New York Times reporter Jonathan Weisman is trying hard to portray the Republican Party as extremist, or at least hypocritical, concerning the Russian assault on Ukraine. On March 10 he wrote “Republicans, Once Harsh Ukraine Critics, Pivot to Strong Support.”
In the final years of Donald J. Trump’s presidency, Republicans portrayed Ukraine as an Eastern European Wild West run by nefarious oligarchs and unlawful politicians, a bad actor that sought to tamper in American elections and channel millions of dollars to Joseph R. Biden Jr.’s son.
….
Now such voices are fading, as the bulk of the Republican Party tries to get on the right side of history amid a brutal Russian invasion of Ukraine….
So is the Times itself, as we'll see. Weisman let a Democratic senator play partisan politics with the war.
The Republican center of gravity has undergone what Senator Richard Blumenthal, Democrat of Connecticut and a longtime advocate for the Ukrainian community in his state, called a “sea change,” a swing of the pendulum so sharp that some fear it could lead Congress to unwittingly widen the war.
Weisman dutifully took even more Democratic dictation from Blumenthal.
Yet that story apparently didn’t take, forcing Weisman to write the same piece a week later, with more familiar Democratic names, on Friday: “Republicans Once Silent on Russia Ratchet Up Attacks on Biden.” After hearing out two Republican senators criticize Biden’s previous passivity on Russia, Weisman then lashed out:
Absent from that analysis were four years under President Donald Trump during which he repeatedly undermined NATO, sided with Mr. Putin over his own intelligence community on Russia’s interference in the 2016 election and tried to bring Russia back into the community of developed economies….
This next paragraph looks even more partisan now, given what the Times is finally admitting about the reality of Hunter Biden’s laptop and the contents contained there:
Senator Ron Johnson of Wisconsin was also on that trip to the Kremlin, then launched an investigation of Hunter Biden in Ukraine that sparked warnings by Democrats that he was serving as a conduit of Russian disinformation….
Only Republicans act partisan?
Democrats argue that such criticism shows how single-minded the Republican Party has become about tearing down its opponents.
Weisman found another familiar Democratic face:
“Republicans have defaulted to attacking Joe Biden in a moment of national crisis,” said Senator Christopher S. Murphy, Democrat of Connecticut….
….
On the other end of the spectrum, Senator Mitt Romney, Republican of Utah, offered a more comprehensive historical analysis.
“I wish we’d have armed Ukraine more than we did, but that’s true for not just Biden, but Trump and before him,” said Mr. Romney, who warned during the 2012 presidential debate of a looming threat from Russia….
Apparently, the Times is also trying to get on the “right side of history” on Russia, given they mocked then-candidate Romney in 2012 for his Russia concerns, at least when he was criticizing sitting Democratic president Barack Obama.
Weisman actually linked to an old Times article by Richard Oppel Jr. critical of Romney’s suddenly wise words:
Mitt Romney’s recent declaration that Russia is America’s top geopolitical adversary drew raised eyebrows and worse from many Democrats, some Republicans and the Russians themselves, all of whom suggested that Mr. Romney was misguidedly stuck in a cold war mind-set.
A March 2012 Times editorial was even worse:
Two decades after the end of the cold war, Mitt Romney still considers Russia to be America’s ‘No. 1 geopolitical foe.’ His comments display either a shocking lack of knowledge about international affairs or just craven politics. Either way, they are reckless and unworthy of a major presidential contender.
