EU keeps caving in to Putin without American leadership. Biden was supposed to stop that, even campaigned on it. He called Putin a killer—correctly. But looking tough in Geneva or using strong words doesn’t matter. Action matters, and so far Biden is failing that test.
We know the summit is good for Putin, or he wouldn’t do it. And everything Trump did was about Trump. But Biden? It’s not about him. To give such a gift to a killer who attacked the US, you have to make the case to the American people and he hasn’t tried.
The Russian hacks against the US are recent! You don’t normalize that behavior. When someone robs your house, you don’t ask him for a nice meeting in Geneva. You want him arrested, you want your stuff back. And if he does it again? And again?
My criticism of Biden is hardly a defense of Trump, who was blatantly subservient to Putin. It's tragic and absurd for guests to talk about Trump's "strength" re Putin, or Obama's "sending a message" for that matter.
I'm happy to go on NBC, FOX & CNN to share my views on Putin, which do not change for the venue and haven't changed in 20 years. But hearing their partisan spin exposes a real problem of the inconsistency in US foreign policy.
What is good for the country is below what looks good for the president to his domestic supporters. That's how dictators act, not democracies. Look at the results, not the party affiliation. Look at W Bush's, Obama's, Trump's *results* with Putin.
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