U.S. Response to Russia's Invasion of Ukraine

[TopHatter]

An yeah, 71% of Republicans support Ukraine joining NATO. So, there goes the conservative in Putin's back pocket theory.

https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tan...rainepartisan/

And the leader of the Republican Party is openly hostile toward NATO. And openly friendly toward Russia in general and Putin in particular.

[Officer of Engineers]

I will worry about that walking clusterfuck when and if he gets back into power. Right now, there's another walking clusterfuck screwing up all our efforts in keeping 170,000 Russians out of Kiev.

[TopHatter]

Right now, there's another walking clusterfuck screwing up all our efforts in keeping 170,000 Russians out of Kiev.

Nothing we can do about him Sir, his house, his rules, even if that means losing his house to the Russians.

We've got no treaty, no obligations, no real connections to Kiev.

We can send them ATGMs and intel and practically everything else under the sun, short of putting boots on the ground and fighters flying CAP over their territory, but at the end of the day, Ukraine is Zelenskyy's to keep or lose.

[Chunder]

It's irrational to think A TV show host or U.S. conservatives in general have any input into Putins thinking. The U.S. is bound to accept NATO entry requirements & has no input into the E.U, which is the biggest economic input that has a say - I dont know why youd think such thing as plausible.

the only instance I see the U.S getting overly involved past the norm is if it deems the current world order being jeopardised that it decides to make an example out of Russia economically. That is the prerogative of the President. Not Tucker Carlson.

[TopHatter]

It's irrational to think A TV show host or U.S. conservatives in general have any input into Putins thinking.

Once again, that's Not My Point.

All Putin needs is a sufficiently-divided, distracted, confused or otherwise unfocused United States.

[TopHatter]

Trump praises Putin's 'genius' incursion into Ukraine

Former President Donald Trump on Tuesday praised Russian President Vladimir Putin's decision to send Russian troops into Ukraine to support Russian-backed separatists in the Luhansk and Donetsk provinces. In an appearance on the right-wing talk radio program "The Buck Sexton Show," Trump broke his conspicuous silence on the crisis to applaud the Russian dictator.

"This is genius," he said of Putin's decision on Monday to officially recognize the breakaway provinces and authorize the use of Russian military personnel to assist them. "So Putin is now saying it’s independent — a large section of Ukraine. I said, how smart is that? And he’s gonna go in and be a peacekeeper. We could use that on our southern border. That’s the strongest peace force I’ve ever seen. There were more army tanks than I’ve ever seen. They’re gonna keep peace, all right."

Trump is a long-standing fan of Putin's. In 2013, he wondered on Twitter if the Russian autocrat would attend his Miss Universe pageant in Moscow and whether the two would become "best friends." Putin did not show up. In the following years, Trump repeatedly spoke highly of Putin's strategic acumen, noted the strongman's intention to "re-build the Russian Empire" and defended Putin's habit of killing dissidents and journalists, arguing that the United States does the same thing.

Putin's recent move is widely considered an assault on Ukraine's sovereignty. As NPR explained, "The announcement is a serious escalation that effectively kills the Minsk accords, which set out a series of military and political steps designed to resolve the status of the two breakaway regions and end the 8-year-old conflict there."

It is unclear exactly what Trump would like the U.S. military to do on the southern U.S. border.

Trump went on to heap more praise on Putin and to claim that Russia would have been less aggressive if he were still in the White House.

"No, but think of it," the former president continued. "Here’s a guy who’s very savvy. I know him very well — very, very well. By the way, this never would have happened with us. Had I been in office, not even thinkable. This would never have happened. But here’s a guy that says, 'You know, I’m gonna declare a big portion of Ukraine independent.' He used the word 'independent.' 'And we’re gonna go out, and we’re gonna in, and we’re gonna help keep peace.'”

During the 2016 campaign, Trump publicly encouraged Russia to continue its efforts to hack into the campaign email system of his opponent, Hillary Clinton, as part of the enemy nation's effort to help him win. Once in office, he sided with Russia over U.S. intelligence agencies in accepting Russia's claims not to have been involved in election interference.

Trump concluded his comments on Tuesday by asserting that President Biden had not responded to the Russian aggression.

"You gotta say this is pretty savvy," Trump said. "And you know what the response was from Biden? There was no response. They didn’t have one for that. No, it’s very sad. Very sad."

The United States imposed new economic sanctions on Tuesday.

