Saying that he was "both not surprised and outraged" by the news Alexei Navalny's death, President Joe Biden praised the opposition leader's bravery in standing up to "corruption, to violence, to all the bad things that the Putin government is doing." Putin, Biden said, "is responsible for Navalny's death."
"Putin had him poisoned, he had him arrested, had him prosecuted for fabricated crimes, he sentenced him to prison," Biden continued of Navalny's persecution. "Even in prison, he was a powerful voice for the truth."
Noting that Navalny "could've lived safely in exile" after a poisoning almost claimed his life years ago, Biden said the most prominent opposition to Putin instead returned to Russia knowing what was likely to happen to him because he "believed so deeply in his country" and building a country "where the rule of law existed."
But then, Biden turned to use Navalny's death — reports of which Biden emphasized he has no reason to doubt — to attack Republicans in Congress and former President Donald Trump.
"This tragedy reminds us of the stakes of this moment, we have to provide the funding so Ukraine can keep defending itself," Biden emphasized. "I mean this in a literal sense: history is watching. History is watching the House of Representatives," the president said. "The failure to support Ukraine at this critical moment will never be forgotten," Biden warned. "It's going to go down in the pages of history...the clock is ticking and this has to happen."
Continuing to attack House Republicans, Biden asked rhetorically: "What are they thinking?" by being out of town for "two weeks!" he yelled. "My god," Biden opined about the House schedule having lawmakers working in their districts in the coming days. "This is bizarre," the president continued before accusing them of "reinforcing all the concern...about the United States being a reliable ally."
Never mind, apparently, that Biden has spent some 40 percent of his first term on vacation and he's not the one to raise questions about others' work schedules. Also, when it comes to America's allies, the U.K. parliament formally held Biden in contempt for his disastrous withdrawal from Afghanistan and even France once recalled its ambassador to the U.S. after getting blindsided by a Biden snub related to a defense agreement.
Then, amid his attack on Republicans, Biden just...froze up mid-speech. Again. Watch:
JUST IN: Joe Biden experiences another bout of brain freeze. pic.twitter.com/6rgowisjaL
— LivePDDave 🇺🇸 (@LivePDDave1) February 16, 2024
Biden also said "all of us should reject the dangerous statements made by the previous president," saying it was "an outrageous thing for a president to say" when Trump suggested he wouldn't come to the aid of attacked NATO countries that did not contribute their share.
It's perhaps worth noting it was not during the Trump years that Russia threatened its neighbors or broader Europe, but during the tenures of Biden and Obama most recently that Putin took to the warpath. And don't forget the distinction noted in 2016 by Salena Zito between taking Trump's words seriously vs. literally.
Years ago, Biden threatened "devastating" consequences if Navalny died behind bars, but when asked what punishments would follow now that such a fate has played out didn't have anything to say. Instead, Biden suggested that Russia has already faced a "hell of a lot" of consequences since Biden issued the threat. But why didn't Biden do more to squeeze Russia to free Navalny — and U.S. citizens wrongly held in Russia — earlier in his first term?
Biden, like a broken clock is twice a day, correct on the point that Putin is a thug. So why does Biden keep enacting policies that help him? From the LNG export ban to earlier energy policies that drove up demand and profits for Russian oil and gas allowing Putin to finance a war, Biden has not been a successful opponent to Putin. It wasn't just a coin flip that led Russia to choose to invade Ukraine when it did, after all. Biden's projection of weakness, as seen again in his glitch during Friday's remarks at the White House, emboldens bad actors such as Putin around the world.
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