(Luis Cornelio, Headline USA) Rep. Barbara Lee, D-Calif., blasted the Biden White House’s controversial decision to funnel cluster bombs in a recent interview with CNN’s Jake Tapper.
In her appearance on State of the Union on Sunday did not shy away from expressing her opposition to Biden’s reckless move.
“Cluster bombs should never be used. That is crossing the line,” Lee said. “Once you see what takes place—we know what takes place in terms of cluster bombs being very dangerous to civilians. They don’t always immediately explode. Children could step on them. That is a line we should not cross.” Lee emphasized the grave dangers posed by cluster bombs to civilians, highlighting their potential to harm innocent lives even after the initial explosion.”
Lee, a Democrat running for California senator, still endorsed Biden’s actions in Ukraine, warning that the use of cluster bombs would mark a step too far.
“I think the president’s been doing a good job managing this war, this Putin aggressive war against Ukraine,” Lee added. “But I think that this should not happen. He had to ask for a wavier under the Foreign Assistance Act just to do it because we have been preventing the use of cluster bombs since I believe 2010.”
Lee’s scathing remarks echoed those of several Republican lawmakers, including Rep. Marjorie Taylor Green, R-Ga., who took to Twitter to accuse Biden of usurping Congress’s ban on cluster bombs.
“Biden invoked his power under the Foreign Assistance Act to bypass a congressional ban of cluster munitions by claiming that vital U.S. national security interests are at stake in order to send hundreds of thousands of controversial cluster munitions to Ukraine,” Green said. “Cluster munitions are banned by over 120 countries including most of NATO. The American people and United States national security interest are not in danger in Ukraine.”
Lee’s comments also come days after the Biden administration announced that the U.S. will provide cluster munitions to Ukraine on the eve of the NATO summit in Lithuania.
“We recognize the cluster munitions create a risk of civilian harm from unexploded ordnance,” said Jake Sullivan, Biden’s national security adviser, during a White House briefing. “This is why we’ve deferred the decision for as long as we could.”
According to Headline USA, a spokesperson for the U.N. Human Rights office slammed Biden’s decision, saying, “the use of such munitions should stop immediately and not be used in any place.”
