<html><head><meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"></head><body dir="auto">Courtesy of CNN at:<div><br></div><div><a href="https://www.cnn.com/2022/02/23/politics/vladimir-putin-russia-trump-ukraine-gop-what-matters/?hpt=ob_blogfooterold">https://www.cnn.com/2022/02/23/politics/vladimir-putin-russia-trump-ukraine-gop-what-matters/?hpt=ob_blogfooterold</a></div><div><br></div><div>—————————————————</div><div><h1 class="pg-headline" data-act-id="article_head_0" style="box-sizing: border-box; font-size: 40px; margin: 0px auto; font-family: "CNN Condensed", CNN, "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, Utkal, sans-serif; -webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; line-height: 44px; padding: 16px 0px 0px; font-feature-settings: "kern"; text-rendering: optimizeLegibility; letter-spacing: -0.01em; caret-color: rgb(38, 38, 38); color: rgb(38, 38, 38); -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;">Trump spoke. Will Republicans follow him on Russia?</h1></div><div><br></div><div><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 11.25pt; line-height: normal; font-size: 14pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"><b><span style="color: rgb(38, 38, 38);">CNN) </span></b><span style="color: rgb(38, 38, 38);">Former President Donald Trump has signaled to Republicans that Russian President Vladimir Putin is a <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2022/02/23/politics/donald-trump-vladimir-putin-joe-biden/index.html" target="_blank"><span style="color: rgb(48, 97, 243); text-decoration: none;">"genius" for invading Ukraine</span></a>.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; line-height: normal; font-size: 14pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"><span style="color: rgb(38, 38, 38);">Now we shall see what happens. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; line-height: normal; font-size: 14pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"><span style="color: rgb(38, 38, 38);">Will the party's lawmakers back President Joe Biden as he stands up to Putin? Or, as the majority did with a collective amnesia on the January 6 insurrection, will they retreat on promised sanctions and support for Ukraine?<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; line-height: normal; font-size: 14pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"><span style="color: rgb(38, 38, 38);">The GOP, already changed by Trump, may be molting again. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; line-height: normal; font-size: 14pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"><b><span style="color: rgb(38, 38, 38);">The old party. </span></b><span style="color: rgb(38, 38, 38);">Republicans used to stand up to Russia. During the Cold War,President Ronald Reagan demanded that Soviet General Secretary Mikhail Gorbachev "tear down this wall" in Berlin.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; line-height: normal; font-size: 14pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"><span style="color: rgb(38, 38, 38);">They used to oppose unwarranted invasions. In 1990, George H.W. Bush said to Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein that his aggression against Kuwait<b> </b>"will not stand."<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; line-height: normal; font-size: 14pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"><span style="color: rgb(38, 38, 38);">They used to recognize that even modern Russia is a threat to the US. <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2022/02/22/politics/mitt-romney-russia-ukraine/index.html" target="_blank"><span style="color: rgb(48, 97, 243); text-decoration: none;">Mitt Romney</span></a> -- who became the Republican presidential nominee in the 2012 race against President Barack Obama -- said that year that<b> </b>Russia was the United States' main geopolitical foe.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; line-height: normal; font-size: 14pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"><b><span style="color: rgb(38, 38, 38);">A new tone. </span></b><span style="color: rgb(38, 38, 38);">The party today is under the influence of Trump, who heaped admiration on Putin for invading another country with a democratically elected leader.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; line-height: normal; font-size: 14pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"><span style="color: rgb(38, 38, 38);">"I went in yesterday and there was a television screen, and I said, 'This is genius.' Putin declares a big portion of the Ukraine, of Ukraine, Putin declares it as independent. Oh, that's wonderful," Trump said on Tuesday<b> </b>in an interview on "The Clay Travis & Buck Sexton Show," a conservative radio show.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; line-height: normal; font-size: 14pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"><span style="color: rgb(38, 38, 38);">He then suggested it would be nice to have a "peace force" like the Russian military to be stationed on the US border with Mexico -- a supremely flawed comparison since Trump wants to secure the border, whereas Putin appears to be set on claiming new territory. Putin has misleadingly referred to Russian forces he ordered to enter eastern Ukraine as "peacekeepers."