WASHINGTON — U.S. Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.), chairman of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee and member of the Foreign Relations Committee, appeared on “Fox News Sunday” today to discuss the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) treaty, U.S. troop withdrawal from Syria and other foreign policy topics.  

Excerpts from the senator’s interview are below, and video can be found here.

On U.S. withdrawal from the INF treaty:

“The most salient point here is that Russia has been violating this treaty for at least six years, testing, and now we believe deploying, these intermediate-range nuclear missiles."

"Our NATO and European allies completely back the president's move here. Hopefully, in the six-month period between the announcement and the final ending of the treaty, Russia will come to their senses and verifiably dismantle these batteries.”

On ISIS and U.S. troop withdrawal from Syria:

“I can't tell you how many times I came on shows like this after President Obama decided to bug out of Iraq precipitously, so that ISIS was able to rise from the thoroughly defeated ashes of Al-Qaeda in Iraq. And I don't want to be making the same statement six months from now that we bugged out of Syria unwisely and that ISIS has reemerged from the defeated ashes of ISIS in Syria."

"If we just abandon [the Kurds] to the mercies – I use that term loosely – of Russia and Iran and possibly Turkey, it would just be unconscionable. I think Republican senators are sending very strong signals to the president, we don't want to see that happen and I hope he is listening.”

“There's so much tradition and history and complexity to some of these foreign policy issues, you have to rely on people who have been working these issues for decades. And it's just imperative that you actually listen to, for example, the CIA chief, the Director of National Intelligence. These people have the real knowledge and you have to listen to them.”

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