Condoleezza Rice Dismisses Putin Threats: He Says 'Absurd Things'
(Fox News/"Fox & Friends")
Friday, 02 Mar 2018 11:09 AM
Former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice Friday dismissed Russian President Vladimir Putin's boasts about his country's nuclear weapons, saying he sometimes says "absurd things."
"Vladimir Putin is out there talking about his nuclear missiles, and we should just say look, first of all, nobody has ever said that American missile defense could say knock down thousands of Russian missiles," Rice, who served under President George W. Bush, told Fox News' "Fox & Friends."
"I told him that myself personally when I was secretary of state."
The United States' missile defense is aimed at Iran or North Korea, not Russia, she added.
She also downplayed Putin's decision to show the Russian Parliament a video showing multiple nuclear missiles heading to what appeared to be the outline of Florida.
"They have been able to hit Florida since 1980, so sometimes he says really absurd things and we just need to call him out," Rice said.
On Thursday, Rice appeared on ABC's "The View" with Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., where she urged him, as a ranking Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, to "wrap it up" with the panel's investigation of Russian meddling in the 2016 election.
She told "Fox & Friends" on Friday that she believes the American people are "ready to move on."
"Everybody wants to know what happened," she said. "As I also said to Congressman Schiff, the Intel committees also need to focus on what the Russians did, how they did it. The first time, shame on them, the next time shame on us, if they can do it again. I think there is too little attention to what they actually did and how we are going to deal with it."
Sanctions, meanwhile, are very effective against Putin and his inner circle, said Rice.
"This person can't travel; this person can't visit," said Rice. "You have to realize the reach of the United States is really broad, so when you are listed by the United States, it really has an effect on what you can and cannot do."
However, she said she would be cautious on economic sanctions, because contact with the West is "really important" for younger Russians.
"We want to isolate Putin and Putinism, but we don't want to isolate the Russian people," Rice said.
Further, Russian interference in elections is nothing new, and actually stretches back into the 1930s through 1950, said Rice.
"They also had this idea that they could stir up trouble among disaffected Americans," she said. "It's just that the internet and social media makes it easier to do."
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