My new column tries to clear up some misconceptions about where Republicans stand on Russia.
Republicans are becoming “the party of Putin,” says Alexander Vindman, the former national-security official who helped bring about the first impeachment of then-President Donald Trump. Bill Maher has been describing the party that way for years. Washington Post columnist Max Boot wrote in 2019 that GOP “might as well stand for ‘Gang of Putin.’ ”
It’s a criticism that will grow louder now that Trump has praised the “genius” of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s moves against Ukraine and Tucker Carlson, the Fox News talk-show host, has complained that Democratic propaganda has turned Americans against Putin.
But there are two holdouts to the Republican Party’s supposed new pro-Putin consensus: most Republican voters and most Republican politicians. . . .