By Dana Milbank
Columnist |
Yesterday at 8:49 p.m. EST|Updated yesterday at 11:45 p.m. EST
Russian President Vladimir Putin at the Kremlin in Moscow on March 1. (Alexei Nikolsky, Sputnik, Kremlin Pool via AP)
After her fellow Republicans booted her from party leadership last year, Rep. Liz Cheney posed a question: “Do we hate our political adversaries more than we love our country?”
Now, with Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine, Republicans are answering that question — in the affirmative.
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The dictator is betting that division within the United States will sap American resolve and thereby sow disunity between the United States and European democracies — allowing him to crush Ukraine’s democracy and potentially others. And Republicans are giving him what he wants. They are so determined to see President Biden fail that they would let President Putin succeed.
Tuesday night’s State of the Union address, coming six days after Russia started the biggest war in Europe since 1944, offered a timely opportunity to showcase national unity for Putin, and the world. During a similar address to Congress after the 9/11 attacks, President George W. Bush enveloped Democratic congressional leaders in bear hugs. But this time, a number of Republicans boycotted Biden’s address, ostensibly because they objected to getting tested for the coronavirus.
Biden’s State of the Union speech, in 3 minutes
President Biden delivered his first State of the Union address on March 1. (The Washington Post)
Post columnists live-chatted Biden’s State of the Union address. Read their commentary.
Those in the chamber rose to applaud the Ukrainian ambassador, and many wore Ukraine’s yellow and blue. But as Biden extolled national unity — “He thought he could divide us at home, in this chamber, in this nation. … But Putin was wrong." — Republican lawmakers sniped at him on Twitter.
“Joe Biden sought to appease Vladimir Putin from the very beginning,” wrote Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Tex.). “Biden is empowering our enemies.”
“The United States is back to leading from behind under President Biden,” tweeted Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.). “This is the second time Putin has invaded a foreign country while Joe Biden has been in the White House.”
How deep was the contempt? As Biden mentioned the cancers that kill many U.S. veterans, including his own son Beau, Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-Colo.) heckled the president.
GOP leaders had set the blame-Biden tone earlier in the day. Rep. Michael McCaul (Tex.), the top Republican on the House Foreign Affairs Committee, likened Biden’s actions toward Russia to Neville Chamberlain’s appeasement of Hitler, saying, “We have a weak president, and he’s creating a very dangerous world.”
Michael Gerson
counterpointBiden should seize this State of the Union moment to rebrand
Also Tuesday, Rep. Elise Stefanik (N.Y.), the No. 3 House GOP leader, said Biden “failed to engage in meaningful deterrence against Russian aggression,” and asserted that “the war on Ukraine represents one of the greatest foreign policy failures in modern history.”
House GOP leader Kevin McCarthy (Calif.) and Rep. Steve Scalise (La.), the House GOP whip, amplified the attacks on Biden over Ukraine. And Sen. John Barrasso (Wyo.), head of the Senate Republican Conference, said Biden’s “policies from Day One have enabled, emboldened Vladimir Putin to do what he has done,” adding that it’s “as if Vladimir Putin were Joe Biden’s secretary of energy.”
Some Republican candidates have even been fundraising off calling Biden “weak” on Ukraine.
The relentless assault no doubt undermines Biden — but it also weakens America. Biden’s response — the U.S. response — can be only as strong as Republicans allow. By sabotaging the commander in chief, Republican leaders have made it more difficult to rally the nation to accept wartime sacrifices (accepting higher energy prices or, potentially, lost American lives).
A poll released Monday by Yahoo News-YouGov shows how corrosive the Republican assaults on Biden have been. Though Americans overwhelmingly call the Ukraine invasion unjustified, Trump voters actually had a more favorable opinion of Putin than of Biden. Ninety-five percent of Trump voters expressed an unfavorable view of Biden (including 87 percent holding a very unfavorable view), compared with 78 percent of Trump voters expressing an unfavorable view of Putin (60 percent very unfavorable). Only 3 percent of Trump voters said Biden is “doing a better job leading his country” than Putin, while 47 percent said the dictator, who has brought isolation and economic crisis to Russia, is doing a better job than Biden.
This shouldn’t be surprising. Trump, while opposing the Ukraine invasion, has called “peacekeeper” Putin’s actions “very savvy,” “genius” and “smart,” while “our leaders are dumb.”
Opinion by Jennifer Rubin: Biden’s State of the Union speech packs plenty of emotion into an hour
That’s a bit rich, after Trump threatened to blow up NATO, unsuccessfully tried to persuade other world leaders to readmit Russia to the Group of Seven and infamously tried to condition military aid to Ukraine on the country’s willingness to provide Trump with political dirt on Democrats. Republican lawmakers defended Trump by parroting Russian propaganda falsely blaming Ukraine for 2016 U.S. election sabotage, which Russia actually did.
But this isn’t the time to point fingers at political opponents. It’s time to confront the real enemy. Do Republican leaders know the difference?
In the official GOP response to the State of the Union, Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds picked up the blame-Biden theme, accusing him of “focusing on political correctness rather than military readiness” before the Ukraine invasion. “Weakness on the world stage has a cost," she charged.
It does. And Republicans, by undermining Biden in a time of war, risk making America pay.
