DV Journal

A SWIFT (Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication) code is almost always required when you are party to an international money transfer. SWIFT is what allows a specific bank account to be identified in an international banking transaction. Without the use of a SWIFT, generally, it is impractical or impossible to make an international transfer.

That is why SWIFT has gone viral on social media and in the news this week. As part of a package of sanctions against Russia for the invasion of democratic Ukraine, SWIFT was at its core.

Banning Russia and wealthy Russians from SWIFT is arguably the most powerful economic weapon the world has to stop Russian aggression. Assuming that the hypothesis that Russian President Vladimir Putin is taking a huge gamble in invading Ukraine and risking an ongoing conflict that could lead to deep internal fissures in his power base in Russia, what financial weapon could be more powerful against him than SWIFT?

Adriana Gonzalez, a Florida lawyer, explains that SWIFT has massive practical importance for Russia:

“Given the fact that SWIFT has over 11,000 financial institutions around the world, any nation that sells a massive amount of a resource – as Russia does with gas and oil – will find themselves hard-pressed to find a viable legal option to receive funds if they are no longer allowed on the SWIFT system.”

On Thursday, rather than blocking Russian access to SWIFT, President Joe Biden explained the United States, joined by the European Union and the United Kingdom, would not block Russia from SWIFT. Instead, Biden is leaving the threat of a SWIFT ban on the table and is, for now, blocking the five largest Russian banks from the U.S. banking system.

But that decision came down around 10 hours before the Russian invasion of Ukraine hit the capital city, Kyiv. The move could and should be a game-changer for the allies, as this should be viewed as something that the United States actually minds enough to immediately ramp up sanctions as a message to Russia that this heightened aggression will not stand.

On Saturday evening, the U.S. and the European Commission along with Canada, France, Italy, Germany, and the U.K. announced they were expelling select Russian financial institutions from SWIFT.

If Russia is entirely removed from the SWIFT system, it has two practical options. For transactions limited to within Russia, they have their own version of SWIFT – the System for Transfer of Financial Messages. After Russia invaded Crimea in 2014 and feared that its SWIFT access would be revoked, it built this internal system.

The other option is, of course, cryptocurrency. Yet only the most ardent enthusiasts of crypto believe that such an incendiary currency is a wise base upon which to sustain an economy, even in the short term. The internal pressure the most powerful Russian businesses could put on the Putin regime if faced with wildly fluctuating payment options for their goods and services could be extreme.

Sanction options can change as quickly as the situation on the ground and in their skies over Kyiv, so this is a rapidly-evolving story that will be closely watched by all of the allies and by Russia itself as it considers its next moves.

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Delaware Valley residents with ties to Ukraine are watching in horror as the Russian army rolls toward Kyiv.

Many came to a rally at City Hall in Philadelphia Friday to show their support for the beleaguered country.

At Manor College in Abington, founded 75 years ago by the Ukrainian Sisters of St. Basil the Great, students and staff held a Zoom service Friday to pray for Ukraine. Signs with the message “Pray for Peace in Ukraine” abound on campus.  Many students, alumni, and staff at the small college have relatives in Ukraine.

Nicholas Rudnytzky, the college’s dean of academic services, grew up in Philadelphia. His parents immigrated from Ukraine after World War II. He still has family in Lviv in the western part of Ukraine, which is “very far from the front lines.”

Nicolas Rudnytzky

“They’re fine,” he said about his relatives. “They’re mad. They’re angry. Like most of the country, they’re defiant.”

Asked if they intend to fight, Rudnytzky said they do but added, “the Russian war machine is ranked third in the world.”

While it is shocking that Russian President Vladimir Putin’s army is invading Ukraine, in some ways, it is not, he said.

For one thing, the world did very little when Putin took Crimea from Ukraine in 2014, he said. And Russia and the Soviet Union have a centuries-long history of oppressing the Ukrainians.

“A good contingent of the Ukrainian community was expecting this,” said Rudnytzky. “Moscow had repeatedly denied our existence. The czarist government of the past made our language illegal. In 1946, the Russian Orthodox Church liquidated the Ukrainian Catholic Church.” Clergy were exiled, leaders killed or sent to Siberia. Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin created a deliberate famine in Ukraine in the 1930s that killed millions.

“They committed genocide against our people,” said Rudnytzky. “This is horrifying that in the 21st century, in Europe, such a thing could happen.”

