Sen. Bill Hagerty: Video Released of Russian Jet-U.S. Drone Collision
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This video coming out, have you had a chance to look at the video footage of the jet? Yes, I have. What was your reaction to that? In the first instance, it speaks volumes about the incompetent competency in the poor training of the Russian military. We are allowed to operate. We do operate in international airspace and we should be able to do that unfettered and what we saw here was entirely unacceptable. When I was ambassador to Japan, we constantly ran freedom of navigation operations through the South China Sea and that area we were constantly encountering Russia and Chinese fighter jets. We know how to handle this. But again, this was extremely unprofessional. These were international waters, Russia had no right to do what they did. And this is something that I think it's just extremely unfortunate that we're in a position like this where this type of insect could actually result in an escalation if it's not properly handled. The real problem though is that we've allowed this to occur. I mean, we've decided to wage war on domestic energy here that's driven up energy prices around the world. Vladimir Putin is benefited from this dramatically. You know how high oil prices have gotten. And that's funding all of this maligned behavior by the Russians because we're allowing this to happen. The best way to stop this is to start producing American energy again, lower the cost of energy all around the globe and take Vladimir Putin out of business.