Evening Edition: Biden Allows Ukraine To Use U.S. Long Range Missiles Against Russia
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Monday, November 18th, 2024. I'm Eben Brown. As President Biden travels through South America to the G20, he finds himself second fiddle to another world leader while granting permission to Ukraine to use U.S. supersonic missiles offensively. Yeah, there could be a scenario where American made weapons fired from Ukraine are going to be killing Americans.

North Korean soldiers in Russia. Let that sink in. This is the Fox News Rundown Evening Edition. I'm Ben Domenech, Fox News contributor, editor-at-large of The Spectator, and editor of the Transom.com daily newsletter. I'm inviting you to join in-depth conversations every week on the Ben Domenech Podcast. Listen and follow now at foxnewspodcast.com.

President Biden is in the midst of what could be his last hurrah on the world stage, the G20 summit. It's taking place in Rio de Janeiro. And Americans could be shocked to hear that President Biden is not the recipient of lavish welcomes. Those honors are being bestowed on someone else from somewhere else who is spending more money on bigger development projects than the U.S. under the Biden administration. But the U.S. is not the recipient of lavish welcomes.

But it also comes as the U.S. gives the Ukrainians the go-ahead to use U.S. Army tactical missiles, not defensively against Russian attacks, but offensively against Russia and its aligned forces.

This is a big change, and one that Russia has warned both the U.S. and NATO they would take as escalation. Russia's Vladimir Putin is not attending the G20. He sent his foreign minister, who reiterated their stance. Yes, it's an about-face policy-wise, but these...

As you mentioned, the Army's tactical missile system is a TACMS. They have 190 mile range, but they're only being allowed for the Ukrainians to strike in Kursk, where there are thousands of North Korean soldiers that have gathered and are beginning to do offensive operations in Ukraine.

Fox News correspondent Lucas Tomlinson is traveling with the president and speaks to us from Rio de Janeiro in Brazil. So the Biden administration, we spoke to the deputy national security advisor, John Feiner, here. While he's not confirming the news of this change, he did make it clear that the deployment of thousands of North Korean soldiers, by the way, Bloomberg is reporting up to 100,000 ultimately North Korean soldiers to Russia.

Yeah, there could be a scenario where American-made weapons fired from Ukraine are going to be killing North Korean soldiers in Russia. Let that sink in. That's where things are now. While it is certainly an about-face from the Biden administration, he has a little more leverage, one could argue, because he only has two months left in office. This is something Zelensky has been

President Biden to allow him to do for years. And these missiles have been used in Crimea, but should they be used in Russia, it would be for the first time. What has the Russian response been to this? We know that they have given some general statements about this being escalatory, but that is more than words, or we fear that that might be more than words. What does escalation look like in this case? Well,

Well, the Kremlin has put out a statement today that this is pouring fuel on the fire. And it's notable here at the G20 in Rio that while Russian President Vladimir Putin is not here, his foreign minister, his top diplomat, Sergei Lavrov, is in attendance. We saw him arrive at the first set of meetings here in Rio earlier. Chinese President Xi Jinping is here. It's notable that she was afforded the rare honor of a state visit here in Brazil yesterday.

He was also given that same honor previously in Peru for an economic summit that President Biden attended. So it's very rare for a U.S. president to be on the world stage and not be the guest of honor. That would be China's President Xi Jinping. Let's talk about that a little bit, because.

If anyone remembers their American history classes from high school, they might remember the Monroe Doctrine, in which the United States asserted that this was our hemisphere and that we wouldn't tolerate any kind of involvement or even economic development from other powers in the Americas. And here we are with...

Right.

And that is a change of posture and almost like a flipping of posture, it feels like. And that does signal some very weird dynamics. Although, as you mentioned, it's coming on the very tail end of one administration and where the next administration has some very, very different ideas. Yeah.