Columnist |
Yesterday at 8:49 p.m. EST|Updated yesterday at 11:45 p.m. EST
Russian President Vladimir Putin at the Kremlin in Moscow on March 1. (Alexei Nikolsky, Sputnik, Kremlin Pool via AP)
After her fellow Republicans booted her from party leadership last year, Rep. Liz Cheney posed a question: “Do we hate our political adversaries more than we love our country?”
Now, with Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine, Republicans are answering that question — in the affirmative.
Opinions to start the day, in your inbox. Sign up.
The dictator is betting that division within the United States will sap American resolve and thereby sow disunity between the United States and European democracies — allowing him to crush Ukraine’s democracy and potentially others. And Republicans are giving him what he wants. They are so determined to see President Biden fail that they would let President Putin succeed.
Tuesday night’s State of the Union address, coming six days after Russia started the biggest war in Europe since 1944, offered a timely opportunity to showcase national unity for Putin, and the world. During a similar address to Congress after the 9/11 attacks, President George W. Bush enveloped Democratic congressional leaders in bear hugs. But this time, a number of Republicans boycotted Biden’s address, ostensibly because they objected to getting tested for the coronavirus.
Biden’s State of the Union speech, in 3 minutes
President Biden delivered his first State of the Union address on March 1. (The Washington Post)
Post columnists live-chatted Biden’s State of the Union address. Read their commentary.
Those in the chamber rose to applaud the Ukrainian ambassador, and many wore Ukraine’s yellow and blue. But as Biden extolled national unity — “He thought he could divide us at home, in this chamber, in this nation. … But Putin was wrong." — Republican lawmakers sniped at him on Twitter.
“Joe Biden sought to appease Vladimir Putin from the very beginning,” wrote Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Tex.). “Biden is empowering our enemies.”
“The United States is back to leading from behind under President Biden,” tweeted Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.). “This is the second time Putin has invaded a foreign country while Joe Biden has been in the White House.”
How deep was the contempt? As Biden mentioned the cancers that kill many U.S. veterans, including his own son Beau, Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-Colo.) heckled the president.
GOP leaders had set the blame-Biden tone earlier in the day. Rep. Michael McCaul (Tex.), the top Republican on the House Foreign Affairs Committee, likened Biden’s actions toward Russia to Neville Chamberlain’s appeasement of Hitler, saying, “We have a weak president, and he’s creating a very dangerous world.”
Michael Gerson
counterpointBiden should seize this State of the Union moment to rebrand
Also Tuesday, Rep. Elise Stefanik (N.Y.), the No. 3 House GOP leader, said Biden “failed to engage in meaningful deterrence against Russian aggression,” and asserted that “the war on Ukraine represents one of the greatest foreign policy failures in modern history.”
House GOP leader Kevin McCarthy (Calif.) and Rep. Steve Scalise (La.), the House GOP whip, amplified the attacks on Biden over Ukraine. And Sen. John Barrasso (Wyo.), head of the Senate Republican Conference, said Biden’s “policies from Day One have enabled, emboldened Vladimir Putin to do what he has done,” adding that it’s “as if Vladimir Putin were Joe Biden’s secretary of energy.”
Some Republican candidates have even been fundraising off calling Biden “weak” on Ukraine.
The relentless assault no doubt undermines Biden — but it also weakens America. Biden’s response — the U.S. response — can be only as strong as Republicans allow. By sabotaging the commander in chief, Republican leaders have made it more difficult to rally the nation to accept wartime sacrifices (accepting higher energy prices or, potentially, lost American lives).
A poll released Monday by Yahoo News-YouGov shows how corrosive the Republican assaults on Biden have been. Though Americans overwhelmingly call the Ukraine invasion unjustified, Trump voters actually had a more favorable opinion of Putin than of Biden. Ninety-five percent of Trump voters expressed an unfavorable view of Biden (including 87 percent holding a very unfavorable view), compared with 78 percent of Trump voters expressing an unfavorable view of Putin (60 percent very unfavorable). Only 3 percent of Trump voters said Biden is “doing a better job leading his country” than Putin, while 47 percent said the dictator, who has brought isolation and economic crisis to Russia, is doing a better job than Biden.
This shouldn’t be surprising. Trump, while opposing the Ukraine invasion, has called “peacekeeper” Putin’s actions “very savvy,” “genius” and “smart,” while “our leaders are dumb.”
Opinion by Jennifer Rubin: Biden’s State of the Union speech packs plenty of emotion into an hour
That’s a bit rich, after Trump threatened to blow up NATO, unsuccessfully tried to persuade other world leaders to readmit Russia to the Group of Seven and infamously tried to condition military aid to Ukraine on the country’s willingness to provide Trump with political dirt on Democrats. Republican lawmakers defended Trump by parroting Russian propaganda falsely blaming Ukraine for 2016 U.S. election sabotage, which Russia actually did.
But this isn’t the time to point fingers at political opponents. It’s time to confront the real enemy. Do Republican leaders know the difference?
In the official GOP response to the State of the Union, Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds picked up the blame-Biden theme, accusing him of “focusing on political correctness rather than military readiness” before the Ukraine invasion. “Weakness on the world stage has a cost," she charged.
It does. And Republicans, by undermining Biden in a time of war, risk making America pay.
