President Joe Biden pleaded with Republicans on Wednesday for a fresh infusion of military aid for Ukraine, warning that a victory for Russia over Ukraine would leave Moscow in position to attack NATO allies and could draw U.S. troops into a war.
Biden spoke as the United States planned to announce $175 million in additional Ukraine aid from its dwindling supply of money for Kyiv. He signaled a willingness to make significant changes to U.S. migration policy along the border with Mexico to try to draw Republican support.
“If Putin takes Ukraine, he won’t stop there,” Biden said. Putin will attack a NATO ally, he predicted, and then “we’ll have something that we don’t seek and that we don’t have today: American troops fighting Russian troops,” Biden said.
“We can’t let Putin win,” he said, prompting an angry reaction from Moscow.
It’s such a shitty moral quandary. We know all the arguments for combining them and they all make sense from a strategic standpoint but you’re absolutely right that they are in no way similar.
I really think Biden should do more of this kind of thing - making the public case for support in Ukraine. His admin just doesn’t do enough communicating from the bully pulpet and this is just the kind of message that would really benefit from it. That was the best thing Obama did as POTUS: explaining things to the public in an adult way, trusting we’d get it.
The Biden admin should be creating opportunities to distinguish him as the rational adult in the room. Let the GOP do their mudslinging. POTUS should be repeating ‘extremely cheap way to fight a long time enemy’ ‘defeating Russia without American soldiers’ blood’. Seriously, administrations during the cold war would salivate at this opportunity to put Russia on its heels.
Not to mention ‘averting a larger war’ when the GOP is trying to paint him as a warmonger, and ‘averting a nuclear crisis’ when he needs to show he’s got strength even in his 80s.
But the Dems seem to always be too concerned about catering to public opinion instead of using their vast resources to shape it.