Monday, February 21, 2022 5:00:36 PM
Putin's Right-Wing Shills And why they matter.
Charlie Sykes
8 hr ago
https://morningshots.thebulwark.com/p/putins-right-wing-shills?utm_source=url
(Photos: GettyImages / Shutterstock)
Flashback to July, 2018.
After the summit between Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin in Helsinki, this is what I wrote for the now-deceased Weekly Standard:
It seems only moments ago that Republicans derided Barack Obama’s “apology tour.” But that has been replaced by Donald Trump’s Groveling Tour, a peculiar combination of bullying our friends and fawning on our enemies.
Monday’s summit seems destined to be recorded in the annals of diplomatic folly, with geopolitical consequences that will last far longer than our own frenetic attention spans.
What we have learned again is that at the heart of every truculent and strutting bully is a craven sycophant eager to cower before a bigger bully.
On Monday, Trump found that bigger bully and his cowering was the embarrassment heard round the world.
The president did not merely insult and dismiss members of his own administration (Dan Coats) and attack the institutions of his own government on foreign soil (the FBI and DoJ), he also demeaned his own country, all in order to curry favor with a bloody martinet, who is aggressively attacking us.
Consider this the context of today’s news. President Biden has agreed “in principle” to a summit with Putin, which may or may not avert a catastrophic war. We don’t know.
What we can know, however, is that Putin is fully aware that he faces a divided U.S., and that influential voices on the right have been channeling much of his own propaganda.
By now the cast of Putin’s useful idiots is familiar, ranging from Tucker Carlson and Josh Hawley to Candace Owens, MTG, and Maria Bartiromo.
Fiona Hill, the former senior director for Europe and Russia at the National Security Council, calls them "the ultimate stooges," but at least for now, these right wing voices do not speak for most congressional Republicans, who have tended to take a far more hawkish stance.
But Putin can be forgiven if he thinks his “conservative” allies represent the sentiment of MAGAWorld, coming as they do from some of Trump’s most loyal acolytes. And he may be especially emboldened if he believes that Trump himself may actually return to the Oval Office.
So these right wing shills matter. Here’s former NSC/White House aide expert Alexander Vindman:
Twitter avatar for @AVindman
Alexander S. Vindman
@AVindman
These people and a great deal of the GOP leadership will have blood on their hands. They’re fanning flames, encouraging Putin to attack Ukraine. Putin and his regime perceive opportunities because such fools suggest the U.S. is weak, divided, and distracted. https://t.co/OCmnjFadQb
Julia Davis @JuliaDavisNews
Another heinous lie, told at the time when Ukraine is facing escalating Russian aggression. https://t.co/rcH6ymBEsj
February 20th 2022
Commenting on Vindman’s tweet, Garry Kasparov wrote: “What's most pathetic is that these Republicans are openly supporting a dictatorship that has attacked America. Putin openly treats the United States as an enemy, and they are doing his bidding in slandering Ukraine, his target.”
Putin’s Stooges
The loudest defender of the Kremlin’s view is, of course, the loudest voice in right wing media, Tucker Carlson, whose anti-Ukraine commentary has become a running feature of Russian State television.
"Vladimir Putin does not want Belgium,” explains Tucker. “He just wants to keep his western borders secure. That's why he doesn't want Ukraine to join NATO, and that makes sense."
As for Ukraine? "It's run by a dictator who's friends with everyone in Washington," Carlson said.
The Russian are, of course, thrilled.
Twitter avatar for @JuliaDavisNews
Julia Davis
@JuliaDavisNews
#Russia's favorites, Tucker Carlson and Josh Hawley, are again being featured on state TV. Their efforts to undermine U.S. support for Ukraine are much appreciated in Moscow.
Image
Julia Davis @JuliaDavisNews
THE RED PACK:
Russia is thrilled with the split within the Republican party and thankful to Tucker Carlson, Josh Hawley & Co.
Russia's state TV is predicting Trump's triumphant return: "Having elected him the first time... we can manage to do it again.”
https://t.co/cNq92elO5g
February 13th 2022
Here he is with former Representative Tulsi Gabbard (who has become a fixture on the right), asking why Americans should want Ukraine to join NATO.
TULSI GABBARD: I've looked at this carefully, Tucker, and I have yet to find any benefit that a political leader has used or could use to justify this to the American people. All you hear is like, 'well we have to defend democracy. We have to defend this democratic country of Ukraine.'
But as you know, very well, this current [Ukranian] president, you know, shuts down, arrests political opposition, throws them in jail, shuts down TV stations that are critical to him. I have a hard time seeing how President Biden or anyone can say with an honest face, ‘we are defending democracy.’
Tucker is not the only voice on Fox News arguing that the focus on Ukraine-Russia is all a big distraction.
