Republican lawmakers have spent the last half decade following Donald Trump’s leadership, though he pushed the party away from the party’s long-held philosophy. But when it comes to the invasion of Russia UkraineGOP officials are no longer following the former president’s instructions.
Vladimir Putin’s conviction is a rare unifying force on the Capitol. Few Republicans echo that Trump’s description of the Russian president as wise or intelligent. Former Vice President Mike Pence said there was no place in the party for “Putin’s apologists.” Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina even went so far as to say that Putin should be assassinated.
And after years of leading his party to question the value of NATO and traditional global security alliances, threatening to withhold aid to Ukraine in exchange for political favor and publicly accept Putin’s word on that of their intelligence agencies, Republicans are now arguing. for all possible resources less than American ground troops to help stop the war in Europe.
“The vast majority of the Republican Party in general, both in Congress and across the country, is completely behind with the Ukrainians and calls on the president to take these steps faster, to be bolder,” the minority leader said Sunday. of the Senate, Mitch McConnell, in “Facing the Nation.”
Alex Brandon / AP
“There’s been a pretty dramatic rift between the traditional post-World War II Republican view of our leadership in the world, which is what I have, and those who wanted to pursue a more focused policy of retreating to think that someone else would fill. “Our role in the world if we didn’t,” Sen. Roy Blunt of Missouri told CBS News. “And I think what is happening right now is that most Republicans – and frankly most members of the Senate – have become what I would see as a more internationalist view of our responsibilities. ‘glad to see you.’
There can often be a disconnect between party leaders and party voters. But in this case, polls show support for taking a tougher stance on Russia among party bases.
CBS News election finds that 76% of Republicans approve of sanctioning Russia’s oil and gas (and 62% say so even if that means a higher gas price), 75% say the U.S. should send weapons and supplies to Ukraine and 61% say the US should send troops to Ukraine. protect NATO allies near Ukraine.
Sen. Josh Hawley of Missouri, Trump’s ally in the Senate, said his constituents were dismayed by the Russian invasion and told him “we must do everything we can” to help the Ukrainians.
“They are fighting for their existence. And Russia has helped all our enemies for the last 60 years. So I don’t feel bad, I know Putin’s wines are an escalation. He’s invaded a sovereign nation. So we should “Arm us Ukrainians and give them all the defensive weapons they want,” Hawley told CBS News. “We have to do everything we can asymmetrically in Ukraine to help the Ukrainians. And we should do it in the long run, whenever necessary.”
Hawley joined all but two Republicans in the Senate Mitt Romneyen exonerating Trump in his impeachment trial in 2019 which focused on his asking Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to investigate Joe Biden in exchange for military aid. In a interview With 60 minutes left, House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy said Trump had done nothing in that impeachable Zelenskyy conversation.
Now, McCarthy is trying to keep some members of his conference in check who speak ill of Zelenskyy or echo Trump’s praise for Putin. Republican Rep. Madison Cawthorn of North Carolina has been criticized for calling Zelenskyy a “bully” in a town hall.
When asked about last week’s comments, McCarthy told reporters that “Madison is wrong. If there’s one bully in this world it’s Putin.” McCarthy then referred to the Russian bombing of a maternity ward and a theater that housed children. “This is atrocious, this is wrong, this is the aggressor, this is what must end this war,” he said of Putin. “This is something that everyone should unite against.” (When asked if he would support Cawthorn’s re-election, McCarthy said “yes”).
Republicans still strongly oppose the direct involvement of the U.S. military in Ukraine, and there is very little appetite in the Capitol for the establishment of a air exclusion zone, a reflection of the change of party in the Trump era far from participating in military conflicts abroad. Colin Dueck, a senior member of the American Enterprise Institute who wrote a book on Republican foreign policy after World War II, told CBS News that while Trump took advantage of voter frustrations with traditionally wedge opinions of the GOP, party voters still maintained their support for NATO and opposition to Putin. The invasion reminded them of these views, he says, and there has been a rally around a hard line against Russia.
“It’s often the case that Trump is acting and others are reacting … what’s interesting right now is that no one seems to be clinging to him on this issue,” Dueck said. “There’s an impulse that’s independent of him. And he’s had to catch up.”
In some cases, seeming to share Trump’s rhetoric about Putin is becoming a responsibility for Republican candidates in the election campaign.
In the Republican primary in North Carolina for an open seat in the United States Senate, former Gov. Pat McCrory posted an announcement accusing his rival, Trump-backed Rep. Ted Budd, of voting in favor. in Russia and to praise Putin. The ad uses an interview clip in which Budd calls Putin “a very smart actor.” Club for Growth then ran an ad in support of Budd, arguing that McCrory took the congressman’s words out of context and played clips from the full quote in which he described Putin as “evil” and “international bully.”
According to Politifact, McCrory’s announcement cut out Budd’s full quote: “I’d say Putin is bad. But that doesn’t mean he’s not smart. He’s a very smart actor, though he’d say he’s been smart. quite erratic in its approach to Ukraine “.
While Republicans are grouped around a hard line against Russia, they are not eager to criticize Trump for his past behavior toward Putin. Instead, when asked about Trump’s approach to Putin, they insist that policies go beyond rhetoric.
“I did not agree with President Trump’s rhetoric about Putin before. I don’t think it was useful. But basically, in the actual policies that were implemented, the Trump administration’s policies on Russia were much, much harsher. that the policies of the Biden administration “. Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas told CBS News, pointing to the sanctions he wrote against the North Russian Stream 2 gas pipeline that Trump signed into law.
“There are probably a lot of mistakes we could look at … I know Trump is being criticized for his rhetoric. But I’ll say, in my opinion, when it’s time to get really tough, to sanction Nord Stream 2, for example, he was there in the end to do the right thing to be tough on them, “Hawley told CBS News when asked if he thought the previous president miscalculated Putin. “But listen, this is in the rearview mirror. Now we have to think, what are we going to do to move forward?”
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