Rachel Maddow put a spotlight on the Republicans from Tulsi Gabbard to Marjorie Taylor Greene and Ron DeSantis who criticized Biden’s historic trip to Ukraine.
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Maddow said:
This one tiny event, it was small. It was a weird assemblage of Americans. There were Proud Boys there. Some of the white supremacist groups you would recognize from the Unite The Right rally in Charlottesville a few years ago. Also represented prominently, the remains of the bizarre Lyndon LaRouche cult. There were people with flags including the former Soviet Union.
Also, at least one person who guest hosts for Tucker Carlson on the Fox News Channel was there as a featured speaker. There were antivaccine conspiracy theorists, a lot of them. There were cryptocurrency promoters. It was a really weird group. It was a small rally and a weird one. But that’s what it looks like.
That assemblage of short straws and split ends and loose electrons that is advocating in this country that Russia is in the right and America should be on Putin’s side as he keeps invading other countries. I mean no disrespect to the Americans who turned out as part of this small event this weekend. But it’s not like they represent a big constituency that is arguing for this pro-Russia point of view.
While this happened this weekend, while president Biden was heading to Kyiv secretly, once he got there today and we found out that he had made the trip to Kyiv. At least one pro-Trump member of congress who happens to have a seat on the Homeland Security Committee called for him to be impeached for having gone to Ukraine. Other pro-Trump members of congress said it was a disgrace and a shame and how dare president Biden go to Ukraine today. Florida governor Ron DeSantis, who wants the run for president, apparently he went on the Fox News Channel this morning and said President Biden was wrong to go and we shouldn’t be supporting Ukraine in this war. Whatever Russia is doing, it is nothing to worry about.
Again, it is not clear in political terms what the big constituency is for this stuff. But that is where at least the Trump and Trump-ish wing of the Republican party says they are on this issue. And good luck to them with it.
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Rachel Maddow brought up an interesting point. Who are the Trump Republicans catering to? It doesn’t seem to be a domestic pro-Russia audience, so it is logical to suspect that the person the GOP is catering to is Putin. Russia has spent decades attempting to infiltrate both political parties, but almost all of its success has come on the Republican side.
Republicans saw what Russian election meddling was able to do in 2016, so it could be that they are lobbying for the same support from Putin in 2024.