He questioned the efficacy of the United Nations and NATO. If it were somewhere else and did not involve Russia, “we’d have U.N. peacekeeping troops.”

In the 1990s, the U.S., Great Britain, and Russia signed an agreement with Ukraine, saying they would protect it if it gave up its nuclear weapons, he noted.

“We promised we’d protect them. But when Russia took Crimea, everyone looked the other way.

“Now there is a huge contingent wondering whether China will take a lesson from Russia,” he said. “This is an attack on a democracy in Europe.”

Eugene Luciw

Eugene Luciw is also the son of Ukrainian immigrants. He is the president of the Philadelphia branch of the Ukrainian Congress Committee of America and director of external relations for the Ukrainian Sports Center and Ukrainian National Soccer Club in Horsham.

He agreed Putin was emboldened by the lackluster response to his theft of the Crimea.

“Mr. Putin takes to weakness like a shark takes to blood in the water,” Luciw said.

He has relatives and friends in Ukraine.

“Many of them are in bunkers, in subways,” he said. “My heart is there with them. In the modern world, people I had visiting in the United States are in bomb shelters and subways trying to stay alive.”

The attack is personal for Luciw.

Leonard Mazur

“I feel violated,” he said. And the world order is now changed where “a heavily militarized imperial power can simply take another country over.”

Leonard Mazur, a Manor College trustee and chairman of the college’s Ukrainian Community Committee, said his parents also fled Ukraine after World War II, and his mother had been in a German forced labor camp during the war.

“What’s happening here is a tragedy,” said Mazur, who is appalled that “the world is standing by, letting this happen. I don’t know how people, how governments that have any degree of morality can do that. It’s awful.”

Putin is taking over a country “under false pretenses,” he said. He urged people to talk to their representatives, senators, and the White House to put still stronger sanctions in place and that the U.S. arms Ukraine so its citizens can fight back.

“How do you just stand by and watch people get slaughtered?” he asked.

Meanwhile, President Joe Biden announced new sanctions against Putin and other top Russian officials on Friday.

A sign at St. Vladimir Ukrainian Orthodox Cathedral in Philadelphia.

And on the prayer front, Philadelphia Archbishop Most Reverend Nelson J. Pérez w celebrated a Mass for the intention of peace in Ukraine, the Ukrainian People, and the Ukrainian community in Philadelphia this Sunday at the Cathedral Basilica of Saints Peter and Paul.

St. Vladimir Ukrainian Orthodox Cathedral in Philadelphia was packed Sunday morning as people offered prayers for the war to end.

Tatayna Lylyk, a congregant, said, there are “a lot of reasons” for the war but the main one is Putin and “rich people who want power.”

Lylyk came to Philadelphia in 2002 from Kyiv when she was 36 but most of her family and many friends remain in Ukraine.  she is worried about them and fears for the future.

“It is prohibited to come out from “your” home,” she said. “There are saboteurs on the streets which want to help Putin  in this war. (But) people stay for their homeland.”

“Why (does Putin) need our Ukraine? I think he’s crazy. I think he’s scared in some way. He is wrong in his mind,” she said.

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The descent of eastern Europe into war is like an excruciating movie in which you have to fear the worst.

You can’t believe that Russia’s Vladimir Putin would have marshaled all those forces within shooting distance of Ukraine without planning to use them. You know you have to accept the tragic news that people will be killing one another across a corner of the region that few of us could have spotted on a map until all TV networks began showing us where the Russians would strike.

Putin and his ministers and assorted flunkeys presented one distortion after another in what was described as a press conference in which they mouthed every rationale imaginable for going to war. The only relief came in the prospect of more dialogue as enunciated by Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov while Putin looked on silently like a master approving the carefully rehearsed words of his loyal servants.

It would be difficult to sort out all the nonsense they were talking about, but what sticks are repeated claims that the Ukraine forces, with the blessing of the 30 NATO nations led by the U.S., have been opening artillery and rifle fire across the line in the southeastern  Donbass region. The fact that this region was part of Ukraine until a few years ago is irrelevant. Now the Russians are saying it’s divided between two “people’s republics,” Donetsk and Luhansk, which should even be recognized as independent countries.

Putin gives the appearance of a beast of prey sizing up his next dinner before pouncing. It’s hard to know why he wants to conquer a nation where millions died under the control of the former Soviet Union in the 1930s, but obviously plain and simple nationalism underlies the whole crisis.

