Menendez, Putin & The GOP
Yesterday, commenting on the GOP’s refusal to condemn Bob Menendez’s corruption, Noah Berlatsky noted that “The GOP’s partisan interest in capitalizing on Democratic failures is less powerful than the GOP’s partisan interest in fighting for corruption. Republicans have become a party that believes in blanket impunity for the powerful. It’s a weird bipartisan authoritarianism, and another sign that Republicans have abandoned their commitment to democracy and to their constituents.”
In case you haven’t been following this case, career-criminal and New Jersey senator Bob Menendez and his crooked wife “took hundreds of thousands in bribes from Egypt, some of it in the form of actual gold bars. In return, Menendez used his position as the chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee to advance Egyptian interests. Menendez also is accused of taking other bribes, including money from businessman Jose Uribe who asked Menendez to help him beat New Jersey charges for fraud. When police raided Menendez’s home, they found gold bars, and $480,000 in cash hidden in closets, clothing pockets, and a safe… A superseding indictment released last week makes the implications of Menendez’s corruption clearer. Menendez is charged with providing ‘sensitive US government information’ to the Egyptian government and taking other steps that secretly aided the government of Egypt… acted as a foreign agent for Egypt.”
New Jersey Democrats, as well as most Senate Dems, have demanded Menendez resign. He probably will be he’s trying to negotiate a plea deal with the feds that doesn’t include prison time. It’s not going well. So why have Republicans been defending him” Berlatsky wrote that “The entire GOP is afraid to say that Trump’s four indictments and 91 felony charges are disqualifying, lest the base turn upon them in anger and relegate them to the howling outer darkness with Liz Cheney. If they don’t want to look like hypocrites, they have to take a consistent ‘we don’t care about indictments’ stance. This has been the conventional explanation for the GOP’s anti-anti-Menendez line. But the thing is, when have Republicans ever really cared about looking like hypocrites? They’re perfectly happy to claim to be the party of law and order while cheering for insurrectionists who assaulted police officers. They said Hillary Clinton should be jailed for failing to follow proper email security protocols as secretary of state, but now they’re defending Donald Trump, who allegedly stole classified documents and kept them in his bathroom. Why should they balk at defending Trump and attacking Menendez?"
Maybe the issue for the GOP is that they just sincerely, truly don’t think Menendez did anything wrong. Bribery and corruption are a betrayal of constituents. But these days, it’s not really clear that the GOP thinks representatives have any duty to those who elected them, or to democracy.
For instance, the leading candidates in the shambolic GOP House speaker race again refused last week to acknowledge that President Biden won the 2020 election. GOP controlled states like North Carolina have used gerrymanders to effectively institute one party authoritarian rule. The knee-jerk defense of Menendez seems consistent with the GOP’s anti-democratic consensus.
If those in power rule by right and without accountability, corruption isn’t a moral failing. It’s a perk. Republicans look at Menendez shoving gold bars down the front of his pants, and they don’t say, “Hey, that’s a grotesque abuse of power!” They say, “Cool. I’d like gold bars too.”
Maybe that even helps explain the treason so many Republicans have been willing to embrace in their posture towards Vladimir Putin. Yesterday, Thom Hartmann explored Putin's ability to get MAGA Republicans to mouth his talking points. Robert Mueller and the FBI trace it back to 2015 and 2016 when Russia spent millions to successfully intervene in the US election and put Trump— an agent of chaos a best, a puppet at worst— into the White House.=
“[W]hile America is using Russia’s terrorist attacks on Ukraine as an opportunity to degrade the power and influence of Russia’s military,” wrote Hatmann, “Putin is using social media and rightwing commentary to get Republican politicians on their side and thus kill off US aid to Ukraine. The war in Gaza is making it even easier, with Putin-aligned politicians like Senator Josh Hawley (R-MO) tweeting: ‘Any funding for Ukraine should be redirected to Israel immediately.’ Russia’s battlefield, in other words, is now shifting from Ukraine to the US political system and our homes via radio, TV, and the internet, all in the hopes of ending US aid. And the momentum is following that shift: Russia is close to having the upper hand because of Putin’s ability to get Republican voters and politicians to mouth his talking points and propaganda.