The conspiracy maven formerly known as the “money honey,” Maria Bartiromo, insists that the whole Ukraine-Russia threat has been fabricated to distract from (checks notes) Hillary Clinton.
“Was this a ruse?” she continued. “Was this whole thing an effort to take everybody’s attention away from what Hillary Clinton did and what we know to be a complete hoax over this Russia investigation?” After all, she continued, Sullivan worked for Clinton, and he had been involved in “peddling this Russia collusion lie.”
Laura Ingraham also tells her viewers that the whole thing is a distraction from the real crisis.
"Anyone paying attention to Biden's presser last week heard the sounds of the war-drums beating [as] the media desperately wants to get off the raging crime, raging COVID, raging inflation story that's driven Biden to another new low in the polls today.”
But this sort of thing is by no means confined just to Fox News. Prominent voices in the MAGA-centric media have also taken up Putin’s cause. As Cathy Young wrote in the Bulwark over the weekend, right-wing commentators like Sohrab Ahmari are eagerly pushing smears of Ukrainians as anti-Semitic fascists (while ignoring Russian fascism and anti-Semitism).
Ben Shapiro’s Candace Owens has not only defended Putin’s position, she has also suggested that we should be be invading Canada instead:
Twitter avatar for @RealCandaceO
Candace Owens
@RealCandaceO
Imagine if Putin, absent any proof, declared “Canada is going to invade the U.S”.
Then Canada said “no we aren’t”, and U.S agencies agreed “no they aren’t”—but Putin moved his troops into our region to “help” anyway.
That is exactly what Biden is doing in Ukraine right now.
February 13th 2022
9,906 Retweets39,461 Likes
Twitter avatar for @RealCandaceO
Candace Owens
@RealCandaceO
STOP talking about Russia.
Send American troops to Canada to deal with the tyrannical reign of Justin Trudeau Castro.
He has fundamentally declared himself dictator and is waging war on innocent Canadian protesters and those who have supported them financially.
February 19th 2022
Marjorie Taylor Greene has also deployed her deep knowledge of international affairs to lie about Ukraine:
Twitter avatar for @RonFilipkowski
Ron Filipkowski
@RonFilipkowski
Marge Greene yesterday told a complete lie that “Ukraine was the number one donor to Hillary Clinton when she was running for president.”
February 20th 2022
428 Retweets1,635 Likes
Twitter avatar for @RonFilipkowski
Ron Filipkowski
@RonFilipkowski
OH Senate candidate JD Vance: “I think it’s ridiculous that we are focused on this border in Ukraine. I got to be honest with you, I don’t really care what happens to Ukraine one way or the other.”
February 19th 2022
Former Trumpster A.J. Delgado is pushing the Putin’s-not-so-bad line…
Twitter avatar for @AJDelgado13
A.J. Delgado
@AJDelgado13
If Putin wants to throw some cold water on American expansionism and interventionism, for whatever reason, that's a good thing.
We're overly aggressive sometimes and NEED another bully on the world stage, to check our worst impulses.
Det_Ligers @DetLigers
@AJDelgado13 Putin assassinates people left and right. Some for theater as in the poisoning cases. He is also trying to destroy the world order, AKA the United States. Not saying you are working for Russia, but seems like a weird country to be defending.
February 20th 2022
Twitter avatar for @AJDelgado13
A.J. Delgado
@AJDelgado13
Why am I supposed to despise Putin so much? Does he have firing squads? (Nope. Meanwhile, Castro did you and you Dems spent DECADES 'both sides''ing him.) Does Russia have freedom of movement, free enterprise, etc? Yes. Are women stoned? No. Are dogs tortured for festivals? No.
Nick Cummings @nickcummings3
@AJDelgado13 That’s a lie, we don’t appease dictators invading important democratic allies all the time, and your defense of Putin as “not that bad” is deranged.
February 20th 2022
Then there is GOP Representative Paul Gosar:
“We have no dog in the Ukraine fight. Not one American soldier should die there. Not one American bullet should be fired there. We just lost Afghanistan to sandal-wearing goat herders. I assure you [the] Russian military is no joke either,” said Republican Congressman Paul Gosar.
“Ukraine has no basis to be in NATO, and NATO itself — a Cold War relic — arguably has no current purpose or mission. Getting involved in a military situation with no U.S. interest is America Last, not America First,” he said.
Nota bene: No one — as in no one — is suggesting that any American troops be deployed in Ukraine.
What is Putin making of all of this? I think it’s reasonable to assume that he thinks these are the authentic echoes of the Once and Future MAGA king.
And Putin very much has the measure of the man, who has lavished him with praise, tried to weaken NATO, sided with him over his own government’s intelligence agencies, and actually held up military aid as part of his pressure campaign to get Ukraine's president to dig up dirt on Biden
"All this did was say to Russia that Ukraine was a playground," Fiona Hill said.
