Republicans Hit Trump On Putin/US Equivalency
- Charlie Biscotto
- Feb 6, 2017
- 3 min read
Yesterday, while examining the relationship between Sinclair Lewis's 1935 novel It Can't Happen Here and our modern political climate, we touched on Donald Trump's very concerning effort to equate Vladimir Putin and the United States. It turns out we weren't the only ones concerned.
First, Vice President Pence (playing his now all-too-familiar role on clean-up duty) defended the remarks in an interview with CBS's John Dickerson, saying, "I simply don't accept that there was any moral equivalency in the president's comments... What you heard there was a determination to, to, to... attempt to deal with the world as it is, to start afresh with Putin, and to start afresh with Russia."
Dickerson pointed out that Trump as a candidate had said in response to a similar question, "I think our country does plenty of killing also." All Pence could muster in response: "What I could tell you is there was no moral equivalency in what the president was saying."
"No moral equivalency" was clearly the talking point Pence decided to drive home, but as Dickerson pointed out, moral equivalency is exactly what Trump's language suggests. If you respond to accusations that Putin is a killer by saying, as Trump did, "You think our country's so innocent," then you are literally attempting to draw equivalence. Trump was making a comparison in an attempt to excuse Putin's actions. It was not a comparison intended as unfavorable to Putin, therefore he was trying to draw moral equivalence. This administration decided to use all of its "You didn't see/hear what you thought you saw/heard" cards on its second day in office, so Pence's argument gets no credibility from me.
If Trump and Pence believe that we should have better relations with Putin despite his being a murderous autocrat who attempted to meddle in our elections, then they should feel comfortable making that case. They're not, and it's not just me who thinks that's a problem. Florida Senator Marco Rubio, one of the more anti-Putin members of the Republican Congressional delegation, had this to say in a signed tweet:
Nebraska Senator Ben Sasse was also questioned by George Stephanopolous about Trump's comments, and said that while he doesn't know what Trump was trying to imply:
Putin is an enemy of political dissent. The U.S. celebrates political dissent and the right for people to argue free from violence about places or ideas that are in conflict.There is no moral equivalency between the United States of America, the greatest freedom-loving nation in the history of the world and the murderous thugs that are in Putin's defense of his cronyism. There is no moral equivalency there.
Sasse states clearly what Pence tried to superimpose on Trump's comments. The freedoms that we enjoy in liberal democracy are what have made this country strong. The rule of law in this country has allowed us to slowly and steadily (surely too slowly in hindsight, but steadily nonetheless) expand rights and freedoms, and from the beginning has been marked by permitting fierce criticism of the powers-that-be. With another Russian opposition activist hospitalized by apparent poisoning in the last week, the timing of Trump's comments couldn't be worse.
The Kremlin, apparently not satisfied with Trump's answer, went so far as to demand an apology from Fox News for Bill O'Reilly calling Putin "a killer." This would place me in the uncomfortable position of saying "Job well done!" to Bill O'Reilly if it weren't for the fact that O'Reilly never really pressed Trump to explain his reasoning behind his claims of illegal voters or his statement of moral equivalence with Russia.
Ultimately, nobody objects to sitting down and negotiating with Russia when our needs align, so long as we continue to assure our NATO allies that we have their backs and support the rule of law. But the murder of opposition figures by government forces is not a values system we should tie ourselves to. Having good relations with Russia doesn't require us to apologize for Putin's murderous history, and any attempt to tie that history to our own is certainly a betrayal of Trump's promise to put America first.
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