This past Sunday, John Kirby, the National Security Council spokesman, continued to press the “Armageddon” narrative that was issued by President Joe Biden late last week.
While making an appearance on ABC’s “This Week,” Kirby attempted to defend the comments issued by Biden while the president spoke at a Democratic Party fundraiser that suggested that the United States is now on the verge of being forced into nuclear-level conflict.
“The president was reflecting the very high stakes that are in play right now,” stated Kirby to the show’s host, Martha Raddatz. “When you have modern nuclear power and the leader of that modern nuclear power willing to use irresponsible rhetoric the way that Mr. Putin has several times in just the last week or two, as well as the high tensions in Ukraine over just the course of the last few days. So the president, I think, was accurately reflecting the fact that the stakes are very high right now.”
“The president was accurately reflecting the fact that the stakes are very high right now.”
National Security Council spokesman John Kirby tells @MarthaRaddatz that Pres. Biden’s warning about nuclear weapons follows Putin’s “irresponsible rhetoric.” https://t.co/AVno0YUpZU pic.twitter.com/MOEyFS3mj4
— This Week (@ThisWeekABC) October 9, 2022
While speaking at a Democrat fundraising event held at the home of James Murdoch, a media investor, Biden issued a warning that Russian President Vladimir Putin is “not jokes” when it comes to the possibility of using “tactical nuclear weapons or biological or chemical weapons because his military is, you might say, significantly underperforming.”
“We have not faced the prospect of Armageddon since Kennedy and the Cuban missile crisis,” stated Biden. “[W]e have a direct threat of the use of nuclear weapons if in fact things continue down the path they are going.”
This warning from the president takes place in the wake of an announcement from the U.S. federal government of the $290 million purchase of Nplate, a drug used to treat severe radiation sickness.
An announcement from the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) spoke about the purchase this past week from Amgen, a California-based company.
“This is part of our ongoing work for preparedness and radiological security,” stated one spokesperson for the department in a release. “It has not been accelerated by the situation in Ukraine.”
These comments from Biden take place just after a report came to life from the U.K. Telegraph that a Russian military train has been reportedly transporting equipment for the nuclear weapons program of the country out to the frontlines of its war against Ukraine, kicking off fears that Russian President Vladimir Putin might be getting ready to make use of his nuclear stockpile on the battlefield as his military continues to mount heavy losses.
The report from the Telegraph stated that the train is “operated by the secretive nuclear division and linked to the 12th main directorate of the Russian ministry of defence.”