Congressman Mike Garcia, R-Santa Clarita spoke on-air with KHTS Tuesday to discuss the invasion of Ukraine.

On Tuesday, Garcia spoke on-air with KHTS for the first time after Russia invaded Ukraine last Wednesday.

While sanctions have been put on Russia, Garcia feels that is not enough to stop Russian President Vladimir Putin from “bullying” the country of Ukraine.

“Sanctions are not what is needed in order to dissuade Putin from behaving this way,” Garcia said. “Putin is a bad guy, he is a bully, he is a tyrant, he has at his disposal one of the largest arsenals of conventional as well as nuclear weapons, and he is clearly abusing that.”

While some have been calling the battle between the two countries as war, Garcia feels that the current situation is far worse than a simple conflict between two nations.

“What we are seeing in Ukraine is actually not war, it’s actually a genocide of Ukrainians at the hands of the Russians. And in many cases, the Russian troops don’t know why they are fighting or why they are there. They are texting back home while they’re dying saying, ‘I didn’t know it was going to be like this.’ Putin needs to be hit over the head with a hammer and not treated with kid gloves.”

Garcia also spoke on Governor Gavin Newsom ending the California State of Emergency which is expected to end at the end of the month.

“It’s long overdue,” Garcia said. “I supported the State of Emergency early on when we saw some of the spikes in COVID infections and death rates, and when we saw our hospitals being inundated.”

However, now that COVID-19 cases are starting to drop, Garcia feels things should go back to normal.

“I think the data is showing we can get back to business as usual,” Garcia said. “We should not be masking our kids right now, we surely should not be kicking kids out of school for not wearing masks.”

To hear Congressman Garcia’s full interview and additional information on the Ukraine invasion, click here.

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