REAL CLEAR POLITICS—For eight years now, Democrats have bemoaned interference in American elections. The national security apparatus of the United States has been warning about influence campaigns. The media has done so as well. Editorials and anchors have decried Russian interference.
They are all strangely silent over the latest foreign interference in our elections.
That would be President Volodymyr Zelenskyy of Ukraine, on the American taxpayer’s dime, going to—surprise, surprise—highly contested Pennsylvania to thank munitions manufacturing employees. In an interview, he also attacked Republican vice presidential candidate JD Vance as “too radical.”
You and I get to call Vance a radical and bad on economic views as a protectionist, but Zelenskyy is a foreign leader who should shut his American welfare-subsidized mouth.
I am a staunch supporter of funding Ukraine and supporting Zelenskyy. The Russians invaded the country. We had prior commitments to protecting Ukraine’s sovereignty after they surrendered their nuclear arsenal to Russia after the fall of the Soviet Union. Stopping Russian aggression and expansion is good. It is also good to have live fire tests of our weapons systems against the best of Russia’s, which we are getting.
But Zelenskyy risks everything by doing what amounts to a campaign stop in Pennsylvania, and the Biden administration was deeply foolish for putting Zelenskyy in that position. Undoubtedly, Zelenskyy thinks he has nothing to lose because he presumed, based on American press biases, that Donald Trump would shut down all funding for Ukraine immediately.
That actually grossly misstates Trump’s position. Trump actually was much firmer against Russia than Barack Obama was, but you would never know it from most press reports. Trump’s sanctions on Russians were more aggressive and he was more willing to deport Russian government-related officials than Obama.
But now? After Zelenskyy goes to a swing state to attack Trump’s vice presidential candidate, he better really pray Kamala Harris wins.
It was political, policy, and presidential malpractice for Joe Biden to let Zelenskyy go down that road. Biden has compromised support for Ukraine by tying it directly to a partisan presidential election. Speaker of the House Mike Johnson is now demanding Zelenskyy fire his Ukrainian ambassador to the United States for signing off on the trip, which Johnson rightly notes appears to be a political stunt at American taxpayer expense.
Notice just how approving so much of the press corps and Democrats are who regularly wail about election interference in the United States. They seem to be just fine with it if it helps Democrats or, at least, hurts Trump.
Do not be surprised when more Republicans turn against Ukraine and fewer care about the very real issue of electoral interference by foreign governments. It looks like the Democrats and much of the press really are fine with foreign interference in the presidential election if it is for the Democrats.
The precedent here is disturbing. One need not have much imagination to see Trump cajoling a foreign leader like the prime minister of Israel to barnstorm the United States for Trump. The media and Democrats would complain, but they set the precedent.
The Ukraine war is a serious issue. Russia invaded a nation and wishes to rebuild a sphere of influence with the help of an Eastern Axis of China, Iran, and North Korea. The fight in Ukraine is a fight about the future, and one that costs the United States a tiny portion of its budget and zero American lives. In return for keeping Russian ambitions in check, we have gathered remarkable intelligence about the collaboration of the Eastern Axis and its ability to design and deploy weapons.
Most of our money goes to Ukraine in the form of loans, which European powers guarantee. The money then comes back to the United States in the form of weapons purchases. We give Ukraine our old stuff and build new stuff for ourselves. All the while, we keep the Russians in check.
Zelenskyy’s visit jeopardizes that and his own fight, all because the Biden administration decided to politicize the war for their benefit in a swing state. Shame on them.
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