Graham defends stance on Ukraine aid, says fate of Taiwan and beyond depends on stopping Putin

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Democrats keen on Ukraine aid, but refuse to help struggling Americans

Sen. Lindsey Graham blasts baby formula shortage on 'Jesse Watters Primetime.'

Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., defended his support for U.S. aid to Ukraine, saying Thursday that China is watching how Russia fares and that the world writ large will benefit by Vladimir Putin being stopped.

On "Jesse Watters Primetime," host Jesse Watters shared many Americans' concern that billions in Ukraine aid could be better spent domestically while the United States is in the throes of record inflation, food shortages and gasoline shortages.

"Americans are looking around like, ‘Hey, Congress, what about us?’ Do you feel that?" he asked the lawmaker.

Sen. Lindsey Graham. (Photo by STEFANI REYNOLDS/POOL/AFP via Getty Images) ((Photo by Stefani Reynolds / POOL / AFP) (Photo by STEFANI REYNOLDS/POOL/AFP via Getty Images))

"I totally get it, [but] here's the problem with Ukraine. They run out of money in terms of buying weapons, I think, in the middle of May. So the Ukrainian army is delivering a whoop-a-- on the Russian army [but] they're about to run out of ammunition," he said.

"They're not asking for any soldiers — they are not asking for us to take over the skies anymore," he added.

Watters responded by pushing back that the working class believes their own behinds are being "whooped" at home as well.

Graham said the prospect of Putin continuing his invasion further into Europe from Ukraine is "common sense" if he isn't rebuffed.

Russian President Vladimir Putin. (Sputnik, Kremlin Pool Photo via AP)

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"If I thought pulling the plug on Ukraine would make any problem better here, I would entertain it," he said. "But our problems here don't get better by allowing Putin to win in Ukraine because he won't stop."

"If we can win in Ukraine — and I think we can — we can stop Putin, the world gets better overnight. If he takes Ukraine, he doesn't get prosecuted as a war criminal, he'll keep going. He wants to rewrite the map of Europe."

"And China is just waiting to see what to do with Taiwan. All the chips in the world for our high-tech industry come from Taiwan. So there's a lot at stake here. But… I'm not trying to argue with you that we should be doing more here at home. We should have rational border policies. We don't."