At the White House on Tuesday, press secretary Jen Psaki was asked about Trump's comments.

"We try not to take advice from anyone who praises President Putin and his military strategy," Psaki said, before noting how Trump had sided with Russia when it annexed the Crimean Peninsula, another portion of Ukraine. "There's a bit of a different approach," she said.

In 2019, Trump asked Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to launch a scurrilous investigation of Biden because Trump wanted to weaken his likely 2020 Democratic opponent. When Zelensky refused, the Trump administration withheld congressionally approved aid to Ukraine, which is illegal according to the nonpartisan Government Accountability Office. That resulted in Trump's first impeachment.

Trump subsequently claimed — without evidence, and at odds with all the evidence gathered by U.S. intelligence officials — that it was Ukraine, not Russia, that had interfered in the 2016 election. In Trump's elaborate conspiracy theory, Ukraine did this in order to frame Russia. And what was Trump's source for these claims, according to one senior government official who spoke to the Washington Post? “Putin told me.”
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Right on time, as expected.

God. Fucking. DAMMIT. Is it even possible for this walking pile of shit to stop fawning all over Putin?

What in the blue hell does Putin have on Trump?

[tbm3fan]

Trump praises Putin's 'genius' incursion into Ukraine

"This is genius," he said of Putin's decision on Monday to officially recognize the breakaway provinces and authorize the use of Russian military personnel to assist them. "So Putin is now saying it’s independent — a large section of Ukraine. I said, how smart is that? And he’s gonna go in and be a peacekeeper. We could use that on our southern border. That’s the strongest peace force I’ve ever seen. There were more army tanks than I’ve ever seen. They’re gonna keep peace, all right."

Insight on how he would like to enforce "peace" anywhere I would guess since he doesn't mean the southern border in a strict sense. One must assume he would like it if the United States Military pledged allegiance to him based on his admiration on the use of tanks.

"No, but think of it," the former president continued. "Here’s a guy who’s very savvy. I know him very well — very, very well. By the way, this never would have happened with us. Had I been in office, not even thinkable. This would never have happened. But here’s a guy that says, 'You know, I’m gonna declare a big portion of Ukraine independent.' He used the word 'independent.' 'And we’re gonna go out, and we’re gonna in, and we’re gonna help keep peace.'”

Right up there with him being the least racist person he knows. Of course he knows no one else, including Putin, which may explain it.

Which is it now. Putin was very, very savvy moving in on Ukraine as mentioned above so you approve. Or, you don't approve since you say it would never have happened under you. Speaking out of both sides of your mouth is a well known trait.

[TopHatter]

This is what my point has been all along, provided by the last two Republicans with any sort of moral awareness:






Just a reminder: The puppet sitting on Putin's knee is the undisputed Leader of the opposition party.

[Officer of Engineers]

It is genius but not in the way Trump thinks. The only thing that changed on the ground is that the Russians in the DNR and LNR took off their sports caps and put on their regimental berets. But that simple recognition revealled the West's hands. Putin now has a grasp of what the West is willing to do and not willing to do economically.

[zraver]

TH, Biden went after North American energy independence hammer and tong thereby weaking the US and her allies in Europe and giving Russia and extra billion dollars a day. He dropped sanctions on Nord Stream II, showed he is totally inept with the Afghanistan rout, promised to never go it alone binding American foreign policy to NATO's weakest member, and now his "tougher" sanctions against Russia amount to sanctioning banks already sanctioned, because being told no twice sure is fierce.

Yet here you come right on cue, the ink for the Dem talking points you printed out hasn't even dried and you are yelling TRRRRRRUUUUUUMMMMMPPPPP!!!!!! and holding up Liz "I love the police state and endless war" Cheney. You really should take a breath. Trump is spot on when he says Putin is winning. Thats not admiration, but a statement of fact. Biden is inept, corrupted, and trying to make an impossible case. That because of of a faraway conflict I should pay more for food, gas and life in general and the threat that all life might end should tick closer to midnight. America does not need more war. If Biden is in a mood to secure borders so the citizens of a country can live in peace he should start with Texas and Arizona. After all his border policies have killed 100k Americans a year. If he wants to combat Russia, I mean really hit Russia where it hurts, unleash American energy and follow up on Trump's goal of having the US be Europe's energy supplier.

[Parihaka]

Your references scream of "A pox on both your houses," not supporting Putin. Regardless, Tucker Carlson has zero calculus input in Putin's decision making. At best, it gave Putin a chuckle.

