While saying Russia’s invasion of Ukraine is the responsibility of Vladimir Putin, state Sen. Matt Dolan, a Republican candidate for the U.S. Senate, said President Joe Biden is “responsible” for the factors that “may have influenced that horrific decision.”
Dolan said Biden’s decision to “reduce the supply of oil and gas that we produce gave financial boost to Russia, which allowed (Putin) to have the financial security to build up towards this invasion.”
Dolan, R-Chagrin Falls, said Biden, a Democrat, is making a major error by not moving forward with “crippling” sanctions against Russia for the Ukraine invasion.
Asked about former President Donald Trump, a fellow Republican, saying Putin, Russia’s president, is a “genius” and “very savvy” for declaring a large portion of Ukraine as independent before invading, Dolan said: “I think it’s disgusting.”
Before commenting on Trump and Biden, Dolan said: “Make no mistake, this is Putin’s war. He attacked a sovereign nation.
Dolan, one of seven Republicans running for his party’s nomination for U.S. Senate, was in the Mahoning Valley on Monday to accept the endorsement of Lordstown Mayor Arno Hill. The other Republicans elected as mayors ran in nonpartisan races.
Hill, who is also a member of the Trumbull County Board of Elections, said Dolan “understands the Valley.
An Emerson College poll of the U.S. Senate’s Republican primary, released Monday, shows Gibbons in the lead with 22.4 percent and Dolan in fourth with 6.2 percent. Of those polled, 39.4 percent were undecided. The telephone poll of 410 likely Republican voters, taken Friday and Saturday, had a 4.8 percent margin of error.
Dolan said the poll “shows that a vast majority of voters, almost 40 percent, are undecided. Polls don’t matter right now.