Something serious appears to have prompted Rep. Adam Kinzinger, R-Ill., to label a fellow Republican, Missouri Sen. Josh Hawley, a “con artist” and “one of the worst human beings.” Perhaps it was Hawley’s public questioning of the need to defend Ukraine from a Russian invasion. Maybe it was when Hawley this week urged President Joe Biden to cave to Russian President Vladimir Putin’s demand that Ukraine be officially denied membership in NATO. Or maybe it was when Hawley falsely asserted that Biden is to blame for Ukraine’s predicament.
There once was a time when Hawley had presidential aspirations, but a badly timed fist-pump on Jan. 6, 2021, along with his appeasing advocacy of Russian supremacy just about closes the lid on his presidential dreams. We thought Hawley should’ve resigned his Senate seat for his role in the Capitol insurrection, but the idea that the United States should kneel down to Russia over Ukraine underscores how grossly unfit Hawley is to continue in office.
Perhaps the young senator should be forgiven for his naivete regarding Russia. He wasn’t even born during the worst years of the Cold War, and he was still in diapers when Moscow invaded Afghanistan and dominated half of Europe. So he might not remember why containing Russian expansionism remains such a big deal for older Americans. Republicans these days seem averse to reading any history that makes them feel bad about themselves, which could explain why Hawley’s ignorance is so embarrassingly on display in Washington.
Hawley tweeted on Wednesday: “If Russia invades Ukraine, the Biden Administration can blame one person above all: Joe Biden. He’s given Putin his own slush fund in Nord Stream 2 and failed to aid Ukraine when he could have.”
A short history lesson is in order. Biden became president a year ago. Before that, Donald Trump was president. Trump is the one who denied military aid to Ukraine to extort its leader into helping with Trump’s reelection effort. The person who failed Ukraine was Trump, and it earned him an impeachment. Biden in the past year has shipped around $650 million in military aid to Ukraine as Russia amasses more than 100,000 troops on its border. So Kinzinger’s “con man” critique of Hawley seems precisely on target.
Hawley describes Europe as a “secondary theater” and suggests that the only international situation worthy of administration attention is China. He outlined his limited understanding of world affairs in a three-page letter to Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Tuesday. White House press secretary Jen Psaki said Hawley was “parroting” Moscow’s talking points and “digesting Russian misinformation.”
China does, in fact, matter. But China isn’t amassing troops to invade and swallow up another country. Russia is — just like the Soviet Union did when Hawley was in diapers. But there we go again with all those historical facts that bring such discomfort to folks like Hawley.
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