John,
I want to take this opportunity to remind you that Trump's first impeachment was because he tampered with American defense aid to Ukraine, something that had been negotiated on a bipartisan basis. Trump threatened to withhold our aid unless President Zelenskyy agreed to help dig up dirt on his political enemies. (To his credit, President Zelenskyy told him, essentially: “Russian warship puppet, go f*** yourself.”)
Now, I will let you take a wild guess about why out of all the countries in the world he could have chosen, Trump decided to target and blackmail Ukraine.
Fan letter from Donald Trump to Vladimir Putin, 2007
Is it starting to make sense yet? Putin has had Trump in his back pocket since the day he walked down those dreadful stairs in 2015 and announced he was running for President. Even the GQP’s wannabe House Speaker Kevin McCarthy said as far back as 2016 that he believed Trump was on Putin’s payroll.
I have been telling you all from day one Trump is Putin's Trojan horse, hellbent on doing everything he can to destroy America.
Words can't describe how grateful I am today that President Biden is in the Oval Office and guiding not just the United States but the entire free world as we decide how to deal with and eventually defeat Vladimir Putin.
Switzerland, the country known for always staying "neutral" – well, even they are now on board with sanctions. These sanctions are crushing the Russian economy. The Russian financial markets are in freefall, their central bank has raised interest rates to 20%, their oligarchs are losing billions, the ruble’s value has plummeted so far that “Robux” – a children’s video game currency – is worth more, and Russian citizens are storming banks and ATMs to withdraw what little they can. It’s gotten so bad that Russian’s financial sector canceled all trading today.
Russian aircrafts of all kinds, even the private ones owned by Russian oligarchs, are prohibited from flying in European or Canadian air space. Private companies worldwide are canceling all service to Russia. International sports organizations are banning Russians from play. I can go on and on, but you get the idea – Russia is being squeezed from every possible direction and the losses are adding up.
That’s all before I’ve even mentioned the war in Ukraine and how the people of that country have rallied around their leader in a way that the world has not seen in a very long time. If Putin’s goal was to destabilize the Ukrainian government and install a Russian puppet president, I can declare today with no hesitation that his mission has failed!
Now, this is where things get a little scary – my assessment has always been that Putin is evil, but not crazy or suicidal. Today, I’m not so sure. When a man has nothing to lose and has no values or principles or decency (like Putin), well, that can be very dangerous … especially if that man has access to a nuclear arsenal.
It’s time to do everything we can to talk directly to the Russian generals and see if one of them will be as brave as when General Milley was when he was in charge of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and we Americans feared that Trump might be tempted to use our nuclear arsenal after he lost the 2020 election.
General Milley put everything on the line to stop Trump from accessing nuclear weapons, and we need some brave Russian in Putin’s inner circle to do the same today – whatever that might take.
Speaking of Trump, if he were in charge right now, I’m pretty sure the United States would already have troops on the ground in Ukraine – with orders to back up Putin’s forces, not Ukraine’s. That is a real thought that keeps going through my mind right now, and I don’t think it’s much of a stretch from reality.
Republicans have sold their soul to Trump, and Trump has sold his soul to Putin. Don't take my word for it, go watch the videos of Trump openly praising Putin last week. Not one of those spineless cowards in the GOP leadership was brave enough to condemn him for it, nor did they reprimand Reps. Marjorie “Traitor” Greene or Paul “The Nazi” Gosar for participating in a conference where the audience chanted “Putin! Putin!” and cheered his invasion on.
This is what we face heading into this year’s midterms – the GQP has showed us who they really are, and we had better believe them. Today’s Republican Party is the party of Putin and Trump.
That means this election isn’t just about Right vs. Left – it’s about democracy vs. dictatorship, good vs. evil.
Unlike Ukraine, we still have a chance to win this battle with votes, not violence. But it’s going to be a costly fight.
That’s why I hope you’ll dig deep and chip in whatever you can to help push back against Putin and his puppets in the GQP and show them there’s no room for authoritarian thugs in our American democracy.