<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; line-height: normal; font-size: 14pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"><b><span style="color: rgb(38, 38, 38);">Holdouts. </span></b><span style="color: rgb(38, 38, 38);">It was Republicans like Reps. Liz Cheney of Wyoming and Adam Kinzinger of Illinois, the few seeking accountability for the Capitol Hill<b> </b>insurrection, who openly criticized Trump's praise of Putin.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; line-height: normal; font-size: 14pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"><b><span style="color: rgb(38, 38, 38);">Others' praise for Putin. </span></b><span style="color: rgb(38, 38, 38);">Before the Ukraine invasion, there were already echoes of Trump's high regard for Putin among Republicans.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; line-height: normal; font-size: 14pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"><span style="color: rgb(38, 38, 38);">Trump's secretary of state, Mike Pompeo, called Putin "a very talented statesman"who has "lots of gifts" <a href="https://www.cnn.com/videos/politics/2022/01/24/pompeo-putin-russia-nr-vpx.cnn" target="_blank"><span style="color: rgb(48, 97, 243); text-decoration: none;">in a Fox interview</span></a>. The <a href="https://www.kansascity.com/news/politics-government/article258638383.html" target="_blank"><span style="color: rgb(48, 97, 243); text-decoration: none;">Kansas City Star</span></a> wrote in detail about Pompeo's comments regarding Putin and Ukraine over the years. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; line-height: normal; font-size: 14pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"><b><span style="color: rgb(38, 38, 38);">Disinterest in other democracies. </span></b><span style="color: rgb(38, 38, 38);">After the invasion of Ukraine began, there was a lot of disinterest from conservative voices.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; line-height: normal; font-size: 14pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"><span style="color: rgb(38, 38, 38);">"As an American, what's in this for me and my neighbors and the rest of us? And all I'm getting is that we can feel morally satisfied because we hate Putin," Tucker Carlson said on Fox on Tuesday.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; line-height: normal; font-size: 14pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"><span style="color: rgb(38, 38, 38);">J.D. Vance, an author and Trump acolyte running for Senate in Ohio, has pushed an almost isolationist view of foreign policy, arguing the US has no real interest in Russia's incursion into Ukraine and should instead be focused solely on the Southern border.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; line-height: normal; font-size: 14pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"><span style="color: rgb(38, 38, 38);">"'America First' means not listening to the same people who have blundered us into disaster after disaster on the world stage," Vance <a href="https://twitter.com/JDVance1/status/1496472283648507911" target="_blank"><span style="color: rgb(48, 97, 243); text-decoration: none;">said on Twitter on Wednesday</span></a>.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; line-height: normal; font-size: 14pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"><b><span style="color: rgb(38, 38, 38);">Coincidental alignment. </span></b><span style="color: rgb(38, 38, 38);">Even Republicans who talk about the need to support Ukraine have suggested the US might reject out of hand, as Putin desires, admitting Ukraine into NATO. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; line-height: normal; font-size: 14pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"><span style="color: rgb(38, 38, 38);">Sen. Josh Hawley, the fist-pumping Missourian who helped question the US presidential election results, recently <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2022/02/02/opinions/josh-hawley-ukraine-russia-gop-ghitis/index.html" target="_blank"><span style="color: rgb(48, 97, 243); text-decoration: none;">wrote a letter to Secretary of State Antony Blinken</span></a> questioning the wisdom of even entertaining the idea of adding Ukraine to NATO. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; line-height: normal; font-size: 14pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"><span style="color: rgb(38, 38, 38);">It just so happens that Putin's main goal of halting the expansion of NATO is exactly in line with Hawley's letter.