For some reason the administration of President Joe Biden believes that journalists should take them at their word, but even CNN is pushing back on that idea.
On Sunday, Jake Tapper, the host of the CNN show “State of the Union” had National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan on as his guest and grilled him on the administration’s position that Russia was planning a false flag in order to justify an invasion of Ukraine.
“We cannot perfectly predict the day, but we have now been saying for some time that we are in the window, and an invasion could begin, a major military action could begin by Russia in Ukraine any day now — that includes this coming week, before the end of the Olympics,” the National Security Advisor said at the start of the interview.
“The way they have built up their forces, the way they have maneuvered things in place, makes it a distinct possibility there will be major military action very soon. And we are prepared to continue to work on diplomacy, but we are also prepared to respond in a united and decisive way with our allies and partners should Russia proceed,” he said.
“I’m not going to handicap what will happen. I cannot sit here today and predict,” he said. “What I can do is make sure we are prepared — and we are prepared. We are prepared to respond immediately and decisively, flanked by our allies and partners, if Russia moves forward. We will defend NATO territory, we will impose costs on Russia and we will ensure that we emerge from this as the West stronger, more determined, more purposeful than we have been in 30 years, and that Russia ultimately suffers a significant strategic cost for military action.”
He said that Russia could begin a campaign by bombing from the air, which is why he advised any Americans in Ukraine to leave.
“Those are never as precise as the army — any army — would like them to be. We don’t even know how precise the Russian army would like them to be,” he said. “Innocent civilians could be killed regardless of their nationality. It would then be followed by an onslaught of a ground force moving across the Ukrainian frontier. Again, where innocent civilians could get caught in the cross fire or trapped in places they could not move from. So that is why we are being so clear and direct to American citizens that while commercial transport options are still available, they should take advantage of them.”
But that is when Tapper asked him about the administration’s warning of a false flag attack.
“That’s a strong claim to make without presenting a shred of evidence,” Tapper said before asking if he had anything to say to the American people who “might be justifiably rather skeptical of claims about intelligence.”
“We have information that we have gathered through intelligence that indicates that there is active planning for this, and it’s not just the United States saying it,” the advisor said. “We have our NATO allies stepping out and saying it as well, because they’ve been able to review that intelligence, assess its credibility and reach the same conclusion we have reached. So, I do think the world should be prepared for Russia staging a pretext and then watching a potential military action.”
After Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky warned that cause panic was not helping, the advisor defended what the administration has been doing.
“Our view is that we’re not going to give Russia the opportunity to conduct a surprise here — to spring something on Ukraine or the world. We are going to make sure that we are laying out for the world what we see as transparently and plainly as we possibly can and share that information as widely as we can,” he said. “That’s what we’ve done. That’s what we’ll continue to do.”
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