In that sense, Putin bears comparison to Xi Jinping in China and Kim Jong-un in North Korea. Xi’s burning ambition is to recover Taiwan, the island province that remained independent after the victory of Mao Zedong’s Red Army in 1949. Kim Jong-un, of course, would like to atone for the failure of his grandfather, Kim Il-sung, to take over the south in the Korean War by uniting the Korean peninsula under his rule.

Both Xi and Kim would appear to have enough common sense not to risk wars in which millions would die. Xi cannot be sure the Americans and probably the Japanese would not rush to Taiwan’s defense, repelling his forces in the Formosa or Taiwan Straits, and Kim has to worry about the Americans, again with the backing of Japan, turning back invasion of the south. Better to test-fire missiles and fabricate nuclear devices, Kim seems to believe, than to take chances on a war in which his regime might not survive.

You have to hope Putin would also have that much common sense. The ultimate consequence of the Russian invasion of Ukraine could be a European or even another world war. The war might not reach those proportions right away, but expansion of the conflict would be likely when considering Russian ambitions.

It’s not just that the Russians piled up every pretext they could think of to cross the line into Ukraine. Bearing in mind that revenge and a return to the greatness of the Soviet Union in its finest hours would be a prime motive, Putin soon would want to recover other former satellites. They already have Belarus under dictator Alexander Lukashenko in their orbit, so much so that Russian troops have been training there above Ukraine’s northern frontier.

The Russians want more. How about Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania? They’re ripe for the taking, on the Baltic, exposed to Russia with no other neighboring power to guarantee safety and permanent independence. Lithuania does share a brief common border with Poland, but Poland was divided between Hitler’s Germany and Stalin’s Soviet Union before those two evil tyrants went to war with one another in mid-1941. Poland, after the German surrender four years later, fell under Soviet rule.

We should look at the expansion of the Soviet Union to encompass eastern Europe, and much of Central Asia too, in terms of Russian nationalism rather than communism. Putin, by gnawing away at Ukraine, sees himself avenging the wrong of the breakup of the Soviet empire. Similarly, Kim Jong-un, as he threatens his enemies with nukes and missiles, dreams of some day leading a united Korea, avenging 35 years of Japanese colonial rule and the division of Korea by the U.S. and USSR after the Japanese surrender.

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Russian President Vladimir Putin should suffer sanctions regardless of whether he pulls back from attacking in Ukraine. He has already violated his neighbor and an attack will be additive. His tyrannical bullying has to be addressed now — and later.

The Russian dictator has pushed Ukraine to the brink of annihilation. He caused NATO to expend resources needlessly. He has threatened the international economic system with calamitous failure. He essentially has wrested control of Belarus.

Yet now, international leaders are intent on affecting Putin’s decision to attack as though that in and of itself is sufficient. We have to acknowledge Putin’s wrongdoing and decide to punish him now for what he has already done, and more if he continues.

He has proven he is a malignant actor. Even without a full-scale invasion, Ukrainian troops died during what was likely a provocation in hopes Ukraine will attack and thus give license for Russia to launch a larger incursion.

The attack was labeled as, “shelling by pro-Russian separatists in east Ukraine.” Read that as meaning it was directed by Russia.

Russian troops, now totaling an estimated 150,000 ground forces, , in addition to innumerable aircraft at the ready and ships available in the Black Sea, are poised in position for attack. That’s an act of war even if he moves no farther into Ukraine.

Belarus allowed Russia access to its territory to terrorize Ukraine. Russia was ostensibly in Belarus for training, but now that the scheduled training period has ended, they have decided to remain in place.

Even the dopes in Belarus did not likely understand that Russian troops would occupy their land on a permanent basis. Some will suggest that by cozying up to Putin Belarus had it coming but Putin’s annexation of Belarus is not good for anyone and we must demand the evacuation of Russian forces.

Putin must pay.

Make the of economic sanctions being considered public now.

Several items on the list should be painful and immediate.

The rest could come after the invasion.

The claim by Pentagon spokesman, John Kirby that if sanctions were executed now Russia would have no reason to pull back can be dismissed out of hand. (It is hard to believe that the Pentagon and White House really discussed this idea and thought it was valid).

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy wants the international community to “develop an effective package of preventive sanctions to deter aggression.” His logic is unassailable.

