US diplomat Richard Grenell said in an exclusive interview with Çim Peka Live on the Albanian television Syri TV that bad policy from US President Joe Biden opened the way to Russian President Vladimir Putin to invade Ukraine.

Grenell, who served as Acting Director of National Intelligence in President Donald Trump’s cabinet in 2020, said the Republicans can stop Biden’s bad policy after winning the House in the 2022 midterm elections.

Çim Peka: Mr. Grenell, good evening and thank you for finding time to talk to us in the middle of a busy agenda. There was a lot of anticipation about the midterm elections in the United States, not only in your country, but also around the world. Now that they are over, what is your general assessment about the outcome?

Richard Grenell: First of all, the votes are still being counted in several states. The good news it the Republicans have won the House of the Representatives and this means we will be able to stop all of Biden’s bad policy. You know how the American politics works: one must have the White House, the Senate, and the House; and the Republicans have won one of them. The good news is we’ll be able to stop all these bad policies of Biden.

Çim Peka: Could the House alone – having the Senate and the President against – stop these policies of President Biden that you consider as bad?  

Richard Grenell: Look, it’s gonna be a situation where we will be able to stop his bad policies, but we won’t be able to implement many from the policies like energy production, which is a big deal, we are experiencing high oil prices here in the United States. We stopped being an energy exporter because of the Biden administration. The energy production in the United States has stopped because many environmentalists have maimed the Biden administration. And we won’t be able to re-implement these policies of being an energy exporter but we will be able to stop all the policies that Biden promoted. I believe the world is experiencing high oil prices and terrible inflation because US policies were bad. I believe the old saying “When America sneeze, the world catches a cold” is still true. The inflation has peaked, the oil prices are problematic, our economy has collapsed, and it makes sense when you have a President whose policies include stopping energy production and he is implementing bad policies. I have been clear over something, the Trump administration imposed sanctions on the Russian pipeline Nord Stream II. The Biden administration with the Democrats in the Senate lifted the sanctions and soon after President Putin saw it as the green light to go to Ukraine. It is not exaggerated to say that the Biden administration and the Senate Democrats helped causing the war in Ukraine. I think it is very important to understand that the bad policies with time lead to terrible outcome. And now we see this chaotic war in Ukraine that is destabilizing the Eastern Europe, and is trying to destabilize the Balkans. Let’s be very clear, the Biden administration, along with the Senate Democrats and the Chancellor Merkel’s government lifted the sanctions on the pipeline and turned on the green light. What we’re seeing now is weak politics of the United States regarding China. The Chinese are trying to take a port in Germany and they are reading the weakness of the Biden administration. I believe that the midterm elections where the Republicans won the House will help a lot in stopping these bad policies.

Çim Peka: Mr. Grenell, what you say is interesting, but, at least in Albania and Kosovo, if you are a Trump supporter, especially in a situation like this, the media automatically tie you with Russia, you are seen as Putin supporter. Meanwhile, you just said the opposite. You said that lifting Nord Stream sanctions gave Putin the possibility to invade Ukraine. Also, it is true that Biden’s presidency made America dependent on imported energy rather than domestic. He’s also making agreements and extending his hand to dictators like the one in Venezuela, when only a little time ago the United States had put a $15 million price tag on his head. You could convince the world about the real rapport of the Biden administration with Russia, and of the Trump administration with Russia. Because, at least in Albania, if someone tries to defend Trump’s ideas, they are branded as pro-Russian.

Richard Grenell: I believe this is something some of the American media tried to do, pushing this image of Trump with Russia, but we saw this narrative fail. If you look at the facts, it was the Biden administration that lifted the sanctions, causing all this chaos in the whole Europe. You must look the destabilization of Ukraine and ask how this could happen under President Biden and why it did not happen under President Trump. And there is a simple answer, because put sanctions on the pipeline and it would not continue further and President Putin was very mad at that. Putin was very happy when Biden lifted the sanctions. Trump always said he would never want to have bad relations with China or Russia only to be a problem to them, we want to have good relations with them, we want to stand for our values and policies. President Trump stood strong and put sanctions on the pipeline, and people must check facts, they don’t need to trust my word for that, they may check and find out who lifted the sanctions. It was Joe Biden and the Democrats in the Senate.

Çim Peka: I am telling a detail. During the Trump administration, journalists in Albania were invited in the US Embassy in Tirana and they had the impression that supporting Donald Trump was like winking to Russia. I have supported and sympathized President Trump, but I’d like to have your guarantees, how far from Vladimir Putin does it keep me?

Richard Grenell: The truth is I meet people and I’d beg them to see facts instead of listening to what the Democrats or the media say. President Trumps’s policies were strong and sent powerful messages to Putin that he could not afford to be hostile, because we would oppose to him. Why do we have war in Ukraine under Biden and we didn’t under Trump? Russia and Putin seized Crimea when Obama was in power and Biden was his vice president. We tell people to see facts, you want to have a strong president that can stand, but also one that can focus on economy. When I worked with the negotiations between Serbia and Kosovo, we had four economic agreements, an all-inclusive agreement of Trump to focus on economy and not fight politically all the time. That would give jobs and hope for the future to the youth, good jobs that paid well, and less war. When one has no job, no money, suddenly they speak about politics all the time and get mad. Trump is a fantastic businessman. He became president because he wanted to support these policies of economic freedom. I will close with this. Remember that Donald Trump was not paid as US President, and I don’t even remember how much a president is paid, over 400,000 dollars, but he did not receive his salary. He worked free and generally the media ignored the fact, they did not show that to the people and some people now are surprised that President Trump was not paid for his job. He also became less rich when he was president, because he left his businesses and did not make any profits, and this is very different from the other politicians.