Charlie Sykes
8 hr ago
https://morningshots.thebulwark.com/p/putins-right-wing-shills?utm_source=url
(Photos: GettyImages / Shutterstock)
Flashback to July, 2018.
After the summit between Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin in Helsinki, this is what I wrote for the now-deceased Weekly Standard:
It seems only moments ago that Republicans derided Barack Obama’s “apology tour.” But that has been replaced by Donald Trump’s Groveling Tour, a peculiar combination of bullying our friends and fawning on our enemies.
Monday’s summit seems destined to be recorded in the annals of diplomatic folly, with geopolitical consequences that will last far longer than our own frenetic attention spans.
What we have learned again is that at the heart of every truculent and strutting bully is a craven sycophant eager to cower before a bigger bully.
On Monday, Trump found that bigger bully and his cowering was the embarrassment heard round the world.
The president did not merely insult and dismiss members of his own administration (Dan Coats) and attack the institutions of his own government on foreign soil (the FBI and DoJ), he also demeaned his own country, all in order to curry favor with a bloody martinet, who is aggressively attacking us.
Consider this the context of today’s news. President Biden has agreed “in principle” to a summit with Putin, which may or may not avert a catastrophic war. We don’t know.
What we can know, however, is that Putin is fully aware that he faces a divided U.S., and that influential voices on the right have been channeling much of his own propaganda.
By now the cast of Putin’s useful idiots is familiar, ranging from Tucker Carlson and Josh Hawley to Candace Owens, MTG, and Maria Bartiromo.
Fiona Hill, the former senior director for Europe and Russia at the National Security Council, calls them "the ultimate stooges," but at least for now, these right wing voices do not speak for most congressional Republicans, who have tended to take a far more hawkish stance.
But Putin can be forgiven if he thinks his “conservative” allies represent the sentiment of MAGAWorld, coming as they do from some of Trump’s most loyal acolytes. And he may be especially emboldened if he believes that Trump himself may actually return to the Oval Office.
So these right wing shills matter. Here’s former NSC/White House aide expert Alexander Vindman:
Twitter avatar for @AVindman
Alexander S. Vindman
@AVindman
These people and a great deal of the GOP leadership will have blood on their hands. They’re fanning flames, encouraging Putin to attack Ukraine. Putin and his regime perceive opportunities because such fools suggest the U.S. is weak, divided, and distracted. https://t.co/OCmnjFadQb
Julia Davis @JuliaDavisNews
Another heinous lie, told at the time when Ukraine is facing escalating Russian aggression. https://t.co/rcH6ymBEsj
February 20th 2022
Commenting on Vindman’s tweet, Garry Kasparov wrote: “What's most pathetic is that these Republicans are openly supporting a dictatorship that has attacked America. Putin openly treats the United States as an enemy, and they are doing his bidding in slandering Ukraine, his target.”
Putin’s Stooges
The loudest defender of the Kremlin’s view is, of course, the loudest voice in right wing media, Tucker Carlson, whose anti-Ukraine commentary has become a running feature of Russian State television.
"Vladimir Putin does not want Belgium,” explains Tucker. “He just wants to keep his western borders secure. That's why he doesn't want Ukraine to join NATO, and that makes sense."
As for Ukraine? "It's run by a dictator who's friends with everyone in Washington," Carlson said.
The Russian are, of course, thrilled.
Twitter avatar for @JuliaDavisNews
Julia Davis
@JuliaDavisNews
#Russia's favorites, Tucker Carlson and Josh Hawley, are again being featured on state TV. Their efforts to undermine U.S. support for Ukraine are much appreciated in Moscow.
Image
Julia Davis @JuliaDavisNews
THE RED PACK:
Russia is thrilled with the split within the Republican party and thankful to Tucker Carlson, Josh Hawley & Co.
Russia's state TV is predicting Trump's triumphant return: "Having elected him the first time... we can manage to do it again.”
https://t.co/cNq92elO5g
February 13th 2022
Here he is with former Representative Tulsi Gabbard (who has become a fixture on the right), asking why Americans should want Ukraine to join NATO.
TULSI GABBARD: I've looked at this carefully, Tucker, and I have yet to find any benefit that a political leader has used or could use to justify this to the American people. All you hear is like, 'well we have to defend democracy. We have to defend this democratic country of Ukraine.'
But as you know, very well, this current [Ukranian] president, you know, shuts down, arrests political opposition, throws them in jail, shuts down TV stations that are critical to him. I have a hard time seeing how President Biden or anyone can say with an honest face, ‘we are defending democracy.’
Tucker is not the only voice on Fox News arguing that the focus on Ukraine-Russia is all a big distraction.
