Senator McCain on Ukraine Protests

Joining me now, Senator John McCain, uh, who I know,

Senator, you have just addressed, uh, the crowd of protesters there yourself in,

in Kiev. What, what is it y- you're trying to do here?

Hopefully what we are trying to do is bring about a peaceful

transition here that, uh, would stop the violence, would

give the

Ukrainian people, uh, what they unfortunately have not h- with

different res- revolutions that have taken place, a, uh, a

real legitimate society. This is a, uh, grassroots, uh,

uh, revolution here. It's been peaceful except for

when the government

tried to crack down on them, and the government hasn't done that since.

Uh, but I'm praising, uh, their,

their ability and their desire to demonstrate peacefully for

change that, uh, I think they deserve.

Let me ask you this about the US role.

I know that you have wanted, uh, the administration, uh,

perhaps to consider sanctions, uh, something to help boost,

uh, the anti-government protesters.

Question to you is, while we're trying to work on so many

things with the

Russians, for instance, with Iran and, uh, in Syria,

is this really a good time for the US to be taking on,

uh, Russia?

Well, I don't think that we would be taking on Russia.

And by the way, uh, I am very pleased with Secretary Kerry's

statement, uh, our, uh, Deputy Secretary Victoria Nuland,

who was here. Uh, look, th- these people love the United

States of America. They love freedom.

Uh, and I don't think you could, uh, view this as anything

but our traditional support, uh, for people who,

uh, want a free and democratic society.

Uh, we're not talking about military action.

We're not talking about blockades.

We are talking about the possibility of sanctions if they

continue to brutally repress their people.

That, that would require some action on our

part, just because that's what the

United States of America is all about.