Nor does he have any relevance on Biden's decision making. Sorry for spamming up the thread

[TopHatter]

Trump continues to praise Putin, forcing GOP to fall in line or splinter from former president
Former President Trump continued his criticism of President Biden on Wednesday, saying in a statement that Russian leader Vladimir Putin is “playing” him “like a drum.”

“It is not a pretty thing to watch!” Trump said.

His comments come a day after the former commander in chief went well beyond most Republicans by not just criticizing Biden’s handling of Russia’s aggression toward and invasion of Ukraine, but also lionizing President Putin.

In a separate statement Tuesday after Biden’s announcement of the first tranche of sanctions, Trump claimed such events would never have occurred during his presidency.

And in an interview with “The Clay Travis & Buck Sexton Show” published Tuesday, Trump called it “genius” of Putin to recognize two enclaves in eastern Ukraine’s Donbas region as independent breakaway republics on Monday, adding that Putin is “very savvy.”

Trump’s former secretary of State, Michael R. Pompeo, tweeted Wednesday that “allowing these thugs, autocrats, and dictators to move around freely is not in America’s best interest.”

But Tuesday, Pompeo’s past praise for Putin was widely circulated. Over the last month, he has called Putin “savvy,” “shrewd” and a “talented statesman” for whom he has “enormous respect.”

Republicans parroting Trump’s comments about Putin are “cowards” repeating “the nonsense that is fed to Trump by his handlers,” former Trump White House communications director Anthony Scaramucci tweeted Wednesday.

“Trump down deep laughs at all this,” Scaramucci said. “He can’t believe he has this level of sway.”

The recent rhetoric from Trump and Pompeo, his once-top diplomat, goes far beyond what most Republicans have said.

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) warned that the humanitarian consequences of a larger Russian invasion “could be catastrophic.”

Noting that the world is watching, McConnell challenged Biden to use his executive authority to impose “devastating sanctions against the Kremlin and its enablers.”

A joint statement from House GOP leaders called Putin’s invasion “reprehensible” and accused Biden of routinely choosing “appeasement” and “tough talk” without strong action to follow.

“The U.S. and our allies must now make the Putin regime pay for this aggression,” they said. “Congress should compel President Biden to take the tough steps his administration has opposed thus far.”

In a Fox News interview, Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) referred to Biden’s first round of sanctions as “quarter measures.”

“Unfortunately, the administration spent the first 24 hours debating whether to even call this invasion an invasion, and the president took 80 minutes to come out for his own press conference, which doesn’t exactly project confidence and certainty and resolution to people watching in Moscow,” Cotton said.

The House Republican Conference went even further in criticizing Biden’s appearance, tweeting a C-SPAN screen grab of the president walking away from the lectern after delivering his remarks Tuesday.

“This is what weakness on the world stage looks like,” the tweet said.

For one Republican, it was an unfair slam against a president in the middle of an international crisis.

“As still ‘technically’ a member of house Republicans, let me, with all my might, condemn this damn awful tweet during this crisis,” retiring Rep. Adam Kinzinger (R-Ill.) wrote. “You can criticize policy but this is insane and feeds into Putins narrative.”

Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.), who was voted out of GOP leadership for opposing Trump and whose primary opponent is backed by Trump and House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Bakersfield), said Trump’s “adulation” of Putin “aids our enemies.”

“Trump’s interests don’t seem to align with the interests of the United States of America,” she said.
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[TopHatter]

The real reason Putin played a pussycat during the Trump presidency

Republicans have long had a toughness fetish. Going back to the early days of the Cold War, its flip side has been the insinuation that Democrats are weaklings ready to sell out the country to its enemies, with the GOP eager to serve proudly and unapologetically as America's lone defenders abroad.

No one should be surprised that the script has already been updated to account for recent distressing events on the border separating Russia and Ukraine.

Late last week, conservative talk-show host Hugh Hewitt observed in a tweet that "the tyrant Putin invaded Ukraine in 2014 and will do so again in 2022 but did not do so between 2017 and 2020." Without mentioning his name, Hewitt implied Putin became a pussycat because of Donald Trump's steadfast leadership as president.

But wait — wasn't Trump Putin's lapdog for the entirety of his presidency, famously refusing to say anything remotely critical about him and even siding with Putin's denial of Russian interference in the 2016 election against evidence provided by America's own intelligence services?

