Trumpublicans have gone down the rabbit hole, deeper, deeper, through the middle of the Earth, and out the other side. Into Bizarro World.
Bess Levin at Vanity Fair:
For many weeks now, Republican lawmakers have been criticizing Joe Biden for supposedly being too weak to stop Vladimir Putin’s actions in Ukraine, which on Tuesday the White House officially declared an “invasion.” It’s a peculiar stance for conservatives to take given that Donald Trump spent four years acting like the Putin was his boss, and on Tuesday, literally praised the Russian president and called his actions in Ukraine “genius.” No, really!
During an interview with a conservative radio hosts, and after his traditional evocation of a stolen election, Donald Trump praised Vladimir Putin for his tactical brilliance. Declaring a portion of Ukraine independent was “wonderful,” “genius,” and “savvy.”
“I said, ‘How smart is that?’” Trump added.
“And he’s gonna go in and be a peacekeeper. That’s the strongest peace force. We could use that on our southern border. That’s the strongest peace force I’ve ever seen. There were more army tanks than I’ve ever seen. They’re gonna keep peace all right.”
Tanks. Lots of tanks. Way more strongly than AR-15s in Trump’s authoritarian mind. When Russian tanks are rolling down the streets of Kyiv, Trump will no doubt watch them on playback as he did rioters on Jan. 6, 2021.
And the reaction from other Republicans?
Several Republicans insisted Tuesday that Ukraine is all President Biden’s fault and “never would have happened under their big, strong piece of man meat, Donald Trump,” wrote Levin in a second post:
Claiming that “Biden becoming president is the best thing that ever happened…for Vladimir Putin,” Senator Ted Cruz told Fox News on Sunday that “Europe is on the verge of war because of the weakness, the fecklessness of Joe Biden.” The Texas lawmaker, who has been happy to do his part to spread Russian propaganda that benefits a man who claimed Cruz’s own father helped kill JFK, followed that up with a press release on Monday declaring that “Biden–Harris officials are to an enormous extent directly responsible for this crisis.”
Echoing those comments on Monday was Marco Rubio who, incidentally, has reportedly been happy to accept political donations from Len Blavatnik, a billionaire with “longstanding ties to oligarchs close to” Putin. Without referring to the president by name, though the reference was more than clear, the senator from Florida tweeted: “Weakness always invites aggression. And weakness in response to aggression always invites others to be aggressive as well.” Senator John Barrasso told Fox News last week that Biden “talked tough but Putin doesn’t respect statements, he only respects strength,” claiming the president of Russia “views President Biden as weak and ineffective and indecisive.” In January, Senator Tom Cotton blamed Putin’s aggression on “a year of Joe Biden’s impotence and incompetence towards Russia in particular and in foreign policy more generally,” somehow forgetting that Trump spent four years passionately kissing Putin’s ass.
Less-crazy House Republicans used their media access to condemn Putin’s invasion of Ukraine as “reprehensible” before blaming Biden for choosing appeasement over actions (Trump clearly would not have taken). Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell and Republican Senator Lindsey Graham were more focused on stopping Putin. Graham shook off his Trumpophilia long enough to lend his support to Biden.
“We have one president at a time,” Graham said. “President Biden is the president of the United States. And to the extent that I can help him push back against Putin and bring stability to the world, I will gladly do so.”
Meanwhile, in Bizarro World….
Fox News, Rupert Murdoch’s conservative propaganda network, began Tuesday by blaming Putin’s aggression on President Biden. But by Tuesday evening, Tucker Carlson was defending Vladimir Putin’s character. He blamed Americans’ supposed “hatred” of Putin on domestic propaganda, and Putin-hatred for sparking what could become the largest land war in Europe since 1945. Carlson implied viewers should turn their hatred for Putin onto fellow Americans.
No word yet if Carlson plans to begin labeling broad swaths of Americans “cockroaches.”
Update: Missed this.
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