Most politicians take power and become richer, whereas Donald Trump may be the only president that became less rich. He focused on the economic aid to the people. The establishment in Washington DC hates him, the media hate him, because they want him to play by the old rules, by which they control and have the power. But I believe the American people want a warrior.

Çim Peka: However, the accusations for President Trump’s collusion with Russia started in 2016. When I, as a Trump supporter, said to my colleagues in Tirana that these were baseless allegations, because Albania knew Russia well after our past ties with them, my colleagues responded that between my logic and US officials in Tirana they chose to believe the latter. Did the Trump administration have control over the Department of State? I recall that in 2017 the US Ambassador in Tirana, appointed by Trump, spoke about problems in the 2016 elections, taking as an example the vote alteration. So, did President Trump have control over the Department of State?

Richard Grenell: Look, the only think I’d say is that America is a huge country with a lot of diversity, where we have many opinions. I believe it is a good thing to have many opinions. I don’t want to speak who did what, who was in control, but I want to say we believe we have a president at any time. Now we have President Biden and before him we had President Trump. Simply put, I say you must always trust the US officials. We have a system of checks and balances for the US officials. We have the media, several persons, different government levels, and I believe that the Government of the United States speaks in one single voice. Maybe when you are outside the US government, like I am, you are free to criticize the government, which is what I am doing now. I am speaking critically for the Biden administration, but I believe we have only one president at any time. Joe Biden is the President and Anthony Blinken is the Secretary of State, and their representatives in Tirana should always be trusted. You must know that I support them fully, but when I am out of the government I can also criticize their policies.

Çim Peka: Let’s talk about the elections. A Red Wave was expected but did not happen. Did the Republican Party perform worse than anticipated in the midterm elections?

Richard Grenell: I think we were expecting to win the Senate in addition to the House of the Representatives but we lost it for very little. Winning the House is a success. The wave was not as big as we hoped, but it was absolutely a red wave. We won the House, we control an aspect of the government and we can shut down bad policies. It is a big win, absolutely, but I believe that the media is always against President Donald Trump and the candidates supported from him and they will say ‘you wanted to take the Senate and the House, and this is a failure’. But I believe we are here now and if the Republicans would not have control over the House it would have been a failure. Now we have control over a branch of the executive and this is a big win and we are proud for that.

Çim Peka: Mr. Grenell, most of the candidates had President Trumps personal support, but the Senate wasn’t won. Could this be considered as the lowest political point of President Trump since 2016, because in 2020 there was talk of rigged elections. We’re talking about accepted elections. In 2016, he won, in 2022 the candidates supported by him did not win the majority. Could this be Donald Trump’s lowest political point?

Richard Grenell: No, look. There are many persons in the media that spin everything around Donald Trump, but the reality wins the White House, like Joe Biden did in 2020; the midterm elections historically win seats in the Senate. It’s a fact. If you turn back and look at the first midterm elections, we would have to win seats in the Senate, but it did not happen. We are in the point where we could be 50/50 in the Senate, which is more or less where we were before. We’ll never know until the end of the race in Georgia. Some people think this has to do only with Donald Trump, but his name wasn’t on the ballot paper. He supported a few candidates that won and he has many victories. But, did he reach an excellent outcome this time? No, he didn’t have such a result. He supported a few persons that almost won. In fact, this was a referendum for Joe Biden and we won the House, which Joe Biden lost, and Donald Trump’s candidates helped in the victory.

Çim Peka: It was a referendum for Joe Biden, but he is the President with the narrowest defeat in the midterm elections, because historically in the United States the President loses the midterm elections. How is possible that Joe Biden, considered as a very weak president, loses much less than his predecessors in this economic crisis and global situation?

Richard Grenell: I believe I answered to this question already.

Çim Peka: From your Twitter, you seem genuinely happy with the performance of Governor DeSantis, when only on day before the elections President Trump was harsh on him. Who will Richard Grenell support for the 2024 president elections, DeSantis or Donald Trump?

Richard Grenell: I support President Trump, he is the leader of the Republican Party and there’s no doubt about that. I’m not sure whether there are persons that will run against him. There’s a lot of speculation in the media, but Donald Trump – we’ll see what he’ll do tomorrow – if Donald Trump runs, he will be the most popular candidate among the Republicans and he will be the Republican nominee.

Çim Peka: So we can expect an announcement from Trump tomorrow?

Richard Grenell: He is expected to make an announcement tomorrow.

Çim Peka: Mr. Grenell, the last question. What must the Republicans do to win in 2024?

Richard Grenell: 2024 needs still some time to come. What we should be able to do now is stopping some of the bad policies of Joe Biden. We must heal the economy, and is we have the American economy recovered and we articulate how to do that, with the energy production, lower taxes, easier rules, I believe we can do it. The world sees clearly the difference between the economy under Trump administration and under Biden administration, which is the difference between the Republicans and the Democrats. I believe the whole world wishes to have a Trump economy. There would be no wars, we’d have lower oil prices, lower inflation, and more money in the middle class Americans’ pockets.

Çim Peka: Mr. Grenell, thank you very much.

Richard Grenell: Thank you, and all the best.