CNN’s Jake Tapper pressed Secretary of State Antony Blinken to provide an explanation for what the U.S. executive is going to do about Elon Musk after he refused to provide Starlink get right of entry to to the Ukrainian armed forces for their operations towards Russia.
Blinken joined Tapper on Sunday for State of the Union, the place he used to be asked about Musk’s contemporary admission that he blocked Starlink get right of entry to in Crimea, disrupting Ukraine’s communications as they starting off an assault in opposition to the Russian navy in 2022. Ukrainian officials condemned Musk through arguing that his decision authorised extra civilian casualties from Russia’s invasion, whereas Musk has argued that the assault would’ve been an important escalation for the conflict, and “We didn’t wish to be a part of that.”
As Tapper recapped all of this for Blinken, he summarized it as “Musk successfully sabotaged a military operation via Ukraine, a U.S. ally, towards Russia, an aggressor u . s ., that invaded a U.S. ally.”
“Will have to there be repercussions for that?” Tapper requested.
Blinken punted with his resolution:
Jake, I will be able to’t discuss to a selected episode. Here’s what I will tell you. Starlink has been a very important tool for the Ukrainians so as to be in contact with each and every other, and in particular for the defense force to keep in touch of their effort to protect all of Ukraine’s territory. It is still so and I might expect it to be important to their efforts. What we might hope and expect is that that technology will stay fully on hand to the Ukrainians. It is important to what they’re doing.
“I don’t be aware of that you may’t discuss to it. You received’t speak to it,” Tapper observed. “Musk stated that he was reportedly afraid that Russia would rally with nuclear weapons. Musk says that’s in response to his personal discussions he had with senior Russian officers. Are you involved that Musk is it seems that conducting his personal diplomatic outreach to the Russian executive? In reality? None of this issues you?”
Once more, Blinken declined to discuss “conversations that can or may not have took place,” choosing as an alternative to praise Starlink’s usefulness to Ukraine.
“Starlink is a very powerful a part of their success, and as I said, we think that it’s going to continue to be so,” Blinken mentioned.
“It feels like Starlink is so important the U.S. govt doesn’t want to risk offending a capricious billionaire who did some things that I feel in another scenario, the U.S. executive would possibly need to say something about,” Tapper stated.
Watch above by way of CNN.
The post ‘None of This Concerns You?’ Jake Tapper Presses Blinken For Tip-Toeing After Musk ‘Sabotaged’ Ukrainian Offensive Against Russia first regarded on Mediaite.