Why is it that so many Republicans seem incapable of calling out Russian President/mass murderer Vladimir Putin for being a brutal and evil dictator whose military has committed numerous war crimes during their invasion of Ukraine?
It began with failed, one-term former President Donald Trump, who absolutely refused to say anything negative about Putin, leading some to suggest that the Russian leader had some sort of kompromat (i.e. damaging information) on the Donald.
Now, however, it seems that everywhere you look members of the GOP are making excuses for Putin and Russia, with Rand Paul even suggesting during a Senate hearing on Wednesday that talk of NATO expansion led to Russia invading Ukraine.
Also guilty of being a Putin apologist is Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA), who said this in March:
“If we truly care about suffering and death on our television screens, we cannot fund more of it by sending money and weaponry to fight a war they cannot possibly win! The only effect of more arms and more money from America will be to prolong the war!”
Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-MD) has clearly had enough, and he lit into Greene today during a floor debate on expanding President Joe Biden’s authority to arm Ukraine:
“All of these efforts to distract us from the issue at hand are meant to cover up the very clear pro-Russia and pro-Putin faction at the heart of their side of the aisle.
“Last month, in March of this year, the very distinguished gentlelady from Georgia on a radio show called The Voice of Rural America, and she followed Donald Trump’s sickening appeasement of Vladimir Putin and blamed Ukraine for the situation.”
But Congressman Raskin was far from finished, adding:
“She said, ‘You see, Ukraine just kept poking the bear, and poking the bear, which is Russia, and Russia invaded. There’s no win for Ukraine here. Russia is successful in this invasion.’
“We have members of Congress who are cheerleaders for Vladimir Putin and are voices of nothing but defeatism, fatalism, and pessimism for democracy in Europe, so they try to distract us with a lot of phony rhetoric about other issues.”
It needed to be said, and Jamie Raskin said it perfectly.