Donald Trump, who is not the president, is using a minority of Republicans to block aid to Ukraine, to undermine the actual president’s foreign policy, and to weaken American power and credibility.

  • FuglyDuck
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    2 年前

    Because Putin owns him. I thought that was obvious.

    • lennybird
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      2 年前

      Indeed I wish reporters wouldn’t dance around the obvious.

    • Asafum@feddit.nl
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      2 年前

      Man does literally everything that would help Putin.

      “Conservatives”: He’s the toughest president ever on Russia! You have TDS! Ukraine are Nazis!

      …I hate this reality

    • CitizenKong
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      2 年前

      He had meetings with Putin without anyone else present while being president. That alone should disqualify him from holding any public office, let alone becoming president again.

    • TurtleJoe
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      2 年前

      The article is more of an exploration of the consequences of the failure of the US to support Ukraine. Not sure why they went with that headline.

  • Diplomjodler
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    2 年前

    The article makes is all very obvious but the author is too cowardly to spell it the obvious conclusion: the only one who benefits from all this bullshit is Putin. The only rational explanation is that Trump is acting in Putin’s interest against the US.

  • lostinasea
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    2 年前

    At best it’s because it’s because he doesn’t want Joe Biden and the Democrats to look good before the upcoming election. At worst it’s because he’s Putin’s bitch doing whatever his master says. Personally, I believe he’s a piece of shit traitor and so too are all the Republicans that follow and listen to him.

    • Buffalox
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      2 年前

      There have been so many examples of Trump protecting and sweet talking Russia and Putin, and he has been surrounded by Russians in all kinds of situations, financial and his security, that there is no reason to believe there are 2 options here. Trump is a traitor to USA, pure and simple.

    • silence7@slrpnk.netOP
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      2 年前

      There are a number who aren’t, like Liz Cheney. It’s possible to disagree almost completely with somebody on policy, and still recognize that they’re not a traitor.

      Not that the rest of the Republican party accepts them or will allow them to win a primary anymore.

      • grue
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        2 年前

        Do Republicans who got kicked out of the party still count, though?

      • YarHarSuperstar
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        2 年前

        Exactly, they are no longer the same thing. Maybe it’s finally time to realize there are more than two options.

        • silence7@slrpnk.netOP
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          2 年前

          If you’re a longstanding Republican and looking for another home, that’s not a bad idea. If you want the Republicans to lose the next election, you need to actively vote for a Democrat. These three scenarios show why:


          Scenario 1:

          D - 9 votes

          R - 10 votes

          T - 0 votes

          Republican wins


          Scenario 2:

          D - 9 votes

          R - 9 votes

          T - 1 vote

          Tied election, decided by a coin toss


          Scenario 3:

          D - 10 votes

          R - 9 votes

          T - 0 votes

          Democrat wins

    • UnderpantsWeevil
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      2 年前

      I mean, that line of reasoning can get a bit dicey. Given that they’re in the electoral majority, I think that technically makes the Democrats traitors.

      • ghostdoggtv
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        2 年前

        Your “given” is false.

        I’ll grant you this - Republican leadership are all traitors.

        • UnderpantsWeevil
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          2 年前

          The Nazis were a nationalist movement with enormous support within the German state. Who were they betraying, exactly?

  • Coach
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    2 年前

    Because a vote for R is a vote for Russia.

  • Buffalox
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    2 年前

    Question is why is he allowed to dictate policy?

    • silence7@slrpnk.netOP
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      2 年前

      Republicans control a majority of the House of Representatives, giving them the power to block spending. They do what he says.

      • snooggums@midwest.social
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        2 年前

        Why does the article focus on the small minority of Republicans when the rest of the Republicans are complicit in blocking the aid too? Only a few Republicans need to vote in favor of the aid to pass.

        • RedditReject
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          2 年前

          It has to be brought to a vote, which is the responsibility of the speaker of the house, who is a Republican. There is a way around that, but I think it would take more than just a few Republicans

      • chonglibloodsport
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        2 年前

        That’s the proximate cause. The ultimate cause is that the Republicans stand no chance if they alienate Trump’s base. Many of them would prefer it if he went away but they can’t make it happen.

      • Buffalox
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        2 年前

        AFAIK Democrats had the option to elect a moderate Republican as speaker, but instead they allowed Johnson to be elected. So Democrats could as I see it, have prevented the shitshow the House is now.
        It’s allowed because Democrats failed to prevent it. And instead allowed the MAGA crowd to control the House with their majority among Republicans.

          • Buffalox
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            2 年前

            OK, maybe I misunderstood, but I’m pretty sure there were Republicans who aired the idea, and Democrats shot it down immediately.
            But maybe it was just media talk IDK?

            • silence7@slrpnk.netOP
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              2 年前

              It was pretty much media talk. The Republican Party purged their moderates during the 2022 primary

        • dhork
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          2 年前

          There was an interesting news conference with Hakeem Jeffries yesterday where he said that its possible that Democrats might vote to save Johnson if there is a vote to vacate the chair due to putting the Ukraine bill on the floor. Jeffries said specifically its because Johnson hasn’t reneged on any promises yet. It’s clear that Democrats didn’t trust Kevin as far as they could throw him. But they are signaling to Johnson that he might be protected if he did what they wanted.

          To be fair, I think a majority of Republicans also want the Ukraine/Israel deal, too. It’s just the lunatic fringe of the party willing to abandon Ukraine. (I think we know why.)

          Edit: found it

          https://thehill.com/homenews/house/4498643-jeffries-declines-to-take-position-on-saving-speaker-from-conservative-coup/

          The headline says “declines to take a position”, but since his position on McCarthy was “Hell No”, this is still better for Johnson.

          Also:

          Jeffries Suggests Democrats Would Save Johnson From Removal Over Ukraine Aid https://www.nytimes.com/2024/02/28/us/politics/hakeem-jeffries-mike-johnson.html

          That one has more of the quotes about Not Trusting Kevin

        • norbert@kbin.socialBanned from community
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          2 年前

          Doing anything to place blame on Democrats instead of the people who actually elected the shitgibbon I see.

    • UnderpantsWeevil
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      2 年前

      Because the Republican House Reps listen to him and want to appeal to his political base. And because right-wing news media pushes a ton of Trump-friendly media advocating against further funding of the Ukraine War.

      If you really get under the hood of this thing, the Republican positions is that Americans should be allied with Russia and at war with Ukraine because Ukrainians are gay woke liberal pedophile soyboys, while Russians are Based Western TradCath Chads. What gets even nuttier is that Republicans still despise China, and believe they need to ally with Russia against China in a war over the South Pacific.

      Trump’s not even really leading on this issue so much as echoing what the right-wing press regularly puts out. The real hand behind the throne is a cartel of industrialist billionaire hold-overs from the John Bircher movement of the 1960s, plus their larger network of talk radio, TV, newspaper, and social media talking heads parroting their message.

  • JeeBaiChow
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    2 年前

    Just remember that turnip was willing to suspend aid for Ukraine unless zelenskyy made a particularly statement supporting his narrative.

  • TropicalDingdong
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    2 年前

    More broadly we should be asking how is this possible, since Trump is not the president.

    It really highlights the weakness of Joe Biden.

    • silence7@slrpnk.netOP
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      2 年前

      It highlights the fact that the Republicans control a majority of the House of Representatives. That’s on the state legislators who gerrymandered the districts

    • naeap@sopuli.xyz
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      2 年前

      Yeah, because it typically works that way, that just someone has to say something with courage and the weak president is too afraid to say something against it…