Putin Prefers Biden
Comparing the candidates’ records, there’s little question Russia would take Biden over Trump.
Russia, Russia, Russia. It’s about all we heard for the better part of three years from Democrats, as they screamed and hollered that Donald Trump won the presidency because of the Russians and is therefore a Kremlin stooge. They started it all over again late last week with the story alleging Russian bounties on U.S. troops in Afghanistan. In 2016, the question was whether the Russians preferred Trump or Hillary “Reset” Clinton. Fast-forward to 2020, and the question is essentially the same: Would Moscow rather deal with Trump or with Sleepy Joe Biden?
To be sure, most Americans probably care far more about the economy, taxes, and other “kitchen table” issues than they do about relations with a second-rate foreign power. Nevertheless, Russia is in fact one of America’s foremost geopolitical foes (yes, Mitt Romney was right), behind only China. And the U.S. president is obviously important because, as they say, personnel is policy.
Russia’s primary interest is not securing a win for a buddy; it’s sowing chaos and trouble for the U.S. Democrats only aid Vladimir Putin when they blame Trump for that discord.
Just since 2008, Putin has invaded neighboring Georgia, sold military hardware to NATO “ally” Turkey, supported Nicolas Maduro’s thug regime in Venezuela, backed Bashar al-Assad in Syria, obstructed embargo efforts against Iran, murdered an innocent Briton, and imprisoned a former U.S. Marine on bogus “spying” charges. And then there’s his interference in 2016. Clearly, whatever causes trouble for the world’s only remaining superpower is Putin’s goal.
So what would Trump and Biden do about the former KGB agent who’s now effectively Russian president for life? We know with Trump. Despite his frustratingly ingratiating rhetoric toward ol’ Vlad, he’s toughened sanctions, withdrawn from treaties Russia has been violating anyway, and supplied the Ukrainians with arms.
The Obama-Biden-Clinton regime, by contrast, refused to arm the Ukrainians, promised “flexibility” to Putin’s puppet Dimitri Medvedev, and gave that infamous and symbolic “reset” button to show what great friends America and Russia could be with a helping of Hope ‘n’ Change™. If Biden wasn’t instrumental in those policy decisions, he at least stands by them and promises a return to that sort of foreign policy.
Which brings us back to the ultimate question: Which candidate would Putin prefer?