opinion
Paul Ryan is a Republican, former Speaker of the House of Representatives, and former Vice Presidential candidate.
It is also a creation of George W. Bush and the old Dick Cheney, the Republican Party before Donald Trump.
This means that he, like Liz Cheney, Nikki Haley and others, typically thinks and speaks like a Democrat. All those old Bush-era Republicans are basically Democrats at this point.
So it's no surprise that Ryan is now attacking conservative pundit Tucker Carlson as a “Putin supporter.”
Just as most Democrats do.
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From Mediaite, “Paul Ryan, former Republican House Speaker and current Fox Corp. board member, attacked both Tucker Carlson and Donald Trump for pushing 'pro-Putin' and 'pro-authoritarian' sentiments in the United States.
“Ryan talked to Washington Post Chief Congressional Correspondent Paul Kane on Wednesday during a live event for the newspaper's “2024 Elections” series. Mediaite noted that Kaine asked Ryan to comment on the news of the day, dysfunction in Congress, and Carlson — who was fired from Fox News last April.
The story continued:
“What about Russia where we keep going back to this kind of echo loop that started in 2016, where they keep trying, it seems, and in some measures, they keep kind of succeeding?” Ken Ryan asked, referring to Tuesday's news that the GOP's lead whistleblower in the impeachment inquiry had ties to Russian intelligence.
But Russia has been trying to hack our system for a long time, before 2016. I mean a long time. “They were very active in those days, and it is clear now, as we know, that Russia tried to influence our elections,” Ryan responded, after noting that he did not have anything specific to add about the latest news.
“On the flip side of this, what Republicans are angry about, rightfully so in this particular case, is that the Obama Justice Department abused the FISA court,” Ryan added, referring to the Russia scandals of the Trump years. “FISA is on that, and we can get into the Steele dossier and all that stuff.”
Ryan went on to frame Russia's attempts to plant disinformation in the United States in geopolitical terms. He added: “They believe that our weakness is our freedom, so we polarize ourselves into inaction.” He added: “And Russia is basically trying, with a bayonet, to prick the soft tissue of the American political system and find it, and this may be just another chapter in that story.”
Unfortunately for Ryan, Putin's real goal is to embroil the United States in a losing war halfway around the world. once again.
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Russia, Russia, Russia
Ryan, a Fox News board member, isn't done yet.
“Yes, I mean what they're going to try to do is build empathy,” Ryan said of Russia. “What worries me most — and not just Tucker, this is a symptom of all of this — is that they are orchestrating compassion in America. They are helping to nurture and develop an isolationist wing in my party and in our country, which I think is very dangerous.”
“Isolationist” is an old leftist epithet, in this case meaning anyone unwilling to give billions of US tax dollars to Ukraine.
“They are developing people who want to see NATO diminished or NATO no longer committed,” the Republican establishment continued. Clearly, former President Trump is pushing that line as well. So what concerns me most is that they are helping to organize a line of thought, an isolationist, pro-Putin, pro-Russian, ultimately pro-authoritarian school of thought. “This is very dangerous for all democracy, but for us as a democracy.”
Just to point out that having Ukraine in NATO, as most establishment Republicans and Democrats want, means American soldiers will be on the ground in Ukraine now fighting in that war. Or it could mean nuclear war.
If you think that's a bad idea, Ryan thinks you're an “isolationist.”
Ryan added. “So I see Tucker as just a small chapter in that story. I didn't watch that entire interview. I watched a little bit of it, but it seemed like some kind of commercial for Putin to be able to boost his propaganda.”
“You're still on the Fox board, right?” Ken asked.
Ryan admitted it was.
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