Joe Biden blurted out to reporters on Sunday that his decision to send widely-banned cluster bombs to Ukraine was made because “we’ve run out of ammunition.”
“Mr President– on cluster munitions, why now?” a reporter asked.
“We’ve run out of ammunition,” Biden bluntly responded.
Joe Biden wasn’t supposed to say the quiet part out loud: “We’ve run out of ammunition”. But now that the cat’s out of the bag, one must ask whether continued support of Ukraine’s military is even feasible as the conflict rages on. pic.twitter.com/jddIrHlSM8
— Ian Miles Cheong (@stillgray) July 9, 2023
If true, this is a bombshell admission (no pun intended) which I can’t imagine our military would want to be revealed publicly by the president to the entire world.
Biden said during an interview with CNN released in part on Friday that the US was running “low” on munitions and the Ukrainians are “running out of ammunition.”
“It took me a while to be convinced to do it,” President Biden tells @FareedZakaria about his decision to send cluster bombs to Ukraine as its ammunition supply runs low. pic.twitter.com/eQNyYSHn1h
— Kaitlan Collins (@kaitlancollins) July 7, 2023
“A White House official appeared to walk back Biden’s comment that the United States is running out of ammunition when asked to comment on criticism in response to Biden’s interview on CNN,” Fox News reported on Sunday:
“The military has specific requirements for the numbers of weapons systems and ammunition we maintain in our reserves in case of contingencies or military conflict,” a White House official said in an email to Fox News Digital. “Everything we send to Ukraine is in excess of that. So, the U.S. is not running out of ammunition ourselves.”
The White House said on Friday that the Zelensky regime promised to use our cluster bombs “in a very careful way.”
W.H.’s @JakeSullivan46: “Ukraine has provided written assurances” that they will use our cluster bombs “in a very careful way” pic.twitter.com/C2xq8NXeye
— Tom Elliott (@tomselliott) July 7, 2023
Meanwhile, Pentagon official Colin Kahl said the US is sending Ukraine cluster bombs because the counter offensive is “going slower than some had hoped.”
“We want to make sure that the Ukrainians have sufficient artillery to keep them in the fight in the context of the current counteroffensive, and because things are going a little slower than some had hoped,” Kahl said.