The GOP’s Putin apologists include also the loudest and most odious Trump supporters.
By Jennifer Rubin
Opinion Columnist
The Washington Post
Donald Trump spent four years (plus a year campaigning) cozying up to and helping further the geopolitical aims of Russian President Vladimir Putin. If Putin had handpicked an agent to be president of the United States, he could hardly have expected better results; Trump certainly exceeded any expectations Putin might have had with his disparaging NATO, extorting Ukraine by withholding military aid, leaving Russia’s election-meddling unpunished, inviting Putin back into the Group of Seven and attacking our own intelligence community. To this day, the defeated former president continues to praise Putin (“smart”), and continues to denigrate the United States (“dumb”) and our allies.
Sen. Mitt Romney (R-Utah), ridiculed as a presidential candidate in 2012 for identifying Russia as our primary international foe (he was premature but prescient), on Sunday called out Putin’s admirers in his own party as “almost treasonous”:
Romney hit on an uncomfortable truth: The GOP’s Putin apologists include also the loudest and most odious Trump supporters.