Senator Joni Ernst.
Iowa Senator Joni Ernst, a Republican from Red Oak, says she believes the resignation of Michael Flynn as national security advisor was the right thing to do. Flynn resigned amid a controversy surrounding his discussions with Russia.
“I am concerned about the impacts that any conversations that General Flynn had with folks in Russia really show maybe not quite as aggressive as I would like to see on Russia,” Ernst says. Ernst joined six fellow Republican senators last week in sending a letter to President Donald Trump urging his administration to pursue a “principled and tough-minded Russia policy.”
She says we can’t forget that “Russia is not our friend.” “We need to take a step back, we need to evaluate what has been done. We need to be sure that we are showing a position of strength when it comes to Russia,” according to Ernst. ” So again, I think that his resignation is absolutely appropriate and we’ll see what shakes out in the coming weeks.” Ernst says it is up to the intelligence committee to determine what type of review there needs to be into Flynn’s actions.
“I do believe that we need to know the full details of what has transpired, so whether that is a Senate committee looking at it or otherwise, I do defer to the intel committee. I do want to know exactly what happened and what kind of position that puts us in as the United States,” Ernst says. Ernst says the senators who sent the letter to the president would like to follow up on it.
“We need to sit down, we actually have to have a dialogue and present our information and our point of view and understand where the White House is coming from with any of their potential communications with Russia. Or what their stance is on Russia,” Ernst says.
Ernst says she is concerned that the Russians positioned a war ship off the east coast of the United States and appear to be probing. She says the Russians have used this type of aggression elsewhere with Russian planes flying near U.S. ships. Ernst says the U.S. needs to shows its strength in the face of these types of actions by Russia.