“I agree with President Zelensky, sanctions are no good after the shooting starts,” said former Veterans Affairs Secretary and former Undersecretary of Defense Robert Wilkie in an email. “If Biden was serious, he would have slapped sanctions on in March telling Putin they come off when you pull your troops back.”

One sanction that will gain the attention of other would-be tyrants is to stop the Nord Stream 2 pipeline permanently. Dismantle it. The West should state that no such project can take place for a minimum of 20 years. Let Putin and the rest of the world know this is the price for terror. (Then ask Beijing if the Chinese Communist Party is paying attention). Should Biden decide to reverse his energy policy that limits U.S. production of energy, he could almost immediately soften the blow for Europe by increasing U.S. exports of energy beyond current levels.

The West must make demands. Putin has to clearly understand there is no upside in this matter for him or his regime. He has already made a gross error in judgment and an invasion would simply exacerbate what he has done.

On February 20, the Biden administration announced it agreed in “principle” to meet with Putin to discuss “security and strategic stability in Europe.” Such discussions hopefully will not devolve into granting Putin concessions of any kind. It remains to be seen how such talks–if they occur–will cause Russia to pull back from Ukraine’s border.

It also remains to be seen what role Ukraine plays in any meeting. It is, after all, Ukraine that would be discussed. Any meetings without an active Ukrainian involvement portray to Russia that the U.S. sees Ukraine as an inferior and that this matter is for the major players.

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David McCormick, Carla Sands, and Dr. Mehmet Oz may have been gone during the Republican U.S. Senate debate Monday evening, but they were not forgotten.

The three candidates skipped the event, and their opponents called them out for it again and again.

“We have political tourists running in this race. Mehmet Oz and Dave McCormick do not know this state, they couldn’t be bothered to show up tonight and they don’t care about you,” said Montgomery County developer Jeff Bartos.

“I didn’t parachute into Pennsylvania to run for office,” said Bartos. “I’m a lifelong resident with a deep love for our commonwealth. You cannot save Main Street if you can’t find Main Street. And as we saw tonight, my out-of-state opponents don’t even care to try to find it.”

Kathy Barnette, George Bochetto, Everett Stern, and Jeff Bartos. (photo by Maria Andraos)

Huntington Valley resident Kathy Barnette, an author, and Fox News commentator said it was the second debate Oz and McCormick spurned.

“Jeff has thrown out a lot of punches on Dave McCormick and Mehmet Oz, and it is warranted. It is such an insult that this is the second debate and they refuse to come before the American people, and specifically Pennsylvanians.”

On a different topic, Barnette said, “We need to focus on the economy and not just welfare checks or stimulus checks to keep people floating by.”

Along with cutting taxes and deregulating, “We need to begin to stabilize the U.S. dollar. That creates job growth and a rising tide lifts all boats,” she said.

“Students follow jobs,” said candidate George Bochetto, a Philadelphia lawyer. “And in order to keep students in this area, we need to provide good jobs, attract good jobs, provide the environment that businesses want to invest in. Right now the current leadership we have in Pittsburgh and Philadelphia, with Democrat-run cities that are chasing away our businesses, the students will (go) away with them. So if we want these students here, we have to get them the best jobs imaginable and we have to invest in our communities and our businesses that will provide those jobs.”

And then there was relatively unknown candidate Everett Stern, who attacked his fellow Republicans — particularly Barnette — for supporting former President Donald Trump. He said Barnette should personally apologize for the January 6 riot at the U.S. Capitol.

The audience booed Stern, an investigator and Chester County resident.

Jeff Bartos greets people after the debate.

“My mission is to absolutely make sure that a right-wing candidate backed by either Trump or Gen. [Michael] Flynn, does not get into office. And that means if I have to take down any of these candidates, to make sure I bring the moderates with me and a Democrat wins, so be it,” Stern said.

A hot topic for the Republicans on stage was inflation hitting gas prices and grocery store shelves.

Bochetto said inflation does not hurt rich people or those who are not paying taxes but takes a toll on the middle and working classes.

“But the handling of the COVID pandemic, the giveaways and the printing of money that has taken place, that is the terrible policy President Biden implemented on day one when he took office, which was to close down our development of natural gas in the United States of America…to force this country to start begging OPEC for oil and oil supplies, and they’re driving up the prices,” Bochetto said.  “And what’s driving up inflation? Go to the gas station. Fill your car up. See how much more it takes. That’s what’s driving inflation.”

