Scott Ritter on Biden’s State of the Union Address: ‘It’s a Campaign Speech’

"Instead of a State of the Union address, the US Congress and indeed the American people were treated to a rousing campaign speech which POTUS was using to kick off the 2024 presidential election campaign," former US Marine Corps intelligence officer and independent military analyst Scott Ritter told Sputnik.

Biden "is facing the presumptive Republican nominee, former US President Donald Trump, in what many expect to be a very hot, very controversial and heated contest for who will be the next president of the United States. Joe Biden let off this State of the Union address, this campaign speech, by speaking about Ukraine, and about Russia, and about Russian President Vladimir Putin," Ritter said.

Quoting POTUS as saying during the address that America "will not walk away from Ukraine," Ritter noted that "in many ways, the 46th US president is right."

"Biden didn't walk away from Ukraine. He ran away from there, straight into issues about domestic politics because it's a campaign address, not a State of the Union speech," the ex-US Marine Corps intelligence officer insisted.

He suggested that Biden hinted at the necessity of releasing the $64 billion funding package during the Thursday speech “because it's tied to domestic American politics and perhaps the most contentious issue of the day, that is border security immigration reform.”

The $64 billion package is "being held hostage by Republicans in the House of Representatives. […] If Biden isn't going to change his approach to immigration, the Republicans aren't going to release the money - Ukraine isn't going to get the assistance it needs," according to the analyst.

"America's running away from Ukraine. And that's the reality," Ritter argued, adding that "people need to understand" that the next months will see Biden "almost singularly focused on domestic American policy, trying to differentiate himself from Donald Trump."

Ritter suggested that the Ukraine conflict "will die a natural death, so to speak, a tragic death for the Ukrainian people, but one that the American public will not be meaningful and engaged in” – something that the former US Marine Corps intelligence officer said he “took away” from Biden’s State of the Union address.

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During the speech, the POTUS specifically called on the US to "stand with Ukraine and [continue] to provide the weapons it needs to defend itself."

Moscow has repeatedly emphasized that the US and its allies’ support for the Kiev regime will not alter the course of the Russian special military operation but will only exacerbate the conflict.

Scott Ritter on Biden's State of the Union Address: 'America's Running Away From Ukraine'