The conspiracy maven formerly known as the “money honey,” Maria Bartiromo, insists that the whole Ukraine-Russia threat has been fabricated to distract from (checks notes) Hillary Clinton.
“Was this a ruse?” she continued. “Was this whole thing an effort to take everybody’s attention away from what Hillary Clinton did and what we know to be a complete hoax over this Russia investigation?” After all, she continued, Sullivan worked for Clinton, and he had been involved in “peddling this Russia collusion lie.”
Laura Ingraham also tells her viewers that the whole thing is a distraction from the real crisis.
"Anyone paying attention to Biden's presser last week heard the sounds of the war-drums beating [as] the media desperately wants to get off the raging crime, raging COVID, raging inflation story that's driven Biden to another new low in the polls today.”
But this sort of thing is by no means confined just to Fox News. Prominent voices in the MAGA-centric media have also taken up Putin’s cause. As Cathy Young wrote in the Bulwark over the weekend, right-wing commentators like Sohrab Ahmari are eagerly pushing smears of Ukrainians as anti-Semitic fascists (while ignoring Russian fascism and anti-Semitism).
Ben Shapiro’s Candace Owens has not only defended Putin’s position, she has also suggested that we should be be invading Canada instead:
Twitter avatar for @RealCandaceO
Candace Owens
@RealCandaceO
Imagine if Putin, absent any proof, declared “Canada is going to invade the U.S”.
Then Canada said “no we aren’t”, and U.S agencies agreed “no they aren’t”—but Putin moved his troops into our region to “help” anyway.
That is exactly what Biden is doing in Ukraine right now.
February 13th 2022
9,906 Retweets39,461 Likes
Twitter avatar for @RealCandaceO
Candace Owens
@RealCandaceO
STOP talking about Russia.
Send American troops to Canada to deal with the tyrannical reign of Justin Trudeau Castro.
He has fundamentally declared himself dictator and is waging war on innocent Canadian protesters and those who have supported them financially.
February 19th 2022
Marjorie Taylor Greene has also deployed her deep knowledge of international affairs to lie about Ukraine:
Twitter avatar for @RonFilipkowski
Ron Filipkowski
@RonFilipkowski
Marge Greene yesterday told a complete lie that “Ukraine was the number one donor to Hillary Clinton when she was running for president.”
February 20th 2022
428 Retweets1,635 Likes
Twitter avatar for @RonFilipkowski
Ron Filipkowski
@RonFilipkowski
OH Senate candidate JD Vance: “I think it’s ridiculous that we are focused on this border in Ukraine. I got to be honest with you, I don’t really care what happens to Ukraine one way or the other.”
February 19th 2022
Former Trumpster A.J. Delgado is pushing the Putin’s-not-so-bad line…
Twitter avatar for @AJDelgado13
A.J. Delgado
@AJDelgado13
If Putin wants to throw some cold water on American expansionism and interventionism, for whatever reason, that's a good thing.
We're overly aggressive sometimes and NEED another bully on the world stage, to check our worst impulses.
Det_Ligers @DetLigers
@AJDelgado13 Putin assassinates people left and right. Some for theater as in the poisoning cases. He is also trying to destroy the world order, AKA the United States. Not saying you are working for Russia, but seems like a weird country to be defending.
February 20th 2022
Twitter avatar for @AJDelgado13
A.J. Delgado
@AJDelgado13
Why am I supposed to despise Putin so much? Does he have firing squads? (Nope. Meanwhile, Castro did you and you Dems spent DECADES 'both sides''ing him.) Does Russia have freedom of movement, free enterprise, etc? Yes. Are women stoned? No. Are dogs tortured for festivals? No.
Nick Cummings @nickcummings3
@AJDelgado13 That’s a lie, we don’t appease dictators invading important democratic allies all the time, and your defense of Putin as “not that bad” is deranged.
February 20th 2022
Then there is GOP Representative Paul Gosar:
“We have no dog in the Ukraine fight. Not one American soldier should die there. Not one American bullet should be fired there. We just lost Afghanistan to sandal-wearing goat herders. I assure you [the] Russian military is no joke either,” said Republican Congressman Paul Gosar.
“Ukraine has no basis to be in NATO, and NATO itself — a Cold War relic — arguably has no current purpose or mission. Getting involved in a military situation with no U.S. interest is America Last, not America First,” he said.
Nota bene: No one — as in no one — is suggesting that any American troops be deployed in Ukraine.
What is Putin making of all of this? I think it’s reasonable to assume that he thinks these are the authentic echoes of the Once and Future MAGA king.
And Putin very much has the measure of the man, who has lavished him with praise, tried to weaken NATO, sided with him over his own government’s intelligence agencies, and actually held up military aid as part of his pressure campaign to get Ukraine's president to dig up dirt on Biden
"All this did was say to Russia that Ukraine was a playground," Fiona Hill said.
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