No doubt realizing the absurdity of the claim, National Review's Rich Lowry (and others) leapt in a few days later to add a layer of nuance to the assertion. It's not that Trump was tougher than President Biden, but that he was more erratic: "The sheer unpredictably of Trump, his anger at being defied or disrespected, his willingness to take the occasional big risk (the Soleimani strike), all had to make Putin frightened or wary of him in a way that he simply isn't of Joe Biden."

There may be some truth in this revision of the thesis. Trump was indeed volatile, impulsive, and capricious. It's certainly possible that Putin feared a move against Ukraine could spark a massive military response from Trump.

But it's far more likely he hoped for something very different. As Jonathan Last pointedly suggested on Tuesday in his newsletter for The Bulwark, Trump expressed his desire on numerous occasions for the United States to withdraw from NATO altogether. He did so while campaigning for president in 2016. He did so as president. And apparently, he even made clear to advisers he hoped to make it a reality after he won re-election in 2020.

Since such a withdrawal is Putin's fondest wish, it makes far greater sense to suppose his relative restraint during the Trump presidency was a function of a reasonable expectation he might get everything he wanted without having to fire a shot. Only now, with a less … unorthodox American president in charge, has war become Putin's only means of advancing his more immediate aim of ensuring NATO moves no closer to Russian territory.

Putin didn't play nice guy from 2017 to 2020 because he was afraid of Donald Trump. He did so because he knew he had nothing to fear from the fanboy in the Oval Office.

________

[TopHatter]

Donald Trump and Tucker Carlson are all over Russian state media
The Kremlin used footage of the right-wing celebrities in pre-invasion propaganda.

February 24, 2022 In the final days before Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered the invasion of Ukraine, Russian state media used footage of Donald Trump, former secretary of state Mike Pompeo and Fox News personality Tucker Carlson to bolster Putin’s image.

A Grid review of a half-dozen Russian state media outlets found at least a dozen examples of government channels resharing complimentary remarks by the three men. None responded to Grid’s requests for comment.

“I went in yesterday and there was a television screen, and I said, ‘This is genius,’” Trump told an American radio program on Tuesday. “‘Putin declares a big portion of the Ukraine — of Ukraine. Putin declares it as independent.’ Oh, that’s wonderful.” Noting there were “more army tanks than I’ve ever seen,” Trump said, “they’re gonna keep peace all right.”

A Russian-language summary of Trump’s comments by Russia Today told viewers, “Trump is confident that Russian troops will keep the peace in Donbas.” Donbas is the region within Ukraine’s territorial boundaries that contains Luhansk and Donetsk. On Wednesday, hours before Russia’s invasion, state-controlled outlets replayed and discussed the American former president’s comments for Russian viewers.


Screenshot of Donald Trump's remarks about Russian President Vladimir Putin's military moves in Ukraine being discussed in a video by the Russian-language RT outlet.

InoSMI, a branch of state media that translates Western content into Russian, has brought at least eight of Carlson’s monologues and interviews to Russian language viewers this month, a search of its archives shows. “Why is it disloyal to side with Russia but loyal to side with Ukraine?” Carlson asked in one of those monologues in late January. “They’re both foreign countries that don’t care anything about the United States. Kind of strange.”

On Monday, Russian state-owned channel 360 rebroadcast a portion of Carlson’s Feb. 17 monologue in which he mocked news reports that the Russian invasion of Ukraine was expected to begin on Feb. 16 but had not yet occurred. “It is clear that Fox News is trying to make fun of this story,” the Russian host commented.

At a think tank event broadcast on C-SPAN, Pompeo remarked that he found Putin “very shrewd,” “very capable” and “savvy.” “I have enormous respect for him,” Pompeo said, calling Putin “an elegantly sophisticated counterpart.” State-controlled broadcaster Russia-1, immediately after showing Secretary of State Antony Blinken’s comments on the crisis during its Feb. 22 broadcast, featured Pompeo’s comment that he has “enormous respect” for Putin.

Praising a foreign aggressor when the world faces large-scale armed conflict has historically been considered off-limits in U.S. politics, especially when the sovereignty of U.S. allies and security of U.S. interests may be at stake. And for good reason: They can be used in propaganda against your nation’s interests, as Russian government-controlled media has done with Trump’s comments.


Screenshot of Donald Trump's remarks about Vladimir Putin's military moves in Ukraine being discussed on Russian Channel 360.

