Question: Does the Republican party support Putin’s invasion?

Editorial:

• ABC News: GOP Sen. Tom Cotton won't condemn Trump's praise of Putin
• Tribune News Service: GOP Senator Rick Scott refuses to condemn Trump for praising Vladimir Putin, says it’s ‘up to him’
• Arkansas Democrat-Gazette: “Georgia Republican U.S. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene headlined a white nationalist conference in Florida where attendees cheered Russia's invasion of Ukraine and chanted the name of President Vladimir Putin shortly before she was introduced.”
• Newsweek: Cheney Rips Trump, Pompeo for 'Praising' Russian President: 'Putin Is Evil'

Where is the outcry by the Republican party over the invasion of all we hear is crickets from the party, Sen. Romney, Rep. Cheney, and a few others speak out against the invasion but the party is silent. Does the Republican party support the authoritarian government of Russia?

Meanwhile the Republicans blame the Democrats for starting the war, the Huffington Post writes…

Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) said Sunday that Democrats including President Joe Biden, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (Calif.) and Rep. Adam Schiff (Calif.) all are part of the reason that Vladimir Putin invaded Ukraine.

“I don’t think Vladimir Putin would have moved on Ukraine were it not for the weakness displayed ― certainly by the Biden administration, but by the West in general,” Johnson said in a Fox News Sunday interview. “I’m certainly hoping that Col. Vindman, Adam Schiff, Nancy Pelosi ― who used Ukraine as a pawn in their impeachment travesty ― are also recognizing and reflecting about how they weakened Ukraine, weakened the West, weakened America by the divisive politics that they play.”

What many of us forget is that in 2019 under Trump Putin first invaded Ukraine that resulted in no condemnations of the invasion by then president Trump only to embolden Putin to invade tree years later.

According to the Brooking Institute in 2019 wrote,

Alas, in the end, Trump has gotten much more wrong than right about Ukraine. Rather than try to help the country overcome its internal problems of corruption and economic mismanagement and its external problem of improving relations with Russia, he has attempted to bully Ukraine for personal political gain. His administration has rightly provided security assistance to the Ukrainian government. But the saga of linking that aid, even for a few months, to a Ukrainian willingness to pursue a vendetta against the Bidens is, in addition to all its other unseemly aspects, counterproductive to the reform effort. It leaves Ukraine further exposed in its problems with Russia, while sending exactly the wrong message about how state power should be wielded in a modern democracy.

We now see where Trump’s inaction has lead us.

And he is still praising Putin, WABC 7 reported yesterday that,

The former President has repeatedly praised Putin in the days since Russian troops crossed into Ukraine and began launching rocket strikes against the country's capital of Kyiv. His comments on Zelensky come days after he lavished praise on Putin, calling the Kremlin leader "genius" and "savvy" in a radio interview. Those remarks were the latest of many instances where the 45th President has approved of, or admired, authoritarian rulers. In addition to Putin, Trump has previously made positive comments about North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un and Chinese President Xi Jinping.

Just where does the Republican party want to lead us?

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This afternoon I will post my regular trans blog post at 3