Former GOP Congresswoman Liz Cheney of Wyoming continues calling out what she’s characterizing as the authoritarian-aligned wing of the Republican Party.
“This is what Putin’s Russia is, @TuckerCarlson. And you are Putin’s useful idiot,” Cheney wrote recently on X, the platform formerly called Twitter. “Same with you @JDVance1 and other Putin-wing Republicans who are working to defeat Ukraine in its struggle for freedom.”
Cheney linked in the post to news coverage of the death of Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny, who was detained at the time. Carlson, the former Fox News host, recently traveled to Russia, lauding the country and interviewing Russian leader Vladimir Putin himself. And Sen. J.D. Vance (R-Ohio), known as a Trump ally, is among the Republicans opposing U.S. security assistance for Ukraine amid an ongoing Russian invasion.
The Senate nonetheless passed a foreign aid package that set up tens of billions of dollars in additional help, which has largely though not exclusively been in the form of weapons deliveries, though there have been delays amid complaining from GOP leadership in the House, which is currently controlled by a slim Republican majority.
Donald Trump himself has also complained about the current state of U.S. assistance to Ukraine, and Republicans in the House and Senate who’ve opposed the foreign aid whether on its own or in the deal linking it with immigration policy changes that was recently voted down in the Senate have aligned themselves with the ex-president.
Amid the push for assistance for Ukraine, some have argued the U.S. has a strategic interest in seeing a Russian defeat. Some have also pointed to some funds designated for that aid actually going to U.S. companies as weapons shipments and other aid are assembled.
Meanwhile, Trump has stuck by his recent threats to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) after he recently suggested at a rally that he’d encourage a Russian military advance on members if they fell short of ostensible spending obligations, the nature of which Trump misrepresents.
