The Romance Between The American Right, Russia And Putin

Consider This from NPR

NPR

Society & Culture, News, Daily News, News Commentary

4.1 • 5.3K Ratings

🗓️ 15 February 2024

⏱️ 15 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

For half a century, during the Cold War, every U-S president painted Russia as the dominant threat. America's ideological opposite, a hostile and nuclear-armed power. Ronald Reagan went so far as to call the Soviet Union an Evil Empire.

So the events of recent days have been noteworthy. On top of a holdup of U-S aid for Ukraine, former President Trump said he might NOT come to the defense of a NATO ally who hadn't spent enough on defense.

And Tucker Carlson, the erstwhile Fox news host, flew to Moscow to sit down with Vladimir Putin for more than two hours of mostly softball questions.

Afterward, he pronounced Putin "impressive" on stage at the World Government Summit.

So what gives? Why the romance between the American right and Russia?

Email us at [email protected].

Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoices

NPR Privacy Policy

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	Democratic Senator Chris Murphy did not meant words when he told me about the importance of the foreign aid bill he just helped pass.
0:08.0	The state of the world is at stake.
0:10.0	The bill includes military aid to Taiwan and Israel and also tens of billions of dollars to Ukraine.
0:18.0	I just don't think it's hyperbolic to talk about the stakes being nothing less than potentially World War III because if
0:27.0	Vladimir Putin owns Ukraine, there is a real possibility he will move on to a NATO country that would drag the United
0:35.8	States into a direct confrontation.
0:38.0	Senate minority leader Mitch McConnell agreed, and so did 21 of his Republican colleagues, who helped the measure pass by 70 votes to 29.
0:47.0	It's never been about charity. Not about charity. It's not about virtue signaling or abstract principles of international
0:57.6	relations. This is about cold hard American interests.
1:03.7	But many Republicans are less enthusiastic about the bill,
1:07.7	including the one who now controls its fate.
1:10.9	Mike Johnson, the Speaker of the House, has in the past expressed almost the exact
1:16.2	worry you just heard about the risk of allowing Vladimir Putin to prevail in Ukraine. But that was before former President Donald Trump
1:25.3	attacked this foreign aid package on his social media platform and on the
1:29.8	campaign trail. They want to give like almost a hundred billion dollars to a few countries, a hundred billion.
1:36.5	And I said, I'm telling you this, this is breaking news, we have breaking news.
1:41.1	I said, why do we do this? If if you do you give them not a hundred billion dollars you give it to them as alone as
1:47.4	as speaker Johnson has the power to give the bill a vote he has hinted he may not let it get to the floor.
1:55.0	The whole episode has exposed a fracture in the Republican Party.
1:59.0	On one side, Republicans who are increasingly skeptical of supporting Ukraine and its war with Russia.
2:05.0	Some cite concerns about American interests.
2:08.0	Others go as far as echoing Kremlin talking points, like Alabama Senator Tommy Tuberville did on the
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from NPR, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of NPR and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.