Bartos said that during the pandemic he started a nonprofit and raised $3.5 million to help small businesses after he saw people “being crushed by a government that did not care.”

George Bochetto

“Then Biden administration comes in and put in policies that raise inflation…that have crushed, crushed the restaurants and small businesses that already operate on a razor-thin margin. We need to go back to the policies that were working just two short years ago,” said Bartos.

Asked about the state’s energy sector, Bartos said he would be a senator who “fights for Pennsylvania’s energy industry.”

“What we’re seeing today in Ukraine and Russia is the direct result of the Biden administration’s terribly flawed, failed policies from day one to enable Russia to finish the Nord Stream pipeline that will allow Putin to ship his natural gas and resources to Germany. Tomorrow, Pennsylvania gas should be on LNG tankers on its way to ship to Europe to help America’s allies. We need to shut off all pipelines and all energy transfers outside of Russian borders and we should cut Russia off. And we should put Putin right back where he belongs, which is in his a country, a gas station with an army.”

“Pennsylvania’s natural resources are a key national security asset of the United States,” Bartos added.

Barnette would write legislation to remove the Biden administration’s restrictions on drilling and to reopen the Keystone pipeline. Having a strong domestic oil and gas production “allows us to remain strong and put a check on bullies all across the world,” she said.

Kathy Barnette talks to students after the debate.

“There’s no question we’re sitting on a Saudi Arabia of natural gas, Marcellus Shale,” said Bochetto. “Developing that and fracking is key…But what really has to happen to turn it around is to invest…get it to Philadelphia, get it to New Jersey, get it to the coastline where we can then export. And the only one meaningful way to get it there and that’s through pipelines.”

Broad and Liberty, the Pennsylvania Chamber of Business and Industry, the Keystone Free Enterprise Fund and GOP SuperPAC LV Strong sponsored the debate.

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“I consider it necessary to take a long-overdue decision: To immediately recognize the independence and sovereignty of Donetsk People’s Republic and Luhansk People’s Republic.” With that statement on Monday, Russian President Vladimir Putin shifted the balance of power in eastern Europe by re-drawing the map of Ukraine through brute force. As of late Monday night, he had reportedly ordered Russian military forces into these regions of eastern Ukraine.

Putin’s actions drew mixed messages from the Biden White House, with some talk that Russia’s move may not spark a massive backlash the way a traditional invasion would. Meanwhile, some Delaware Valley political figures did respond to Putin’s provocative actions.

“The grave predictions of our intelligence community are coming to fruition,” tweeted Rep. Chrissy Houlahan (D-Pa.). “Putin is violating Ukrainian sovereignty. Together, our nation, NATO Allies, and EU partners will hold him accountable.”

And while Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick (R-Pa.) didn’t release any reactions on Monday. However, a week earlier the House Foreign Affairs Committee Ranking Member of the Subcommittee on Europe, Energy, Environment, and Cyber joined other House GOP leaders to announce the  Never Yielding Europe’s Territory (NYET) Act.

“As we have done before with other rogue powers, it is time for the United States to send a clear message: if Russia insists on threatening the sovereignty of another state and jeopardizing global security, there will be severe economic consequences and sweeping sanctions,” said Rep. Fitzpatrick. “Congress must act now to ensure that the United States continues to stand shoulder to shoulder with Ukraine by providing our Ukrainian partners with the aid and resources they need to uphold their territorial integrity and sovereignty.”

“Joe Biden’s weakness and incompetence have set the world ablaze, from Kabul and Kyiv to our southern border,” the Army veteran of the first Gulf War said. “We must return to strong America First policies and leadership that made us more respected abroad and more secure at home. I served in the military because I love our country. I’m running for the U.S. Senate to serve again.”

One of his GOP primary competitors made her point during Monday night’s debate. “Biden has no plans whatsoever,” said Kathy Barnette from Huntingdon Valley. “He’s playing whack-a-mole, whoever pops their head up, he ends up hitting it at the moment. That is not how you lead the greatest nation that’s ever existed in the world, and yet that is where we find ourselves right now. We have two different strategies that need to be employed. We’re talking about Russia potentially entering into Ukraine and being given the green light for them to enter in and do a little bit of damage. And then we have China with Taiwan. China is about to do a Hong Kong on Taiwan.”