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; line-height: normal; font-size: 14pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"><b><span style="color: rgb(38, 38, 38);">An authoritarian and a wannabe authoritarian. </span></b><span style="color: rgb(38, 38, 38);">Trump's <a href="https://www.cnn.com/videos/politics/2019/01/17/trump-putin-praise-vstan-orig-me.cnn" target="_blank"><span style="color: rgb(48, 97, 243); text-decoration: none;">reverence of Putin is well documented</span></a>, as are Putin's efforts to <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2020/09/12/politics/russian-meddling-2020-us-election/index.html" target="_blank"><span style="color: rgb(48, 97, 243); text-decoration: none;">meddle in recent US presidential elections </span></a>with an eye toward helping Trump's chances.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; line-height: normal; font-size: 14pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"><span style="color: rgb(38, 38, 38);">Putin has won elections with <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2018/03/18/europe/vladimir-putin-russian-election-2018-results-intl/index.html" target="_blank"><span style="color: rgb(48, 97, 243); text-decoration: none;">unbelievable support</span></a>. Trump is still <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2020/11/08/politics/donald-trump-loss-election-2020/index.html" target="_blank"><span style="color: rgb(48, 97, 243); text-decoration: none;">won't believe</span></a> he lost the 2020 election. Both men may be <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2021/04/05/europe/putin-russia-presidential-term-intl-hnk/index.html" target="_blank"><span style="color: rgb(48, 97, 243); text-decoration: none;">running again in 2024</span></a>.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; line-height: normal; font-size: 14pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"><span style="color: rgb(38, 38, 38);">In fact, their interests have often dovetailed.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; line-height: normal; font-size: 14pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"><span style="color: rgb(38, 38, 38);">Putin wants to beat NATO back to its Cold War membership and undermine European unity.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; line-height: normal; font-size: 14pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"><span style="color: rgb(38, 38, 38);">Trump groused about NATO throughout his presidency, and frequently misrepresented NATO's requirement that member nations spend 2% of their GDP on defense. He moved to pull US troops from Germany, which drew warnings from people like Romney, although NATO officials tried to put a positive spin on the move.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; line-height: normal; font-size: 14pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"><span style="color: rgb(38, 38, 38);">At news of the drawdown of US troops in Europe, CNN's Nic Robertson wrote in August 2020 that<b> </b>it could be Trump's<a href="https://www.cnn.com/2020/08/02/politics/trump-germany-troops-russia-intl/index.html" target="_blank"><span style="color: rgb(48, 97, 243); text-decoration: none;"> "last gift to Putin before the election."</span></a><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; line-height: normal; font-size: 14pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"><span style="color: rgb(38, 38, 38);">Trump did place sanctions on Russia while he was President, but only after <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2019/08/02/politics/trump-russia-sanctions-chemical-weapons-spy-poisoning/index.html" target="_blank"><span style="color: rgb(48, 97, 243); text-decoration: none;">Congress essentially made him do it</span></a>.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; line-height: normal; font-size: 14pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"><b><span style="color: rgb(38, 38, 38);">Republicans tough on Russia. </span></b><span style="color: rgb(38, 38, 38);">That's not to say Trump's Putin envy is universal in the GOP. It is not.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; line-height: normal; font-size: 14pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"><span style="color: rgb(38, 38, 38);">A bipartisan sanctions bill failed to pass before Russia began its invasion of Ukraine, but Republicans have been working with Democrats on the issue.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; line-height: normal; font-size: 14pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"><span style="color: rgb(38, 38, 38);">They even released their own <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2022/02/15/politics/russia-sanction-package-negotiations/index.html" target="_blank"><span style="color: rgb(48, 97, 243); text-decoration: none;">GOP-only proposal </span></a>for tough sanctions when the bipartisan talks hit snags last week.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; line-height: normal; font-size: 14pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"><span style="color: rgb(38, 38, 38);">After Biden enacted sanctions, some Republicans were complimentary.