Transcript
Sarah Longwell (0:00)
Hey, guys, Sarah Longwell here, publisher of the Bulwark. And I don't know if you've noticed, but the world has gone mad. Russia is the good guy, Ukraine is the bad guy. And I am just, I'm reeling from the way that Republicans used to talk about Ukraine to the way they are suddenly talking about Ukraine and even worse, the way they're talking about Russia, as though Russia has not been this threat to America for many decades. And so I just. I wanna start this by playing a clip for you of National Security Adviser Mike Walz at today's White House briefing. Watch this. To follow up on Peter's question, you wrote in an op ed in the fall of 2023 that, quote, Putin is to blame. Certainly like Al Qaeda was to blame for 9, 11. Do you still feel that way now or do you share the president's assessment as he says Ukraine is to blame for the start of this war? Well, it shouldn't surprise you that I share the president's assessment on all kinds of issues. What I wrote as a member of Congress was, as a former member of Congress, look, what I share the president's assessment on is that the war has to end. All right, so this wall's response is the tune we're going to be hearing more and more as Republicans who absolutely know better come to terms with the fact that their political allegiance to Trump means selling out Ukraine. Now, if you haven't been paying close attention, here's some background on this. This week, Donald Trump unleashed a barrage of attacks against Ukrainian President Zelensky. He blames Zelensky for starting the war in Ukraine. He called Zelensky a dictator. He called for elections to be held during the middle of a war and excluded Ukraine from peace talks with Russia. Predictably, Trump has not shared a similar criticism of Russia or Putin. Because Trump, this is how you know, this is how you know Trump doesn't think Zelensky is a dictator, because if he did, he'd be sucking up to him, because that's what Trump does with dictators. So, look, the Republicans I grew up with understood how important defending our allies is. It's just like what we were raised on as Republicans and young conservatives. But they've totally sold out their principles to appease Trump, which is obviously an old story. We've watched this over and over again. But what's weird, right, is that even in Trump's first term, you did see more of these Republicans. They would sort of like, deal with Trump on the foreign policy stuff, and they would still sound like Normal Republicans. Domestically, they gave in to Trump, but you would still hear them be relatively. Hockey isn't even the right word. They just. International affairs still mattered to them. They didn't think Putin was a good guy. So I wanna take a look at how Marco Rubio and Lindsey Graham, two of Trump's biggest sellouts, used to talk about Ukraine and then talk about their reactions to Trump's more recent statements. Because as recently as 2022, Marco Rubio tweeted, the suffering in Ukraine because of the war criminal Putin is obvious to all. Yes, it is. But the dangers that lie ahead are far greater than most realize. Yes, they were. Good job, old Marco. It was clear from the beginning of the war that Rubio knew Putin was a war criminal and that it was in the U.S. s interests to support Ukraine in their fight against him. Even as far back as 2014, it was clear that Rubio understood that Russia must face repercussions after they annexed Crimea. Let's watch some of that video from the old days.