Just some news from Reporting in Letters from an American

Full article at the link.

Last night Prof: Heather Cox-Richardson reporting in “Letters from an American” a comment made by Tucker Carlson to Egyptian journalist Emad El Din Adeeb. Carlson emphasized an equivalency of American leaders to Russia’s Putin.

My Letters Take . . .

“Every leader kills people . . . Some kill more than others. Leadership requires killing people.”    

I can not think of any US president openly assassinating a person by edict or murdering as many people as Putin has to eliminate any threat to his dictatorship. Others may have a different opinion than I on this. Carlson obviously did this trip so as to gain attention so as to remain a pundit in the US. A pundit unassociated with any major news broadcasting network. The whole trip was to gain attention.

Strategically the loss of Avdiivka by Ukraine comes after a long period of time. The slow pace of the Russian advance and the heavy cost in lives and armored vehicles gives Ukrainian officials confidence the Russian forces lack the tactical coordination and quality. However, it would be better to have held Avdiivka and not face the prospect of a new invasion on old ground they gave up.

Meanwhile House Speaker Mike Johnson sends House Representatives home so as to block aid to Ukraine.  Mike Johnson still does not have the power to push back on trump’s congressional supporters in the House. He can not go running to the Dems either. So a delay by taking off a couple of weeks whether planned or a kneejerk might give him the room to support Ukraine funding. trump really has “no” power in the House or the Senate other than fear. Although, Republicans respond to the threats.

Professor Heather . . .

On Monday, in Dubai, Egyptian journalist Emad El Din Adeeb asked Carlson why, when interviewing Putin, he “did not talk about Navalny, about assassinations, about restrictions on opposition in the coming elections.” Carlson replied by equating Russia and the U.S., saying: “Every leader kills people…. Some kill more than others. Leadership requires killing people.”          

The death of Navalny at just this moment appears to tie the Republicans to Putin’s murderous regime, and party leaders scrambled today to distance themselves from Putin. House speaker Mike Johnson, who has resisted passing aid to Ukraine and insisted the House would not be “rushed” into passing such a measure, released a statement saying that “as international leaders are meeting in Munich, we must be clear that Putin will be met with united opposition…. [T]he United States, and our partners, must be using every means available to cut off Putin’s ability to fund his unprovoked war in Ukraine and aggression against the Baltic states.” 

Republicans trying to carve out distance between themselves and Trump’s MAGA Republicans used the occasion to call out MAGAs, saying, as former vice president Mike Pence did, “There is no room in the Republican Party for apologists for Putin.” Senator Thom Tillis of North Carolina, who has pushed hard for Ukraine aid, wrote: “Putin is a murderous, paranoid dictator. History will not be kind to those in America who make apologies for Putin and praise Russian autocracy. Nor will history be kind to America’s leaders who stay silent because they fear backlash from online pundits.”

Navalny attacked the Putin regime by calling attention to its extraordinary corruption, and somewhat fittingly, the corruption of former president Donald Trump, who won the White House with Putin’s help, was also on the docket today.