And Republican candidate for the Fifth Congressional District, Former Navy Explosive Ordnance Disposal Officer (EOD) David Galluch, released this statement:

“Today, Vladimir Putin gave a speech that exacerbated the Ukraine crisis, indicating Russia’s pending recognition of two separatist eastern Ukrainian regions. This is a naked power grab and revision of European borders – and the United States appears powerless to act.

America has been on the retreat for more than a year. Given that Ukraine has already suffered cyberattacks and significant economic damage at the hands of Russia, the United States should have already implemented severe sanctions against Putin and the Russian regime.

The unfortunate truth is Vladimir Putin was allowed to control events and the narrative from the very beginning. Sanctioning Russia and signaling our resolve to deny Putin a free hand is more important now than ever. With a Russian military buildup only miles from the Ukrainian border, the time for action has already passed. However, it is not too late to take immediate and urgent
steps in an effort to de-escalate this situation.”

And Christian Nascimento, a Republican running for the Fourth District Congressional seat said, “Vladimir Putin recognizing the independence of breakaway countries is political theater and a transparent pretext to justifying the invasion of the Ukraine.

“Putin intends to upend the post-cold war global order and attempt to bring us back to the days of the USSR. Putin only understands strength, so the US must lead a global response, which should include arms and support to Ukraine, as well as economic sanctions on Russia while they continue to destabilize the region and beyond.”

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Republican U.S. Senate candidate David McCormick had never thought about running for elected office. Then he saw the Biden administration’s chaotic — and deadly — withdrawal from Afghanistan last year and decided he had to do something.

“Seeing Afghanistan play out just grabbed our attention and just shook us,” said McCormick, who is married to Trump administration national security advisor Dina Powell. “My wife has done a lot of public service, too. She’s an immigrant to this country. We both lived the American Dream. And when we saw that playing out — the humiliation, the embarrassment, and the lack of accountability — it just shook me.

Dave McCormick with supporter Austin Hepburn.

“As a patriot, you ask yourself what can we do? We think this seat is so important to Pennsylvania. It’s so important to the country. As this seat goes, the country likely goes. Pennsylvania needs a strong leader in the Senate, a strong fighter in the Senate,” McCormick added.

McCormick told a group of about 50 at the VFW post in Bensalem on Saturday there are many reasons Washington, D.C. needs to change.

“There are so many aspects of the country that feel like it’s headed in the wrong direction. We have 40-year high inflation, which is the result of these socialist economic policies. And that hurts all of us, but it really hurts working families all across Pennsylvania.”

McCormick, who served as undersecretary of the Treasury for international affairs under President George W. Bush, grew up on a family farm in Bloomsburg. His dad was chancellor at Bloomsburg University and chancellor for the Pennsylvania State System of Higher Education.

McCormick graduated from West Point and spent five years in the Army, where he served in the first Gulf War. He recently stepped down from his position as CEO of the hedge fund behemoth Bridgewater Associates.

McCormick has come under fire for his hedge fund’s investments in China, including an attack ad from a Dr. Mehmet Oz SuperPAC. But he noted that only 2 percent of Bridgewater’s investments were in China.

“China is the existential challenge of our time,” said McCormick. “It poses an economic risk. It poses a national security risk. We need a whole nation strategy to deal with it. And we need to reduce our dependence on China.”

Pharmaceuticals come from China and most semiconductors are made in nearby Taiwan. The United States’ investment and trade must not support the Chinese military or the oppression of its minority Uighurs, he said.

“The risk has grown in the last 10 years under (Chinese President) Xi,” he said. “Do you really want your drugs dependent on whether China is having a good day?

Meanwhile, America needs more skilled workers and must find a way for businesses to get capital to compete with Chinese businesses that are subsidized by the state.  More emphasis on technical training would help, he said.

“As military veteran…somebody who’s run businesses, created jobs, someone who’s served at the highest levels of government negotiating with China…That’s the kind of person you need to be able to go and fight in Washington.”

McCormick also discussed inflation, education, Pennsylvania’s natural gas industry, illegal immigration, China, Russia, and Ukraine.

And “the border situation is completely unsustainable,” said McCormick, who recently visited Yuma, Ariz., to see the situation first-hand. A year ago, there were 30 illegal border crossers caught every day at Yuma, he said. Now there are 1,000. The Border Patrol agents’ union has endorsed him.

