What Lindsey Graham’s call to ‘take out’ Putin says about GOP ‘strength’

What Lindsey Graham’s call to ‘take out’ Putin says about GOP ‘strength’

Paul Waldman, Greg Sargent — Read time: 4 minutes

Two weeks ago, Sen. Lindsey O. Graham (R-S.C.) called for the assassination of Russian leader Vladimir Putin. “The only way this ends is for somebody in Russia to take this guy out,” he tweeted. “You would be doing your country — and the world — a great service.”

On Wednesday, after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky’s dramatic appeal to Congress complicated an extraordinarily challenging situation for the United States, Graham was asked whether he still believed that. He answered in the affirmative.

“I hope he’ll be taken out, one way or the other,” Graham responded. “If John McCain were here, he’d be saying the same thing, I think.”

With this bit of posturing, Graham has offered a helpful illustration of two important things about the current conflict. First, as hard as this might be for some Republicans to fathom, there are times when it’s more important to ask “Is this a smart thing to say?” than it is to ask “Will saying this make me look tougher than my political opponents?”

Second, while there are many ways the war in Ukraine could end, it’s unlikely to be a joyous victory for the forces of liberty. The best possible settlement for the Ukrainian people is almost certainly one that will allow Putin, in some fashion, to save face. In fact, there may be no other way for the conflict to end. So what Putin cares about, feels and fears is of great concern to the whole world.

Republicans know that perfectly well. But if and when the invasion does end, Graham and his Republican colleagues will rush to the cameras to say everything would have gone much better had President Biden not been so “weak.”

There’s no question that on barstools around the country, people are saying “Somebody’s gotta take Putin out.” But the difference between your uncle saying it and a prominent U.S. senator saying it is that in the eyes of the world — especially in the eyes of Putin himself — that represents, if not the position of the U.S. government, an indication of what might one day be the position of the U.S. government.

From everything we know, Putin believes that the West, and the United States in particular, are out to get him personally and debilitate Russia’s standing in the world. That’s part of what drives him to expand Russia’s borders and what enrages him about Ukraine’s turn to the West, with the suggestion that they might someday join the European Union or NATO. This notion is also central to the story he’s telling to justify the invasion, the story about the West victimizing Russia.

The point is not that we need to indulge his beliefs. It’s that at certain moments we should choose not to reinforce those beliefs, or least not reinforce that story, if that might make Putin more aggressive, reckless and cruel. The suggestion that the United States might support his assassination — covertly, tacitly or openly — could make him more convinced that nothing short of the complete subjugation of Ukraine will do. Or it could feed his tale of Russian martyrdom.

But beyond all this, Graham’s latest also reflects something pernicious about the GOP’s broader response to this crisis. If you think about it, calling for Putin to be “taken out” is a form of evasion, a way to avoid saying the unsayable: This is an extremely complex situation with no easy or satisfying options.

Acknowledging this would open the door to something few Republicans want to admit: Biden has handled the situation very well, within the constraints of the available options. The president has rallied a far more robust international response than expected, yet he’s also walked the fine line of avoiding escalation from our side, which might trigger Putin further.

But the GOP talking point about all this can only be that Biden’s weakness is to blame for Putin’s invasion. And this is creating some comically absurd moments.

Or take House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.), who defended Donald Trump for withholding military aid from Ukraine to corruptly extort Zelensky. McCarthy used Zelensky’s speech to Congress on Wednesday to spin around and attack Biden for not providing Polish fighter jets, which U.S. intelligence believes could escalate a direct Russia-NATO conflict.

When Graham calls for Putin to be “taken out,” he isn’t necessarily blaming Biden. But he’s peddling a story to Republican voters that’s in many ways as simple-minded as the one coming from Trump and McCarthy, one that avoids telling voters hard truths that might enable them to evaluate the U.S. response in a more informed way.

Here’s a crazy thought: Imagine if Graham used his stature responsibly as a public official to inform voters about the complexities of the situation and prepare them for the morally tortuous and horribly unsatisfying slog that’s sure to come?