If Republicans won’t stand up to Putin, he won’t stand down in his threats to American interests
As Russia poses the gravest national and international security threat in nearly a generation, Republicans in Congress are proving to be, at best, feckless foes to Vladimir Putin’s efforts to undermine democracy and stability at home and abroad. At worst, GOP lawmakers are playing right into his hands.
This is no time for partisan gamesmanship to take precedence over protecting Americans and our allies from the multifaceted national security threat Russia poses. But that is exactly what Republican lawmakers seem to be doing. It’s a dereliction of their duties, not to mention the values many of them claim to stand for, and they need to reverse course now.
First and foremost, they must immediately pass a funding measure to provide aid to Ukraine to help the emerging democracy fend off Russia’s brutal power grab of a war, restore its most basic government operations, and prevent a Russian victory that could embolden Putin to attack more countries and US allies. But lawmakers also need to be just as vigilant to protect Americans from the threat Russia poses to our elections and our safety.
Whether it’s due to the resistance by Republicans to approve any measure that has Biden’s support, or due to former president Donald Trump’s opposition to funding Ukraine aid, it’s no excuse. Ukraine is now contending with actual life-or-death consequences resulting from ammunition shortages. Yet the GOP doesn’t seem to be budging.
After meeting with a bipartisan group of congressional leaders at the White House Tuesday, Democratic Senate majority leader Chuck Schumer of New York underscored the urgent need to pass Ukraine aid — much of which actually stays in the US economy, since it is spent on American-made weapons.
But moments later, Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson of Louisiana failed to even mention Ukraine.
“We must take care of America’s needs first,” he told reporters outside the White House. Beyond that, “when you talk about American’s needs, you have to talk about our open border.”
Of course, it was Johnson who demanded that any Ukraine aid package be tied to border security. A bipartisan group of lawmakers crafted such a compromise bill that would have bolstered border protection funding and provided Ukraine aid, among other things. But then, in an act only Putin could love, Johnson not only rejected the bipartisan measure but also rebuffed efforts to pass a stand-alone Ukraine funding bill.
Helping Ukraine fight off Russia is not an act of charity. It is a vital investment in world security. Failing to help Ukraine now only raises the risk of America getting dragged into far more expensive and dangerous conflicts later, if a triumphant Putin moves on to US allies like Poland or the Baltic states.
Putting America’s needs first requires that we not only stand up for our allies but also protect Americans from ongoing Russian threats to Americans’ safety and US elections — and stop acting as witting or unwitting accomplices in Russian efforts to destabilize US politics.
Those perils are only growing. In the past few weeks, the Justice Department indicted a former informant for providing the FBI false information about bribes being paid to Biden and his son Hunter — information that served as the basis of a sprawling investigation of the Bidens by House Republicans. That informant, Alexander Smirnov, stands accused of “actively peddling new lies that could impact U.S. elections after meeting with Russian intelligence officials in November.” That, in case you missed it, is textbook Russian interference.
But lawmakers should have seen this coming: In 2020, 51 former intelligence officials wrote an open letter warning that the source of such claims had “all the classic earmarks of a Russian information operation.” Rather than investigating the misinformation source, GOP lawmakers used the phony evidence to launch an impeachment probe.
Russian intelligence has targeted Democrats and Democratic-leaning groups too, as various congressional investigations have shown, in attempts to inflame divisions. It’s incumbent on cooler heads in both parties to not fall for foreign efforts to exploit and deepen American political polarization.
Domestic politics also appear to have been at play earlier this month when Republican Congressman Mike Turner of Ohio, chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, made cryptic suggestions that the White House should declassify information about a “serious national-security threat.” Republicans tried to use that warning as proof Biden was asleep at the wheel. But days later, it was reported that Turner’s announcement actually imperiled ongoing secret White House efforts to fend off a Russian test of a nuclear-capable weapon that could target US satellite systems in space.
The death in a Russian prison of dissident Alexei Navalny — of “sudden death syndrome,” a common ailment among Putin’s political opponents — is proof of just how empowered Putin feels right now. Republicans must stand up to him rather than implicitly doing his bidding. That is an American need that calls for urgent attention.
Putting America’s needs first requires that we not only stand up for our allies but also protect Americans from ongoing Russian threats to Americans’ safety and US elections — and stop acting as witting or unwitting accomplices in Russian efforts to destabilize US politics.