Well, this has been going on for nearly 20 years now. Over 20 years ago, in the year 2000, the United States was the largest trading partner for every country in Latin America. Today, it's China. You've seen the map. It's a sea of red across South America right now. China is the largest trading partner in Latin America, certainly in Peru and in Brazil. Also, you mentioned the port. It's no small thing. That is a $1.3 billion

billion-dollar megaport. And it was notable that when Chinese President Xi Jinping arrived in Peru, not only was he given the red carpet treatment, President Biden was not. While President Biden went to his hotel room, Xi was feted with a huge party at the presidential palace. And while he was at the party at the palace, feted with red carpet, full honor guard, all the bells and whistles, he watched a

The ribbon cutting, the port is about two hours north of Lima. He watched the ribbon cutting for that port. And the Chinese are also going to put in about $3.5 billion more into the port. So China is the major player in South America, not the United States. It's been one of the most eye-opening parts of this trip. When President Biden's motorcade departed Peru yesterday,

It was Chinese flags being waved from the people in Peru, not American flags. We're seeing something similar on the ground here in Rio. When I was walking around before we got started with the G20, I saw numerous Chinese flags. I saw groups of what appeared to be Chinese citizens with Chinese flags, Brazilian flags. China is the major player in South America. It is not the United States.

Fox News correspondent Lucas Tomlinson is speaking with us from Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. He is traveling with the president to the G20 summit on the Fox News Rundown Evening Edition. Please like and subscribe. We'll have more straight ahead.

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Has the U.S. State Department commented on this at all, or have there been any reactions from Capitol Hill? Again, we're seeing this at a time where another administration is going to be coming in, again, with dynamically or diametrically opposite goals, policy-wise.

Interestingly enough, before departing for the trip, I was at the airport and I bumped into former deputy commander of CENTCOM, former Navy SEAL, Vice Admiral Harwood. He was talking about when America pulls back, others fill the void. This has been going on for years, and it's certainly true.

very apparent here in South America that China is the major player. It's been going on for many years now, no question, not just the last four, but certainly it feels like it's accelerated because everywhere you go, it's people talking about China. You see the Chinese flags. You do not see American flags.

Let's talk more about what President Biden has been doing on what is essentially going to be his last hurrah on the world stage, it feels like. I know he visited the Amazon, which I believe is the first visit of an American president there, a sitting American president there. What was the purpose of that visit and how did that end?

As you mentioned, Evan, it was the first visit by a sitting president to the Amazon. Of course, we all remember Theodore Roosevelt after losing the election of 1912. He made what some called an ill-fated trip to the Amazon where it almost killed him. Yeah.

But that's here nor there for the purpose of our listeners. With President Biden being the first sitting president to visit the Amazon, he wanted to talk about the environment. He proclaimed November 17th to be an international day of climate. He wanted to put some money into preserving the rainforest. That's why he went on his way to Rio. He stopped in Brazil in the rainforest.

What happens next for the G20 as an international conference? You know, the member states of the G20 often have to deal with changing administrations here in the U.S. Are they talking about that at all? I mean, they've dealt previously with this incoming president. That's what makes this unique.

What's notable, Evan, is that when President Biden arrived to his first meeting here in Rio, all the world leaders walked up a ramp to get into the building for the first meetings of global hunger. President Biden did not. Very conspicuously, he got out of the car and almost immediately veered off the red carpet to go somewhere else, what appeared to be taking an elevator up to the meeting.

And it certainly was not the best look for the president of the United States to not be using the same entrance that other world leaders were using. It certainly brought questions about President Biden's age and his just physical ability to do the job. Because while all the world leaders walked up this ramp very ceremoniously, Biden got out of his car, took a few steps, and then veered off the red carpet to take a side entrance into the building.

presumably to use an elevator.

There's no question leaders are talking about it. They're not talking about it publicly, but there's no question they're talking about it on the sidelines. It's interesting that when President Biden arrived at his first meeting at the G20 with world leaders, I did not see any world leaders standing up to shake his hand. Certainly, Biden's lame duck status is playing a major role on the visit, not only to Peru at APEC, but also here at the G20. What's notable about the G20 is unlike the G7, which is a group of

of countries allied to the United States. Of course, they kicked Russia out of that alliance. It used to be called the G8. Here at the G20, Russia is still a member. And while we did not expect President Putin to arrive here in Rio, we did see his foreign ministers. We'll have to watch to see if the Secretary of State, Anthony Blinken, has any kind of meetings

especially in the wake of this news of the about face in terms of letting Ukraine use these short range ballistic missiles to strike targets in Russia for the first time. Fox News correspondent Lucas Tomlinson traveling with the president to the G20 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Thank you so much for being with us on the Fox News Rundown Evening Edition. Evan, it was a pleasure. Thanks for having me.

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