While the world watches Russian President Vladimir Putin move into Ukraine, Meghan McCain and husband Ben Domenech say they wish President Joe Biden and certain members of the GOP would have listened to Meghan’s father, the late Senator John McCain.
“President George W. Bush infamously said that he looked into Putin’s eyes and saw his soul,” writes McCain in an article for the Daily Mail. “When my father was campaigning for the 2008 Republican Party presidential primaries, he responded to Bush’s comment. My father said he looked into Putin’s eyes and saw ‘three letters: a K, a G and B.'”
Ms. McCain then lays out example after example of what she believes is a long list of presidents, from George W. Bush to Joe Biden, who failed — either through lack of understanding or a lack of desire — to understand, “the great existential threat posed by Putin and his blood lust for the glory days of the U.S.S.R.”
“No one looks back on the Bush years with much regard to his foreign policy instincts or his intellectual heft as a president, but nonetheless it was a particularly stupid thing for the former president to say,” writes McCain.
“And it stands out for its incompetence given what is happening today amid Putin’s continued drive to strengthen his murderous regime,” she adds.
She then points to former president Barack Obama, and a famous 2012 “hot mic” moment in which he was heard telling Russian President Dmitry Medvedev “that he would ‘have more flexibility’ to negotiate on missile defense after his November election.”
“In another famous clip from the 2012 presidential debate against Senator Mitt Romney, Obama made fun of the governor for bringing up the looming existential threat of Russ and Vladimir Putin,” McCain writes. “Obama said ‘the 1980’s called and they want their foreign policy back.’
“At the time, lapdog journalists, including CNN’s Chris Cillizza, cheered the gotcha moment instead of taking Romney’s warnings seriously,” she states. “They applauded like seals over Obama’s cheap line — calling it the best moment of the debate.”
As those poorly-aging tweets resurface, McCain acknowledges that Cillizza has since admitted he was wrong, but calls his retraction “too little, too late.”
If Obama had just listened to John McCain’s advice, “we may have avoided all of this,” states Meghan.
“My father has become so beloved of a figure for his dedication to Ukraine that in 2019 the Kiev city council voted to rename a street after him,” she writes.
Meghan McCain’s husband, Federalist co-founder and fellow “Never Trump”-er Ben Domenech, agrees with his wife.
On yesterday’s episode of “Special Report with Bret Baier,” an emotional Domenech told Fox viewers that his late father-in-law would be “disgusted with what he has seen going on when it comes to Ukraine and the entire Biden agenda when it comes to this moment, because it is absolutely predictable.”
“It’s something we could all see coming and it is designed in this moment to roll back what has been incredible benefit to the free world, which is enjoying the reality of the post-Cold War era when the United States stood for freedom and was able to be counted on when it came to defending our friends and standing up to our enemies,” Domenech said.
And like his wife, Domenech is equally critical of some members of the GOP and their perceived empathy towards Putin’s actions.
“It is, I think, very depressing to see the kind of encompassing of, and the toleration of the Putin message,” Domenech said. “I would encourage everyone to look at his speech the other night, because it’s something that I think should be respected for the argument that he is advancing. It shouldn’t be dismissed. It should be taken seriously.”
“I think that every Republican, every conservative, anyone who believes in the Ronald Reagan message when it comes to foreign policy–” he continued, “They should be proud to stand for that as opposed to running away from it, or trying to make some kind of an excuse for this authoritarian domination of a free people in a way that I think is just entirely irresponsible when it comes to maintaining the post-Cold War reality that has been a great benefit to the people of the world.”
Writers and editors can be contacted at [email protected] with feedback, tips, or corrections.
Melissa Fine is the former executive editor of Casino Player, Strictly Slots, and Poker
Digest magazines. She is a UCLA graduate, news junkie, and dedicated Stargate SG-
1 fan. Melissa currently lives with her dog and two cats in a tiny town in the Sierra
Nevada foothills.
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