Putin accountable?

AYOTTE: Well, first of all, I never continue to be amazed by the brazenness of Vladimir Putin with trying to blame the media, trying to blame everyone except for himself and Russia for what happened to Flight 17. And what we can doing is issue tougher economic sanctions against Russia. Sectoral sanctions that will be much more hard hitting against their economy.

Defense sector, energy sector, also thinking about their financial sector, much tougher than we've imposed. Europeans need to step up to the plate and join the United States of America and we also need to give support to the Ukrainian military to defend themselves against Russian aggression.

KEILAR: If you're talking about targeting the defense and energy sector, we've seen some targeted sanctions unilaterally from the U.S., you have the E.U. talking about travel bans and asset freezes. Is that really enough?

AYOTTE: Totally inefficient. In fact, it is time for Europe to step up. Think about the Europeans that were murdered on Flight 17. This was obviously just horrific what happened to those individuals. It's been directly connected to the Russian backed separatists. The responsibility for this really does lie with Vladimir Putin. It's time for the Europeans to acknowledge this and to step up and to really take tougher actions against Russia.

KEILAR: It really seems in a way doubtful I guess. We're hearing even from one of own colleagues. Senator John McCain had this to say, quote, "The Europeans are not going to do anything if anybody believes that, I have some beachfront property for them in Arizona." Arizona is land locked, not a lot of beaches there.

But if you have -- you can kind of see it from Europe's point of view. They are so dependent on Russian energy. How do you say to -- how do you appeal to Europe and say, this needs to be done even if you're going to be taking certainly an economic hit and a political hit to get this done?

AYOTTE: Well, certainly to protect freedom, you have to be willing to sacrifice. Also with Europe, we also need to I think have a longer term strategy with energy. The legislation I've supported would open up our natural gas resources, have to come up to Europe with a plan for energy independence from Russia. We've got to look at the energy issue long-term. Europe can't allow Russia to be involved in the way they have been in Ukraine. There are grave implications for all of Europe's security.

KEILAR: I want to get your reaction to something that happened today. Hillary Clinton during an interview said that the reset with Russia, which obviously she shepherded during her time as secretary of state said it worked. She distanced herself from the president's recent struggles with Russia.

She sort of emphasized successes in the first term of the Obama administration and didn't mention the second term. Do you think there's been a difference in how the administration has dealt with Russia from the first term to the second?

AYOTTE: Actually, no, there were lots of concessions made early on when Secretary Clinton was in office and if your goal was to allow Russia to expand its territory or dismember its neighbors, then you can define reset as a success. But the reality of the facts are that reset has been a huge failure.

What we have seen is not only the invasion of Ukraine and the illegal annexation of Crimea and what we've seen in Eastern Ukraine. They have given arms to the Assad regime to murder its own people. They have had gross human rights violations in their country. Think about them banning adoptions for children that need parents to our country.

KEILAR: What concessions do you think should not have been made that you feel contributed to this problem?

AYOTTE: Well, one of the first concessions the administration made was not to build the missile defense sites in Poland and the Czech Republic. On other agreements, we've made concessions. For example, I know that Secretary Clinton cited the new START Treaty as some kind of success.

If you look at that, we made many more concessions. Russian made few if any concessions in terms of reducing its armament. There are arguments Russia is violating the INF Treaty, an existing nuclear treaty.

KEILAR: Thanks so much for being with us, Senator Kelly Ayotte from New Hampshire.

AYOTTE: Good to be with you.

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