Extremist Republicans didn’t waste time bashing President Joe Biden’s surprise weekend visit to Kyiv. Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia called the trip “incredibly insulting,” while Florida Republican Matt Gaetz tweeted that Biden was “ditching America for Ukraine.”
But a large swath of GOP lawmakers were largely quiet about the trip, exposing once again the deep fissure within the party about how to handle Biden’s support for Ukraine, a policy that is both popular and generally thought to be successful. It is yet another sign of Republican dysfunction, and it’s guaranteed to give responsible Republicans headaches.
Normally, when a president does something voters approve of, out-party politicians either go along or just talk about something else. Indeed, sometimes out-party politicians will support the president during foreign policy crises even if it represents a policy failure by the administration; if U.S. troops or other citizens are in danger or an unpopular nation is doing something ugly, politicians are usually wary of using rhetoric that sounds as if they are siding with an enemy. (1)