Reactions to the men’s comments from diplomatic experts and officials Grid contacted ranged from disappointment to outrage, even as several acknowledged Trump’s behavior was predictable.

“This just never happens. It should not happen. It’s very distressing,” said Rachel Epstein, a professor at the University of Denver’s Josef Korbel School of International Studies. “But of course, it also is totally consistent with what former president Trump and his entire administration almost have done consistently throughout his presidency in the aftermath — which is precisely to dismantle the norms that we had taken for granted in the service of democratic governance and sound foreign policy.”

“Aids our enemies”
“If the former president and the former secretary of state want to praise dictators who carve up parts of neighboring countries and send in troops to occupy them, we should be grateful — Trump and Pompeo are telling us who they really are,” said Stephen Sestanovich, a professor of international diplomacy at Columbia University who worked on Russia policy in the Reagan and Clinton administrations.

“They say they respect Putin, but you can be sure Putin does not respect them in return,” he added. “He probably feels amused contempt. It’s a little pathetic that they don’t see this.”

Asked about Trump and Pompeo’s statements on Wednesday, U.S. State Department Spokesman Ned Price said, “I have no response. In fact, I have no words.”

Few mainstream Republicans weighed in on Trump’s remarks. Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.) — who was censured by the GOP earlier this month for her role on the House Jan. 6 committee — said on Twitter that Trump’s commentary on Putin “aids our enemies.” She added: “Trump’s interests don’t seem to align with the interests of the United States of America.”

Nearly all Republican senators released statements condemning Putin’s invasion. “Putin’s cruel attack on the people of Ukraine is a gross breach of sovereignty,” said Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah. “I condemn this violence and evil, and pray for the people of Ukraine.”

Former president George W. Bush also condemned the attack on Ukraine, saying in a statement that it “constitutes the gravest security crisis on the European continent since World War II.”

It’s not clear what motivations lie behind the pro-Russian comments from Trump and other right-wing figures. Epstein, of the University of Denver, opined that for the former president, it fits with an established pattern of behavior. “He’s very good at drawing attention to himself,” she said. “I think he finds that to be politically very favorable, and I think that’s, first and foremost, what’s going on.”

Daniel Chirot, professor emeritus at the University of Washington’s Jackson School of International Studies, said while the motives of Trump, Pompeo and Carlson may be “naive” or “treacherous,” the source of their appreciation for Putin seems earnest and clear: “Trump and those Fox commentators like Putin and want to create an authoritarian, illiberal country here.”
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[TopHatter]

Trump Pals Beg Him to Stop Kissing Putin’s Ass During Ukraine Invasion
Former President Trump can’t stop talking about his admiration for Russian President Vladimir Putin, but at CPAC his biggest fans were more focused on blaming Biden for everything.

ORLANDO, Florida—At the dawn of Russia’s new invasion of Ukraine this week, Donald Trump appeared to be on a Russian roadshow, telling whoever would listen about the wonder of President Vladimir Putin’s ability to take over the country next door on a whim.

But as Russia continues to attack Ukraine, several advisers and associates have practically begged the former president to end his effusive-sounding praise of Putin. Trump’s warm words for the Russian leader, who the ex-president regularly brags about knowing “very well,” has startled even some of Trump’s onetime lieutenants who were already conditioned to mask their disgust with the 45th U.S. president’s actions.

“I was stunned to hear that,” Dan Coats, who previously served as then-President Trump’s director of national intelligence, told The Daily Beast on Thursday night. “I cannot think of any other U.S. president that would in a situation like this say what he said.”

Over the past few days, as reports of preparations and execution of the bloody invasion grew increasingly dire, Trump—who was famously impeached for pressuring the Ukrainian government to use bogus dirt to investigate the Biden family—couldn’t resist the urge to regurgitate his anti-democratic “Big Lie,” nor could he stop himself from repeatedly flattering the Russian leader in multiple venues.

It got to the point that by Thursday afternoon, several longtime associates who had spoken to Trump since Tuesday told him that he might want to avoid lavishing too much praise on Putin, and perhaps refrain from complimenting the Russian president’s intellect so much, according to two sources with knowledge of the matter. At least one adviser recently mentioned to Trump that it would be more advantageous to simply stick to calling Biden feckless and bumbling.

Neither of them had high hopes that the ex-president would take the advice.