And here Russia’s investment is really paying off. According to the New York Times, Russia’s ally China has been funneling money to progressive groups; just last week one of them attacked Senator Bernie Sanders at his office as a “warmonger” for supporting Ukraine against Russia’s brutal terror attacks.
Similarly, so-called leftwing podcasters, commentators, and broadcasters, particularly on some community stations, are seeing a huge upsurge in shows attacking US aid to Ukraine. It’s become “fashionable” for those on the so-called “far left” (actually, supporting a war of aggression by a fascist state against a democracy is about as far right as you can get) to take Putin’s side in the conflict and echo his curses against NATO and Ukraine.
Russia is pouring resources into influencing those on the American right, too.
Through their social media and other influencers’ campaigns, they’ve succeeded in getting high-profile Republicans like Marjorie Taylor Greene to openly cheerlead for their rape-and-murder campaign in Ukraine.
Russia is making this a priority because they believe it’s their best bet to destroy Ukraine, either by having the US cut off aid or by putting Trump or another Putin-aligned MAGA Republican in the White House next year.
Both Democrats and Republicans have come right out and said clearly how the degradation of the Russian military at such a low cost and risk to the US is a huge bargain. The Russians know it, too, which is why they’re spending so much to win the information war and cut off our aid.
Helping Russia, Republicans who are afraid of Trump and authoritarian rightwing media— including right wing radio and cable television hosts— keep bowing to Putin. Just a few weeks ago, then-Speaker Kevin McCarthy refused to let Ukrainian President Zelenskyy speak to a formal meeting of Congress and then cut Ukraine aid out of the 45-day package to keep the US government open.
Score one for Putin thanks to Republicans in the House of Representatives.
So, here in America, Russia is advancing faster, it appears, than Ukraine is advancing in their ongoing fall offensive on the battlefield. Here in America, Russia is on the verge of winning a complete halt to US support for the war, and all they need to cement the deal in a way that will signal the end of Ukraine as an independent democratic nation is for Trump to re-enter the White House in January, 2025.
On the Russian side, their media and politicians don’t dare question the savage attacks they’re inflicting on Ukrainian civilians. Instead, they openly support pro-Russian Americans like Tucker Carlson: they, too, know that this is an information war on the cheap that Russia might be able to win if they can just convince a few million more Americans that Ukraine isn’t worth defending.
Most recently, Jim Jordan has said that if he’s Speaker he’ll take Ukraine aid off the table, handing the war to Russia. (Steve Scalise had supported Ukraine aid.)
Republican voters are also trending very Russia-friendly right now (Brookings reports 44% of Republicans oppose more Ukraine aid), in part because Putin helped put Trump in office and in part because Trump does whatever Putin tells him to and right now that includes trash-talking US aid to Ukraine.
…Today Russia is the world’s second largest nuclear power and if they take Ukraine and then push against NATO’s borders it could well provoke WWIII. And a newly-powerful and wealthy China is watching the entire process, considering how parallels to it may unfold if they decide to attack Taiwan.
Maintaining high levels of US support for Ukraine is one of the best ways to avoid another ground war in Europe and to diminish fascist Russia’s ability to repeat the barbaric mass murder campaigns they previously carried out in Syria, Chechnya, Georgia, Moldova, and now Ukraine. Plus we’re simply keeping our side of the bargain from the Budapest Accords.
That said, Russia is throwing everything they have at US and European social media to convince Americans we should abandon Ukraine. Over at Freedom Academy on Substack, Asha Rangappa has details on exactly how they’re doing it, with intercepted and translated Russian instructions to their trolls including:
“Fully support Donald Trump and express the hope that this time around Congress will be forced to act as the president [Trump] says it should [with regard to aid to Ukraine]. Emphasize that if Congress continues to act like the Colonial British government did before the War of Independence, this will call for another revolution. Summarize that Trump once again proved that he stands for protecting the interests of the United States of America.”
Putin’s social media influence campaign is having such a success with Republican followers of Donald Trump both in and out of Congress that this is now a critical time— perhaps a turning point— in US aid for Ukraine.
Putin is throwing everything he has at it (as you can see by reading posts pretending to be Americans on Facebook and Twitter/X, etc.).
Let your members of Congress know that you support Ukraine aid being tied to Israeli aid, as Democrats in the House and Senate are demanding: the number is 202-224-3121.