Republican lawmakers are coming out forcefully against Russia’s deadly invasion of Ukraine, but with the congressional midterms just months away, they’re also finding plenty of things to criticize about President Joe Biden.
Their complaints have targeted Biden’s energy policies ― accusing his administration of making the U.S. more reliant on foreign oil and gas ― as well as the first wave of U.S. sanctions on Russia and the withdrawal of U.S. troops from Afghanistan. There have also been vague gripes about Biden’s “weakness” on the world stage.
As Russian tank columns and helicopters streamed deep into Ukraine on Thursday, Rep. Steve Scalise (R-La.) issued a statement pledging U.S. support for the Ukrainian people “in the face of [Russian President] Vladimir Putin’s barbaric aggression.”
Scalise, the House minority whip, then pivoted to bashing Biden, claiming the president “wasted too much time appeasing Putin while shutting down energy exploration and production here in America.” The thrust of the complaint appeared to involve Biden’s decision to cancel construction of the Keystone XL pipeline.
Rep. Nancy Mace (R-S.C.) piled on, claiming that Biden’s “weakness helped lead to this crisis.”
“President Biden said he could go ‘toe to toe’ with Putin but instead he has chosen to play footsie,” Mace said in a statement. “Biden slow-walked lethal aid to Ukraine, waived sanctions on Nord Stream 2, and chose toothless sanctions against a few rich Russians.”
Republicans in the Senate also took aim at Biden’s handling of the situation. Speaking in Kentucky on Thursday, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell argued, as he has before, that Putin would not have moved on Ukraine had Biden left U.S. troops in Afghanistan. Sen. Shelley Moore Capito (W.Va.), meanwhile, called Putin a “tyrant” who needed to be confronted, then criticized Biden’s words as “ineffective, too late, and too passive for the current situation.”
The idea that “politics stops at the water’s edge” hasn’t really held true in recent decades, with partisans often taking shots at presidents of the opposing party during instances of military conflict abroad.
While some GOP voices have stressed the need to project unity in the face of a mobilization of troops not seen in Europe since World War II, others have eagerly mocked Biden and even praised Putin as “smart” and his moves against Ukraine as “genius,” as former President Donald Trump said this week.
Although Republicans say Biden should have imposed harsher sanctions on Putin sooner ― a step they argue could have discouraged Putin from invading Ukraine ― they agree with Biden’s position that U.S. troops should not be put in harm’s way in Ukraine to help defend the country from Russian aggression.
Some GOP lawmakers did refrain from directly attacking Biden in their responses to the Ukraine situation on Thursday. House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (Calif.), the top Republican in the lower chamber, notably issued a forceful statement condemning Putin’s invasion as “reckless and evil.”
Unlike most of his colleagues, McCarthy kept the president out of it (although in an earlier statement this week, he did accuse Biden of contributing to the “appeasement” of Russia).
“The United States stands with the people of Ukraine and prays for their safety and resolve,” McCarthy said in his Thursday statement. “Putin’s actions must be met with serious consequence. This act of war is intended to rewrite history and more concerning, upend the balance of power in Europe. Putin must be held accountable for his actions.”
Biden on Thursday announced a severe round of further sanctions against Putin and his allies, as well as additional U.S. troop deployments in Eastern Europe to bolster NATO countries in the region.
After speaking with leaders of the other so-called G7 nations, Biden tweeted Thursday that he and the other heads of state had “agreed to move forward on devastating packages of sanctions and other economic measures to hold Russia to account.”
“We stand with the brave people of Ukraine,” Biden wrote.