James Lankford: Would Be Mistake For China To Think It Has Green Light To Invade Taiwan

Sen. James Lankford (R-OK) said during an interview over the weekend that China would be misreading the room if it took what happened between President Donald Trump and Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky on Friday as a green light for it to invade Taiwan.

Lankford made the remark during a Sunday interview on NBC News’ “Meet The Press” with Kristen Welker while recapping the Oval Office spat between the two world leaders.

“If China somehow receives that, they’re receiving the exact wrong message that the United States stands with our ally Taiwan, and we, like the rest of the world, want to see peace in that region and to continue to be able to have relationships all across that region,” he said. “But China should not misread this at all. What President Trump is trying to do is trying to get both sides to the table.”

He said that the United States was not turning its back on Ukraine and that the United States views Putin as “a murderous KGB thug that murders his political enemies and is a dictator.”

“We’ve seen his aggression. Countries around him have seen that,” he continued. “Obviously the Ukrainian people have seen that. The challenge is now we’re at a stalemate. This is a World War I-like trench warfare, and it is best to be able to get to at least a pause. And what I hear President Trump saying over and over again is, ‘We need to get to a stop in fighting, find some resolution.'”

“I understand Zelensky is rightfully concerned that Putin has violated every single agreement he’s ever signed and that he can’t be trusted,” he continued. “He’s looking for some kind of security guarantees, which the French and the U.K. are saying they want to put troops in. But we need to get these two folks at the table, get to some kind of resolution to something that may look like North and South Korea for a long time, and have a line where people are looking at each other, but not an active war.”

He added that he does not agree with those who are calling on Zelensky to resign, and that if Zelensky were to do so, it would “spiral Ukraine into chaos right now.”

“If you remember, in that press conference in the Oval Office just on Friday, it began with President Trump saying that he is a friend of Zelensky. He is interested,” Lankford added. “They’ve had good conversations. I think they understand each other and that, obviously, there are differences whereas Zelensky wants more in the way of some kind of security guarantees. The United States is not willing to be able to put troops on the ground. We’re not willing to do that.”

“But President Trump obviously met with Zelensky first,” he concluded. “Everybody was talking about Trump is going to work with Putin. He had foreign ministers working with the Russians. He wanted to meet personally with Zelensky first. I think that’s a very clear sign of where he is and where he stands on this. But he wants to get both sides of the table and get an end to the fighting and the death.”

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