Republicans are in Putin’s pocket and they’re not even trying to hide it anymore
Consider the curious case of Putin and the Republican Party. The Biden Administration released a report revealing U.S. intelligence agencies’ assessment that Russia (Putin) undertook a concerted effort to malign Biden and help Trump in the 2020 Presidential Election. Republicans expressed no outrage over this, likely because it boosted Trump and “the master of my master is my master.”
Then, President Biden matter-of-factly agreed, in a TV interview, with the proposition that Vladimir Putin was a killer. No one has disputed the accuracy of this assessment. Putin has a long history of ordering the murder of his enemies. Nonetheless, the Russians (Putin) fumed and recalled their ambassador in a huff, and stomped their feet, and are holding their breath until Biden apologizes — for speaking the truth.
Are Republicans outraged at Putin or supportive of the U.S. President? No. They’re outraged Biden had the temerity to challenge Putin and call a spade a spade.
Republicans are so used to a President being totally subservient to Putin and never criticizing him, they find Biden’s direct, accurate agreement with the “killer” assessment to be out of line. They’d rather have the U.S. President ignore Putin’s killings, his cyber and election attacks on the U.S., and his infamous bounties on U.S. troops — just like Trump.
Putin made an admittedly childish comment, essentially “it takes one to know one” (a tacit admission that he’s a killer). Do Republicans mock Putin for being so juvenile? No. This is, after all, their stock-in-trade.
Putin thought he’d get the better of Biden by challenging him to a public discussion of the issues. Remarkably, Republicans latched onto this and mocked Biden for not accepting Putin’s challenge. Thus, Republicans decided it shows weakness to decline to accept the terms of an adversary’s challenge, instead of setting the terms for the time and place to engage Putin based on U.S. interests.
Putin now reiterates Republican talking points, that Biden is old, feeble, etc., despite challenging Putin directly and implementing Democratic policies at an invigorating pace. Or is it that Republicans are merely repeating Putin’s talking points, as the intelligence report indicates? Either way, Republicans and Russians are aligned against U.S. interests.
