Now that (most) Republicans are running away from Russian dictator Vladimir Putin faster than Donald Trump can swallow a whole rotisserie chicken at a Mar-a-Lago Sunday brunch, they’ve settled on a talking point that’s as predictable as it is disingenuous. Namely, they argue, Putin chose this moment to invade Ukraine because he perceived President Joe Biden as “weak.”
They’re telegraphing this message relentlessly, hoping that Americans’ famously short memories are somehow unable to dial up six years of the most gruesomely obsequious GOP genuflecting the world has ever seen.
I’m not entirely sure where Trump’s tough-guy image came from. Could it be his bone spurs? Or his five draft deferments? Or his boasts about passing a dementia test? His inability to drink water like an adult? His constant whining? Or his characterization of anything he doesn’t like as “unfair”? Is it his insistence that he won an election he very clearly lost? Or his bunker-hiding? Or his lie about his intention to join his frothing mob at the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021? What about his Helsinki Surrender Summit? Or that shitty deal he struck with the Taliban? Or his betrayal of our Kurdish allies? Maybe it was his refusal to honor American World War I soldiers at a cemetery in France because he didn’t want to get his hair wet? Or his constant punching-down? Or his refusal to let anyone see his tax returns? Or his decision to cut off his gravely ill infant nephew’s health insurance out of spite?
Or this?
Or this?
Yeah, Trump’s tough. Riiiight.
There are people I’d be afraid to meet in a dark alley, but Donald Trump is definitely not one of them. Though, for obvious reasons, I would be beyond mortified to meet him in a brightly lit alley.
Of course, we don’t really need all those examples to prove Donald Trump is not “tough,” especially as it relates to his BFF Vlad. Besides the seemingly thousands of miles of newsreel footage we have of Trump mentally tickling Putin’s taint, we can draw on two simple, incontrovertible facts:
1) Vladimir Putin, for some reason that Republicans can’t begin to explain, expended vast resources to get tough-guy deterrent Donald Trump elected president. Twice.
2) Donald Trump told his advisers he would pull the U.S. out of NATO in his second term. Not for nothing, NATO’s destruction has long been items No. 1, 2, and 3 on Putin’s “Back-in-the-USSR” wishlist.
As usual, Republican talking points are bullshit, but this one really grinds my gonads. Which, for the record, is a sensation that I don’t like. Not usually, anyway.
I’m not the only one. In a righteous rebuke to House Minority Liar Kevin McCarthy Tuesday, Democratic Rep. Jim McGovern of Massachusetts chewed up this fatuous argument and commenced spittin’ nails.
Watch McGovern’s full response to McCarthy—it’s less than two minutes—in the second tweet below:
Transcript!
MCGOVERN: “Mr. Speaker, the world is watching, and I’m not going to be lectured by someone who takes their marching orders from Donald Trump, who said that Putin’s invasion of Ukraine was a genius and savvy move.
I wish the gentleman would have condemned that. In listening to that speech, you’d think that Joe Biden invaded Ukraine. I mean, he spent all this time criticizing Joe Biden, John Kerry, and everybody else but hardly criticized Vladimir Putin.
I also wish, because I think it would be helpful for this country and a signal to the world, if the gentleman who just spoke would reprimand members of his own party who cozy up to white nationalists and go to pro-Putin rallies. That would send a signal to people in this country and to people around the world on whose side we’re on.
Bottom line is, the people of Ukraine are being invaded by a brutal dictator, Vladimir Putin. And when their standard-bearer, Donald Trump, was in charge, he spread propaganda about Ukrainian interference in the 2016 election, which was a lie. He ousted a well-regarded U.S. ambassador to Ukraine because they weren’t doing what he wanted to in terms of finding dirt on his political opponents. Froze military assistance to Ukraine. They said nothing. Withheld a White House meeting with Zelenskyy. Turned Ukraine policy over to Giuliani.
I could go on and on and on. So we aren’t going to be lectured by them.”
More of this from our side, please.
Meanwhile, the few Republicans who have managed to pull their heads out of Trump’s backside long enough to see Putin’s shadow are also stating the glaringly obvious. Enter Pazuzu-possessed Pepperidge Farm pitchman John Bolton, who briefly worked as Trump’s national security advisor—before Trump apparently decided this nation needed neither security nor advice. (Though, to be fair, firing the warmongering Bolton may have been the only sensible thing Trump ever did, even if the firing merely reversed yet another grotesquely bad, ill-considered decision.)
Watch Bolton respond with disgust to Newsmax host Rob Schmitt, who appears to have swallowed the zombie Trump-is-tough lie whole:
Transcript!
BOLTON: “We did impose sanctions on Russian oligarchs and several others because of their sales of S-400 anti-aircraft systems to other countries, but in almost every case the sanctions were imposed with Trump complaining about it, saying we were being too hard.
The fact is that he barely knew where Ukraine was. He once asked John Kelly, his second chief of staff, if Finland were a part of Russia. It’s just not accurate to say that Trump’s behavior somehow deterred the Russians. I think the evidence is that Russia … didn’t feel that their military was ready.”
Again, Trump also promised to pull us out of NATO in his second term. Why would Putin spit in Trump’s face just as he was delivering gifts?
Sadly, Republicans tend to have more holes in their memory than a Wiffle ball, so it’s unlikely they’ll ever make these connections. But that doesn’t mean I can’t lose my mind being angry about this shit. And, hey, I’ll be damned if I let them get away with it.
It made comedian Sarah Silverman say, “THIS IS FUCKING BRILLIANT,” and prompted author Stephen King to shout “Pulitzer Prize!!!” (on Twitter, that is). What is it? The viral letter that launched four hilarious Trump-trolling books. Get them all, including the finale, Goodbye, Asshat: 101 Farewell Letters to Donald Trump, at this link. Or, if you prefer a test drive, you can download the epilogue to Goodbye, Asshat for the low, low price of FREE.