On Tuesday, The Clay Travis & Buck Sexton Show posted an interview with former President Trump in which he falsely claimed the 2020 U.S. presidential election was “rigged” against him, lauded Putin’s Ukraine strategy as “genius,” and suggested that the U.S. government should deploy similar tactics to clamp down on immigration at our southern border.

Similarly, on Wednesday evening, the night Putin’s military operation commenced, the twice-impeached former president delivered remarks at a fundraising event at his private Florida club Mar-a-Lago, where he said, “I mean, he’s taking over a country for $2 worth of sanctions. I’d say that’s pretty smart.” Trump made sure to allege that Putin would not be doing this on President Trump’s watch, a counterfactual claim made laughable by the Trump administration’s actual record.

For months, Republican Party operatives, candidates, their staff, and lawmakers had anticipated a golden opportunity to merely drag Biden as “weak” and “Jimmy Carter 2.0” amid a Russian invasion that would coincide with an American election year. But the party’s standard-bearer’s rambling analysis made many of his confidants and major allies wish he’d “keep his mouth shut about” itand keep it to himself, a person close to Trump said.

However,Trump ride-or-die Rudy Giuliani, who helped trigger Trump’s first impeachment by spearheading the Ukraine pressure campaign on Trump’s behalf, seemed to be on the same page, telling told Newsmax Thursday he believed the Biden administration was in over its head and that Putin “played this almost like a symphony conductor.”

“He kind of stretched it out to make Biden look more and more foolish,” Giuliani said. “They have a president, we don’t.”

But among the conservative grassroots and within the movement’s media and political elite, they mostly stuck to blaming Biden and his “weakness” for plunging the world into chaos.

Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-CA), the third-ranking House Republican who serves on the Armed Services Committee, claimed Biden’s inaction—despite his spate of sanctions on Russian oligarchs and repeated urges by conservatives to not get involved in war—led to Thursday’s invasion. The message was echoed by Republican Reps. Scott Perry (PA), Brian Mast (FL), and Madison Cawthorn (NC).

“We are witnessing Joe Biden’s policy of war through weakness,” Stefanik wrote in a Twitter statement. “For the past year, our adversaries around the world have been assessing and measuring Joe Biden’s leadership on the world stage, and he has abysmally failed on every metric.”

Even at the 2022 Conservative Political Action Conference in Orlando, Florida, a place that quickly morphed into a MAGA festival over the course of Trump’s presidency, the speakers and attendees were more focused on dragging Biden than marveling at Russia’s might—and most hardly mentioned the rapidly escalating conflict at all.

Former Trump deputy national security adviser K.T. McFarland made the conference’s first mention of Russia’s invasion about 45 minutes into the first day. She declared Russia’s actions “a full-scale invasion of an independent nation,” while managing to pin the blame on the “feckless” Biden administration.

“They are unable to stop what Vladimir Putin is doing,” McFarland said. “He plans to affect this administration where he can now do whatever he wants, whenever he wants, with Ukraine.”

The Biden bashing remained an undercurrent throughout other Thursday CPAC panels, with some speakers like Turning Point USA executive director Charlie Kirk arguing the real invasion Americans should care about is at the U.S.-Mexico border, not in Europe.

“The U.S. southern border matters a lot more than the Ukrainian border,” Kirk said during his speech. “I’m more worried about how the cartels are deliberately trying to infiltrate our country than a dispute 5,000 miles away in cities we can’t pronounce in places most American citizens can’t find on a map… We are being invaded!”

Local attendees agreed. Kathryn Lehr, a Boulder, Colorado, resident donning a “Free Boulder” hat, who claimed she was at the Jan. 6 Capitol insurrection, attacked Democrats’ halting of Trump’s plans to build a border wall and falsely claimed Biden invited illegal immigrants to enter “as though this is his fucking country to invite millions of people in illegally.”

“What’s one reason not to secure the Southern border?” said Lehr, who put her age in the 50s. “I've never heard a good reason from a Democrat why the southern border should not be secured.”

Some potential White House hopefuls, however, took different approaches to the invasion on Thursday.

In a 20-minute midday slot at the annual conservative summit, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis—widely considered the top contender for the 2024 GOP presidential nomination, if Trump ends up not running—hit every conservative buzzword to thunderous applause, railing against “the Brandon administration” over its handling of COVID-19, immigration, and his relationship with Florida.

Ukraine was not mentioned even once.
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Something about fresh ink and Trumpist talking points