Buck Sexton on conservatives' split on Russian invasion: US military intervention 'a bright red line'

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Buck Sexton on conservatives' Ukraine intervention policy divide

Radio host and former CIA analyst talks to Fox News Digital at CPAC

ORLANDO, Fla. – Former CIA analyst and syndicated radio host Buck Sexton spoke to Fox News Digital at CPAC about the policy divide among conservatives in regard to whether or not – or in what capacity – to intervene in the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

There's been a divide between the pro-interventionist position, and the opposing view held by people like Donald Trump, who is apprehensive of direct American involvement. 

Sexton, host of the "Clay Travis and Buck Sexton Show" weekdays at 12 PM ET, said foreign policy is indeed a complicated issue, adding he falls more on the noninterventionist side of the argument, militarily speaking.

"There are many ways you can come at something like the U.S. role as an outside power, but the preeminent power still in the world – at least until Biden is through with us – to deal with something like Ukraine," he said.

Conservative radio host and former CIA analyst Buck Sexton speaks with Fox News at CPAC in Orlando, Fla., (Fox News Digital)

"I would say that I tend to fall much more strongly on, and believe very strongly in, a more noninterventionist approach, which was not always my view of the world. But, having worked at the CIA as an analyst for years on Iraq and Afghanistan and seeing what's going on there in those countries and seeing 20 years of U.S. military interventions around the world – and what that has created for us and what the end results have been – I think we should be very slow to do that as a general principle."

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(Presidents Putin, Biden and Zelenskyy (composite illustration))

"And, more specifically on the issue of Russia, when you're talking about an advanced military that obviously has an enormous nuclear arsenal as well, that raises the stakes even more," he added.

Russia's position as a major nuclear power also should give observers pause, Sexton argued, citing the potential costs of an intervention gone wrong.

"So while I understand the desire to help people who are fighting for their own sovereignty and sending weapons and taking financial sanction actions are things that I do support – I think we have to draw a very hard line, and a big, bright red one at that, against U.S. military engaging against the Russians," he said.

Asked about Fox News reporting on Russian President Vladimir Putin raising the alert status for his nuclear forces to "special regime of combat duty", Sexton said the nuclear threat is indeed the "ultimate reprisal" the ex-KGB agent has against the West.

"When you're dealing with a power like Russia that doesn't just have some access to nuclear technology, but has had it for many decades and has advanced delivery systems, has low-yield nuclear weapons, has a whole array of forces and force options they can use, Putin understands that," he said. "And so at a very basic level, this is of course meant to give us and the rest of the West pause before doing anything."

Sexton compared Putin mentioning nuclear capabilities to a patron in a Wild West-era saloon quietly but noticeably tapping his holstered gun.

"[He's] reminding you that it's there," Sexton said. "He's trying to show that he has this capability and wants everyone to keep that in mind."

The question is, in Putin's case, whether it is indeed simply a message of warning, or a true indication of his future plan to take such drastic actions, he added.

Russian President Vladimir Putin (R) looks at U.S. President Bill Clinton (L) before the start of their second meeting June 4 in Catherine's Hall in the Kremlin. (WM)

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[Putin] doesn't want to nuke Ukraine. He wants to control Ukraine, so any usage of nuclear weapons would be catastrophic in a way that we can't even describe in this interview," he said. 

Sexton added that, in terms of previous conflicts in Eastern Europe, interventions in Yugoslavia, Bosnia and the like, there was no nuclear weapons factor. So, that now raises the tensions in a much different way.

In terms of how President Biden has approached the invasion, Sexton said it is clear the White House believed they had a much stronger hand against Putin and approached the former secret police official with a "degree of arrogance," before being forced to hasten his timeline like the rest of NATO.

There was also no reason to wait on executing more serious sanctions, such as those icing out Russia from the international SWIFT banking system, he said, later adding that the Democrats had already painted themselves into a political corner by spending years claiming Trump was the American leader who was in Putin's pocket.

NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg, accompanied by then-Vice President Mike Pence and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi addresses a Joint Meeting of Congress (AP Photo/Patrick Semansky)

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"Well, then you have a Democrat, Joe Biden, who's supposed to be a steady hand on foreign policy, unless you actually know what he's done for 40 years in foreign policy, and we see that within the first year of a Democrat administration, you have a full-scale invasion of Ukraine," he said.

Regarding Biden's previous foreign policy challenge in Afghanistan, the former CIA analyst said it was more a case of "bad implementation and execution."

"It wasn't that they made the decision to pull out. It was the way that it was conducted and the enormous mess when it came to the assessment of whether the Afghans were going to continue the fight at some level," Sexton said.

As President Xi Jinping watches the Russian invasion of Ukraine closely, as it has long wanted to take control of Taiwan – which it considers a "breakaway province" – Sexton said it is difficult to gauge whether the current invasion would accelerate any potential timeline in Xi's mind in regard to Taiwan.

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Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen delivers a speech during National Day celebrations in front of the Presidential Building in Taipei, Taiwan, Thursday, Oct. 10, 2019. (AP Photo/Chiang Ying-ying)

"I think the Chinese understand that they are in a position … to subvert the sanctions that the West is trying here. And this is a test run," Sexton said.

"How well does the West stay together? How much economic pain, real sanctions, the kind that would stop the Russian war machine here or at least change the calculation behind it, would hurt us too economically for a period of time? This is not a one-way street. There would be challenges because of Russia's position in the oil markets. So I think that China could move on this."

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Fox News' Emma Colton, Angelica Stabile and Nikolas Lanum contributed to this report.