“The border guards are completely overwhelmed,” he said. “Literally, people are just walking through.”

Deaths from fentanyl brought across the border are increasing, and so are related crimes.

“You all feel it here in Philadelphia and moving into the suburbs,” said McCormick.

On education, McCormick said, “I don’t recognize the history that’s being taught to our kids today, with parents not having adequate involvement. And I don’t recognize the cancel culture where you can’t have the right conversations and disagree. It’s a disaster…The American Dream we lived is not going to be available to our kids five years from now or 10 years from now.”

An audience member asked McCormick about the crisis with Ukraine and Russia.

“The world is more dangerous now than it’s ever been,” said McCormick. “I think Biden invited that with Afghanistan. If you show weakness the bullies will take advantage of it. And that’s what happening with Russia. That’s what I think is happening in China. So we need to project strength. And our military today, I’m worried about it.”

While the U.S. spends $80 billion on defense, “there’s a whole social agenda, ‘wokeness’ that’s taken over our military (instead of its) warfighting focus.”

And China is spending its military budget on next-generation technology while the U.S. is spending “90 percent on old platforms” instead of innovation for the future.

“Ukraine is a terrible mess,” he said, and he would “look hard” at sanctions against Russia if it crosses into Ukraine.

“I don’t think we want to be part of a land war in Ukraine. And if we get too focused on that, we have to look over our shoulder, because I think China will move on Taiwan. If we go into something militarily, it has to be so decisive and conclusive it has to be beyond doubt.”

Asked about natural gas, he said, “We have all this natural gas but we don’t have ways to get it there geographically.” A lot of natural gas is being transported by trucks when pipelines are safer. And Pennsylvania natural gas is being sent by pipelines to Louisiana and Texas rather than having a distribution center or port in Philadelphia.

Dave McCormick with state Sen. Robert “Tommy” Tomlinson.

“Our natural gas is the cleanest of the natural gases,” said McCormick. “And natural gas is cleaner than many other forms of energy…Mathematically, Biden shut down Keystone (pipeline), put the clamps on American gas, which is so much cleaner than Russian gas.

“Russian gas, which is much worse environmentally, is being shipped to Europe and the rest of the world so the greenhouse gases go up, our economic benefit goes down and our security in the world goes down because now we’re dependent on outside energy. It’s a madness that is taking place,” he said.

State Sen. Robert “Tommy” Tomlinson (R-Bucks) said McCormick is “truly a proud American, truly somebody capable of moving this country forward, truly somebody who believes in this country. I’m happy that we’ve got a candidate that I could feel that good about.”

And many in the crowd seemed to agree, leaving with McCormick yard signs and hats.

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With a potential Russian invasion of Ukraine in the offing, U.S. Rep. Chrissy Houlahan is joining a congressional delegation to visit that country.

The Pentagon put 8,500 U.S. troops on heightened alert Monday as President Joe Biden considers his options. Russian President Vladimir Putin has increased the presence of Russian troops at the Ukrainian border sparking international concerns.

“As a member of both the House Foreign Affairs and Armed Services Committees, it is my responsibility to conduct oversight on matters of national security,” said Houlahan (D-Chester), in a press release. “This trip will enable the Congress to strengthen relationships with our allies—I look forward to the valuable insight meeting with senior Ukrainian officials will provide.”

In Brussels, the congressional delegation will meet with representatives from NATO, the European Union, and NATO and EU member states to discuss the security situation in Eastern Europe and the buildup of Russian troops along Ukraine’s border and in Belarus.

In Kyiv, the delegation will meet with senior Ukrainian officials to discuss the security situation and reinforce U.S. support for Ukrainian sovereignty and territorial integrity, according to the release.

Joining Houlahan are House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Gregory W. Meeks (D-N.Y.), David Cicilline (D-R.I.), Ami Bera (D-Calif.), Colin Allred (D-Texas), Tom Malinowski (D-N.J.), Sara Jacobs (D-Calif.), Mark Green (R-Tenn.), August Pfluger (R-Texas), Mikie Sherill (D-N.J.), and Victoria Spartz (R-Ind.).  

Houlahan is an Air Force veteran, engineer, entrepreneur, educator, and nonprofit leader. She also serves on the House Armed Services Committee, the House Foreign Affairs Committee, and the House Small Business Committee.

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