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; line-height: normal; font-size: 14pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"><span style="color: rgb(38, 38, 38);">"It is good to see President Biden do the right thing," Sen. Jim Risch of Idaho, the top Republican on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, told CNN in a statement on Wednesday, referring to Biden's efforts to sanction the Nord Stream 2 natural gas pipeline from Russia to Germany. Risch would have preferred Biden to be more forceful on the pipeline earlier. "The next step is to work with Germany to ensure this geopolitical threat remains dead, never to be resurrected," he said.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; line-height: normal; font-size: 14pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"><span style="color: rgb(38, 38, 38);">Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas also <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2022/02/23/politics/biden-cruz-sanctions/index.html" target="_blank"><span style="color: rgb(48, 97, 243); text-decoration: none;">offered rare praise</span></a> for Biden for the sanctions, but he has also <a href="https://www.cruz.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/sens-cruz-on-fox-news-sunday-biden-becoming-president-is-the-best-thing-that-ever-happened-tragically-for-vladimir-putin" target="_blank"><span style="color: rgb(48, 97, 243); text-decoration: none;">recently accused Biden of weakness</span></a>.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; line-height: normal; font-size: 14pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"><b><span style="color: rgb(38, 38, 38);">The McConnell example. </span></b><span style="color: rgb(38, 38, 38);">Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, while accusing Biden of foreign policy weakness, has also promised to stand up to Russia alongside the Democrats.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; line-height: normal; font-size: 14pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"><span style="color: rgb(38, 38, 38);">McConnell argues Putin built up troops on the Ukraine border only after Biden withdrew the US from Afghanistan. Never mind that Biden was largely following the example of Trump on that particular issue.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; line-height: normal; font-size: 14pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"><b><span style="color: rgb(38, 38, 38);">Many Americans don't care about Russia and Ukraine</span></b><span style="color: rgb(38, 38, 38);">. Disinterest in maintaining international democracies is common in the US.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; line-height: normal; font-size: 14pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"><span style="color: rgb(38, 38, 38);">A new AP-NORC poll, <a href="https://apnorc.org/projects/americas-role-in-the-russia-and-ukraine-situation/" target="_blank"><span style="color: rgb(48, 97, 243); text-decoration: none;">released Wednesday </span></a>and conducted as the Ukraine standoff grew more tense, suggests about half of Americans think the US should play only a minor role in the situation. Almost a third of independents and about a fifth of Republicans think the US should play no role at all.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; line-height: normal; font-size: 14pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"><b><span style="color: rgb(38, 38, 38);">Nationalist Russia. </span></b><span style="color: rgb(38, 38, 38);">One explanation for why Republicans are less concerned with Russia, in addition to signaling from Trump, may be ideological. In the AP-NORC poll, Republicans are far more concerned than other subgroups about a direct threat from China, which is still a Communist country, than from Russia, which is not.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; line-height: normal; font-size: 14pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"><span style="color: rgb(38, 38, 38);">Republican attacks on Democrats for veering toward socialism have now <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2021/11/02/here-we-go-again-90-years-republicans-have-been-crying-wolf-about-democratic-socialism/" target="_blank"><span style="color: rgb(48, 97, 243); text-decoration: none;">lasted much longer than the Soviet Union</span></a>. Russia, under Putin, is a nationalist regime. And in that could lie much of what Trump, who pushed American nationalism as US President, covets.</span></p></div><div>—————————————————<br><br><div dir="ltr"><div><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Seeya 'round town, Moscow, because . . .</span></div><div><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><br></span></div><div><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">"Moscow Cares" (the most fun you can have with your pants on)</span></div><div><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">http://www.MoscowCares.net</span></div><div><br></div><div><div><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Tom Hansen</span></div><div><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Moscow, Idaho</span></div></div><div><br></div><div>“A stranger is just a friend you haven’t met.”</div><div>- Roy E. Stolworthy</div><div></div></div></div></body></html>