Joe Biden: Our Vigorous President

President Joe Biden arrived in Kyiv on Monday morning, February 20, after a journey that had begun with a flight from Washington that left at 4:15 AM on Sunday and was completed with segments by motorcade and train via Germany and Poland. It was a trip that many who question Biden’s age and fitness might welI have found exhausting. But Biden arrived energized and ready for his meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.

By coincidence, Biden’s arrival in Kyiv came on President’s Day, and the coincidence was quite fitting. The visit to Kyiv would be followed by a major address in Warsaw and a meeting with representatives from the countries on NATO’s eastern flank. As a whole, Biden’s trip demonstrated the bold leadership that our presidents can show at their best. It sent a message to several distinct audiences: Vladimir Putin and his Kremlin henchmen, Volodymyr Zelensky and the Ukrainian people, our allies and adversaries around the world, Congress, and the American people. In each case, the message was the same: that our support for Ukraine against Russia’s aggression is unwavering and will remain so.

Sadly, however, we are long removed from the day in 1947 when a leading Republican, Senator Arthur Vandenberg, could refrain from criticism of President Harry Truman’s foreign policy, saying “Politics stops at the water’s edge.” Given the toxic politics of our time, such restraint seems almost quaint. So it seemed inevitable that barking would be heard from a number of denizens of the MAGA kennel in Congress.

Not surprisingly, some of the louder barks came from the reliably insufferable Marjorie Taylor Greene, whose credentials as a foreign policy strategist are perhaps rivaled only by those of her compatriot George Santos. Greene tweeted a novel analysis suggesting that, “The U.S. support for war in Ukraine has been like a U.S. proxy war with Russia. But now it’s becoming more like a U.S.- China war through the Ukraine — Russia war. End it now!” Also chiming in with criticism of Biden’s visit to Kyiv were GOP Representatives Andy Biggs of Arizona and Matt Gaetz of Florida.

Biden’s address in Warsaw provided an eloquent and forceful rebuttal to a rant that Vladimir Putin had delivered earlier in the day. For readers who missed it, a video of the Biden address and a complete transcript are available here. “One year ago, the world was bracing for the fall of Kyiv. Well, I’ve just come from a visit to Kyiv and I can report Kyiv stands strong. Kyiv stands proud, it stands tall and most important, it stands free,” Biden said as a crowd, many waving American flags, cheered underneath cold rain. In remarkably pointed terms, Biden accused Putin of atrocities and that the Russian’s attempt to subjugate a sovereign nation would not succeed. “President Putin’s craven lust for land and power will fail,” Biden said, one of the 10 separate times he singled out Putin by name. “Hard and bitter days” are ahead, Biden warned, but he stressed that “Ukraine will never be a victory for Russia, never.” He continued by proclaiming that “Democracies of the world will stand guard over freedom today, tomorrow and forever.”

Biden’s trip heartened the gallant Ukrainians and reinforced the commitments of our European allies. Whether it brought Putin any closer to reality remains to be seen.  It also remains to be seen how long Biden will be able to sustain support for Ukraine in the face of skepticism or outright opposition from Republican critics in the House of Representatives. The posture of such Republicans is an ironic betrayal of their Party’s history of robust resistance to the Soviet Union during the Cold War.

Still, it is difficult to see how Biden could have done more to rally support for Ukraine and, more broadly, the cause of freedom in Europe and beyond. There are various matters for which Biden may be fairly criticized, but today he deserves not only our salute, but a respite from chatter that he is too old to be President.