One of the most vocal hawks in the Senate, Tom Cotton (R-Ak.), called out Joe Biden for failing to secure America's military stockpiles after the president made the startling confession that munitions are "low."

Biden admitted in CNN interview that he made the "difficult" decision to arm Ukraine with cluster bombs because America was running out of conventional weapons to send.

In an interview on Brian Kilmeade's radio show, Cotton said the conflict highlighted a deficiency in America's industrial base that Biden needs to urgently address.

"We’re not talking about large and complicated weapons systems. We’re talking about something as simple as a 155-millimeter artillery shell. These things should not take months, much less years to make," he said.

Cotton's warning

Cotton said Biden should be more aggressive about incentivizing weapons manufacturers to increase production.

"But there are certain steps that we need to take that we haven’t taken yet, like providing multi-year contracts so companies have the certainty they need to increase production rates or even add an entire new line of production," he added.

Despite his criticism of Biden's planning, Cotton has no objections to Biden giving the controversial bombs to Ukraine.

"For Ukrainian forces to defeat Putin’s invasion, Ukraine needs at least equal access to the weapons Russia already uses against them, like cluster munitions,” Cotton tweeted. “Providing this new capability is the right decision — even if it took too long — and is one I’ve supported.”

Biden, Zelensky inseparable?

"America First" isolationists like Senator J.D. Vance (R-Oh.) have reacted differently, saying Biden undermined American military readiness by prioritizing Ukraine over his own country.

Hard to believe the posture of the administration is "we ran out of conventional artillery so we're sending them cluster bombs." Looking forward to the August press release from Sleepy Joe: "we gave them all the cluster munitions so now we have to give them the H-Bomb."

— J.D. Vance (@JDVance1) July 9, 2023

Biden's national security adviser Jake Sullivan has admitted that the cluster bombs are a temporary expedient to fill production gaps.

During a meeting with Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky at the NATO summit on Wednesday, Biden renewed his promise to continue supporting Ukraine indefinitely.

“Bad news for you is we’re not going anywhere. You’re stuck with us,” Biden said.