Retired Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman recently said, “The party of Reagan is quickly becoming the party of Putin.” In all of my days and years as a journalist, as a Democrat, and as an American citizen, that has never felt more sickeningly, dishearteningly true than it does right this very moment.
This week has seen more earth-shattering tragedy than many of the people walking the earth today have even seen in their lifetime. For many of the rest of us, we are living through what could potentially be the most catastrophic world event that our lifetime has seen since 9/11. It is not an overstatement that the fate of the entire world as we know it hangs in the balance right now.
On February 24th, 2022, Russian dictatorial President Vladimir Putin gave a surprise speech (at around 5:00 AM or so, Moscow time,” during which he essentially declared war on Ukraine and announced a “special military action” against the country. Within literal mere moments of his surprise speech, missiles were launching on the Ukraine capital of Kyiv. Just hours later, Putin would go on to address the world once again, this time stopping just short of verbally threatening the nuclear action he so clearly implied when he warned of “consequences… never seen in history” against any nation who might dare to retaliate against Russia for their armed invasion and attack against Ukraine.
While this action has not yet moved to American soil, it is undeniable that the state of our lives currently could now change on a dime. This entire planet is now on the brink of World War III.
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And Republicans are celebrating.
We’ve spent the majority of this week reporting on ex-President Donald Trump’s multiple praises of and excuses for his favorite Russian dictator — all while he used this tragedy to once again double down on his Big Lie, blame President Biden for everything, and claim that none of this would have happened if the election hadn’t been “rigged and stolen” from him. Donald’s rhetoric this week has been so bad that even Fox News was forced to do some unsuccessful damage control.
But to make matters even worse, Donald Trump isn’t the only one who’s essentially taking Putin’s side in this thing. Numerous Republicans have expressed their praises for the Russian dictator — so much so that Donald Trump’s own former chief-of-staff John Kelly spoke out to express his confusion, disgust, and dismay for his party.
And now there’s this.
Yesterday was the America First Political Action Conference. The AFPAC is an annual political conference that has regularly and rightfully been described as white nationalist and far-right. And you’re about to find out why.
During the event, which was attended by Marjorie Taylor Greene and a few other notable Republican lawmakers, Nick Fuentes, a far-right white nationalist political commentator and live streamer, was on the stage, just moments before introducing GA GOP House Rep. Greene, where he praised “our secret sauce…young white men.”
I wish this was a joke, but it gets worse.
Fuentes goes on to use Russia as an example of the racial “purity” he’s seeking, before shouting, “Can we give a round of applause for Russia?!” This ignited rambunctious cheers from the sizeable crowd as they began to chant, “Putin, Putin!”
Republican Members of Congress at an event tonight where there were *cheers* for Russia and Putin. https://t.co/9rY4C5E29Q
— Steven Dennis (@StevenTDennis) February 26, 2022
Untied States congresspeople were present and speaking at that event. This is the world we live in now…
Featured image via screen capture
