Biden has Democrats and Republicans behind him

new York While US President Joe Biden is still on the plane after his European tour, his great rival takes the stage 800 kilometers south-west of Washington. In front of waving American flags, Donald Trump throws red baseball caps with the words “Save America” ​​into the crowd. Thousands of Republicans waited for him in Commerce, Georgia on Saturday, demanding a big reckoning with Biden.

Trump, who came to support his candidates in the “Save America” ​​election campaign rally, castigates the high gasoline prices. He later works on transgender athletes and condemns what he considers excessive violence on the streets.

Only then does he turn to Ukraine. “We have a president who has no idea what the hell he’s doing and doesn’t even know where he is,” he says. Then he calls out to the crowd: “The fake news says he’s acting brilliantly, but Ukraine is being bombed too Sch….” If he were still president, no, this war would never have happened.

Trump reaped thunderous applause from his loyal supporters, but he has long been in a credibility dilemma. Just before he invaded Ukraine, he called Russian President Vladimir Putin “brilliant”, “smart” or “savvy”.

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But now the mood in the country has turned in the face of the brutal bombing war – and Trump’s repeatedly staged admiration for Putin is becoming a problem for him. Although he has long since condemned the aggression of the Russian ruler.

Donald Trump in Georgia

Donald Trump says the war in Ukraine would never have happened under him as President.

(Photo: AP)

The rift that runs through political America and that Trump widened so much during his presidency suddenly doesn’t seem so deep anymore: The war is bringing America closer together.

When it comes to Ukraine, most Democrats and Republicans agree in principle. They support Ukraine and its President Volodymyr Zelenskiy and they condemn the attacker Putin. This applies to the voters as well as to the politicians.

When Selenski spoke via video link to the assembled US Congress of senators and members of parliament almost two weeks ago, the standing ovations were cross-party. Yellow and blue pennants and pocket squares were common among Democrats and Republicans alike.

Volodmir Zelensky in the US Congress

When Selenski spoke via video link to the assembled US Congress of senators and members of parliament almost two weeks ago, the standing ovations were cross-party.

(Photo: dpa)

Michael McCaul, the senior Republican on the House Foreign Relations Committee, said this is not the time for partisan rhetoric. “This is the time to stand united as a nation behind Ukraine and against one of the most evil forces we have seen since my father’s war. And that was World War II.”

That was not always so. At first, many Republicans in the region preferred not to get involved at all.

In February, Trump-affiliated star Fox News presenter Tucker Carlson described Ukraine as a “western puppet state that is not a democracy. His viewers had better ask themselves, “Why hate Putin?”

Trump-backed candidate for the Ohio Senate, JD Vance, declared before the march in: “I don’t really care what happens to Ukraine, one way or the other.” Such voices have generally become rather rare today.

Former US Ambassador to Ukraine John Herbst, observing the Washington think tank’s Eurasia Center today, said: “Broadly speaking, Biden has bipartisan support when it comes to the situation in Ukraine. But many also believe that he should act even more strongly.”

Demands for no-fly zone

In fact, Republicans are even outdoing each other in their calls for more support in the form of guns, accusing Biden of being too weak and not supplying enough guns.

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell said ahead of Biden’s Europe trip: “Our own president needs to up the ante. We’re not doing it fast enough to help the Ukrainians.”

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Republican Senator Susan Collins of the Maine Republican also believes there is more Biden can do. “When it came to importing Russian oil into this country, it looked as if Congress would have to push him to do it.” The same applies to the Polish MIGs planes that Zelensky had requested and which the US was supposed to replace with its own. That deal never came about.

Former Vice President Mike Pence also called for the planes for Poland. “The Biden administration should move these MIGs from Poland to Ukraine, right now,” Pence told Fox News on Friday.

Republican Mike Rogers even called for a no-fly zone for Ukraine. So far, Biden has rejected this because he fears it will escalate the war.

Biden calls Putin a ‘butcher’

Diplomat Herbst explains that Republicans were primarily discussing a humanitarian no-fly zone. A kind of airlift should enable Ukrainians to flee safely or to supply the cities with food and medicine. “And you can’t shoot in this corridor,” explains Herbst. “It would not be the first time. We also did that during the war in Georgia,” he says.

Exceptions in the Trump camp

Of course, there are still exceptions among Republicans. Only Republican Marjorie Taylor Greene, known for her scandalous statements, said just a few days ago at a town hall meeting in her home state of Georgia that she considers Selenski to be corrupt.

Herbst of the Atlantic Council says that this is only a small part of the Republicans, the isolationism or Trump wing. “Of course there is a danger that this wing will grow with the next elections,” he points out. “But so far, the polls also show that the American people are increasingly behind Ukraine and against Russia.”

How long will public opinion in the US continue to support Ukraine? The former ambassador says: “As long as Putin’s atrocities continue.”

More: “Putin cannot remain in power” – Biden speech causes excitement

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