A group led by a major anti-Trump figure is responsible for bashing some of Tennessee’s elected Republicans for their perceived lack of support for Ukraine.
Republicans for Ukraine, reportedly a project of Defending Democracy Together, has issued “report cards” for Tennessee’s Republicans on the issue of Ukraine’s defense against Russian aggression.
Defending Democracy Together was founded in 2019 by an array of anti-Trump figures led by Bill Kristol, editor-at-large of a fringe publication called The Bulwark, and is responsible for numerous other anti-Trump and anti-conservative projects, including Republican Voters Against Trump.
Republicans for Ukraine’s “report card” system is based mainly on whether Republicans have supported bills to fund Ukraine’s defense against Russia and also includes a vague category called “statements,” presumably what those Republicans have said publicly regarding war.
Here is how some Tennessee Republicans have fared on their “report cards:”
- Rep. Andy Ogles (R-TN-05): Very Poor
- Rep. Diana Harshbarger (R-TN-01): Very Poor
- Rep. Scott DesJarlais (R-TN-04): Mediocre
- Rep. John Rose (R-TN-06): Mediocre
- Rep. Tim Burchett (R-TN-02): Very Poor
- Rep. David Kustoff (R-TN-08): Okay
Only Reps. Chuck Fleischmann (R-TN-03) and Mark Green (R-TN-07) scored highly on their “report cards” and were graded as “Excellent.”
The Tennessee Star reached out to Republicans for Ukraine with several questions.
John Conway, director of strategy for the group, responded directly to only one of those questions.
“The Republican Party used to understand the importance of standing up to dictators and supporting democracies around the world. We are reminding lawmakers and Republican voters of those traditional values,” Conway said. “Vladimir Putin is an enemy of the United States. Helping the Ukrainian people and weakening Russia directly protect the interests of the United States. And our efforts in Ukraine signal to China that the United States will always support its allies.”
Asked in a follow-up whether Conway thought that unlimited taxpayer-funded spending on the war in Ukraine was at odds with the traditional Republican value of fiscal conservatism, Conway did not respond.
Conway also would not say whether there should be, at some point, a cap on spending on Ukraine’s defense.
He also would not divulge information about the organization’s top donors and instead said the group is “supported by a wide range of donors from across the country who are all united in support of democracy.”
Conway noted that the U.S. has spent 5 percent of its defense budget defending Ukraine.
“For just five percent of our defense budget, we’ve helped the Ukrainians destroy 50 percent of Putin’s army,” he said. “That’s a great deal for the US.”
The United States’ defense budget for Fiscal Year 2023 was $2 trillion. Five percent of that figure is $100 billion.
The claim that the U.S. taxpayer’s $100 billion investment in Ukraine’s defense has helped “destroy 50 percent of Putin’s army” is dubious.
Citing unnamed military officials in August, The New York Times reported that 120,000 Russian soldiers have been killed since the war began.
Russia reportedly has 1,330,000 active-duty, reserve and paramilitary troops, meaning that less than 10 percent of Russian forces have died during the year-and-a-half-long war.
The Times report also notes that the Russian army has suffered about 180,000 injured troops.
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Pete D’Abrosca is a reporter at The Tennessee Star and The Star News Network. Follow Pete on X / Twitter.
Photo “Andy Ogles” by Andy Ogles.
The debate is one as old as the nation itself. In Washington’s farewell address of September 1796 (in which he announced that he would not be seeking a third term as President), Washington stated the following:
“The great rule of conduct for us in regard to foreign nations is in extending our commercial relations, to have with them as little political connection as possible. So far as we have already formed engagements, let them be fulfilled with perfect good faith. Here let us stop. Europe has a set of primary interests which to us have none; or a very remote relation. Hence she must be engaged in frequent controversies, the causes of which are essentially foreign to our concerns. Hence, therefore, it must be unwise in us to implicate ourselves by artificial ties in the ordinary vicissitudes of her politics, or the ordinary combinations and collisions of her friendships or enmities.”
The language is stilted and many things have changed in the last two hundred and twenty-five plus years of US nationhood, but one which has not is the recurring debate and decision whether the US should become involved in foreign wars.
I myself have no affection for Russia. But likewise I have no affection for Ukraine other than the natural desire of probably most to see one which is smaller and weaker overcome the uninvited aggressions of a hostile bully like Russia. However, the nations of Europe should have far more interest in this matter than the US which is approximately 6,000 miles away.
In recent news reports are stories that when it comes to funding foreign armies around the world, US money is seemingly endless but for the basic, everyday needs of the American military itself, apparently there’s never much money. In a new report published by the Government Accountability Office, is the account of inspections at twelve military installations which has found squalid conditions. This report details grotesque conditions that some of the American troops face: mold, sewage, brown water, bedbugs. Horrific photos show overflowing sewage, filth and squalor in military barracks.
No, I am for America First and I support those who put America First. The US cannot police the World. A nation’s power, even American power, can only do so much, and the US must first calculate and act in its own interests, not the interests of others.
When you see Green and Rose’s votes for Ukraine, your next stop should be opensecrets.org to see who is funding their campaigns. All of those weapons sent to be destroyed by Russia have to be replaced. And, the US weapons manufacturers are humming. They fund guys like Green and Rose and Democrats equally to keep the assembly line rolling. At some point they will fully pivot to Taiwan and go full “Chinese Communist Party” bellowing.
Yeah Bill Kristol is a real globalist. So is Soros. And Blinken and Garland. Globalist globalist globalist!
Mr. Conway and his Cadre should look deeper into that whole Ukraine debaucle. There are agendas under the surface for all of that which are a sight more complex than Putin’s re-annexation whim. Or maybe Mr. Conway already knows about that , and it’s why he wants to keep the funding pouring in to Ukraine. Trump says he would put an end to that war in 24 hours. Madman or not , however you think of Trump, there is a reason why he says that.
I can get where Green is coming from even though it’s a terrible decision, but Rose is surprising me as I thought former State Senator Mae Beavers had total control over him and Ogles.
Greene, Rose and Kustoff need a real primary challenger! We term limits in house and senate!!
I could not have described the neocon soybois better myself.
Looks like we are going to need to primary Fleischmann and Green.
Kustoff is no surprise, but Mark Green should be ashamed of himself. Spending US taxpayers money to stuff his own campaign coffers with Defense Industry campaign contributions is shameless.
BS. What I know is that Greene and Rose are supporting the continued NeoCon war machine/money laundrying debacle going to the Ukraine. Eff ANY Republi-crat that keeps this charade going while we can’t even keep our own people up.
As it’s been said , Repugnant “cants” and Dim o “craps” are just different wings of the same vulture.
Rose is our rep and he’ll never get our families vote again. The only reason the uniparty voted Ogles and Burchett “poor” is because they are over the target and the uniparty @zh0l3s don’t like it.
There is no so-called Democracy in the Ukraine.
Only a Fascist Dictator with Zelensky and the boxer mayor of Kiev.
Zelensky has shut down all opposing views and imprisoned Priests.
Zelensky and Trudeau along with the Canadian Parliament just honored one of Canada’s living Veterans of the Ukrainian 14th Waffen SS Division. Zelensky had a big smile on his face as this Nazi animal received a standing ovation.
Canada has many monuments to their Nazi Collaborators.
Those sending taxpayer money to the Ukraine are on the wrong side of the FREEDOM fence.
Defending Democracy Together? What a joke. We can’t even get free and fare elections here, much less in Ukraine. Neocons are con men, all of them. Many of them are chicken hawk frat cuck frat boys.