GOP Rep. Scott: Biden gave Putin 'hall pass' to invade Ukraine, showed 'weakness' in Afghanistan

Representative Austin Scott (R-Ga.) criticized President Joe Biden for giving Russia a "hall pass" to invade Ukraine, and said Russian President Vladimir Putin is "exploiting" Biden's "weakness" shown in Afghanistan.

Biden in January seemingly shrugged off a potential Russian invasion when he said, "It's one thing if it's a minor incursion and we fight about what to do."

"That's almost a hall pass or permission ticket that the President of the United States gave Vladimir Putin to move as long as he doesn't do anything big. It was a serious mistake," Scott said.

Biden showed "weakness" and "opened the door for Vladimir Putin to do what he intended to do anyway," Scott said Wednesday evening during the "Just the News" show with editor-in-chief John Solomon and co-host Amanda Head.

He also slammed the president for his actions during the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan.

"Not only did it show weakness, with regard to how we would handle things in Afghanistan… it's pretty clear that the President [and] the Secretary of State ignored the advice of our military leaders, which is a dangerous thing to do," he noted. 

Had Biden listened to his military advisors and had an "honest discussion" with our Afghan allies, Scott said, "We would not be in the current situation there."

Scott noted that Putin is a former KGB agent. "He believes in killing his enemies. He's smart enough to read into what's going on there," the congressman said. "He saw the weakness, and he's exploiting it."

The U.S. should have already put some of the sanctions in place, according to Scott.

"Russia is going to pay a price for an incursion into that country. And we need to make sure that he understands that it's a big price, not a small price," Scott said.

"Putin intends to reset both the economic situation in Europe and the security situation in Europe," the representative added. "Everything he is doing is going to have a tremendous impact on NATO in all of Europe."

He slammed the Biden administration for not arming Ukraine "at a much faster pace with much better weapons."

Biden announced Wednesday morning that he has directed the Pentagon to deploy 3,000 American service members to Europe.