'Those comments were reckless': Pompeo slams Biden's 'Armageddon' remarks

Former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said Sunday that President Joe Biden was "reckless" in warning last week about the possible use of nuclear weapons by President Vladimir Putin and Russia.

"Those comments were reckless," said Pompeo, who served in the Cabinet of former President Donald Trump, on "Fox News Sunday," calling Biden's statements "a terrible risk to the American people."

In recent weeks, Putin has hinted at the use of nuclear weapons against Ukraine, saying Russia would employ "all available means" to protect its territory, including land recently annexed by Russia.

“We have not faced the prospect of Armageddon since Kennedy and the Cuban Missile Crisis,” Biden said Thursday during a fundraiser, referencing the October 1962 crisis that put the United States and the Soviet Union on the verge of nuclear war for almost two weeks.

On Sunday, speaking on ABC's "This Week," National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby said: "The president was reflecting the very high stakes that are in play right now."

Kirby added in reference to Putin: "Neither we nor our allies are going to be intimidated by this and we're going to continue to provide support and security assistance to Ukraine as is necessary."

Pompeo said the Biden administration would have been better off using "quiet diplomacy" in pushing Putin to understand the consequences of using nuclear weapons. "I hope that they are doing this quietly," he said to host Shannon Bream.

In discussing Saturday's blast on the Kerch Bridge connecting Russia with the Crimea, territory that Putin annexed in 2014, Pompeo said: "My guess is that the Ukrainians had something to do with it."

Pompeo said that no matter who damaged that bridge, the attack represented a symbolic defeat for Putin, noting that the bridge was opened with great ceremony by Putin in May 2018. “In different historical epochs ... people dreamed of building this bridge,” Putin said to the workers at the time. “Then they returned to this in the 1930s, the '40s, the '50s. And finally, thanks to your work and your talent, the miracle has happened.”

On Sunday, Pompeo said the attack on the bridge was another sign of how disastrously bad that the Russian war against Ukraine has gone.

"The Russian military is failing desperately," Pompeo said.

Rep. Don Bacon (R-Neb.) also saw Putin's situation as increasingly desperate.

"I do think Vladimir Putin is a cornered animal," he said on NBC's "Meet the Press." "I think he is right now unpredictable, unstable. He is getting beat in Ukraine, piece by piece, and he's being embarrassed."

But former Gen. Wesley Clark, who formerly served as the Supreme Allied Commander Europe of NATO, said he saw Putin's threatening language as an attempt to drive a wedge in the West and encourage Western leaders to seek a negotiated settlement that would legitimize Putin's seizure of land from Ukraine.

"When Putin said no one could win a nuclear war, OK then why is he threatening a nuclear war?" Clark said on CNN's "Fareed Zakaria GPS."

"Because this is basically a psychological effort against the United States, and men like Donald Trump are picking it up and they want to undercut the will and resolve of the West to assist the Ukrainians in this fight. "