Former Vice President Mike Pence, 64, now running for president, showed there are zero degrees of separation with 80-year-old President Joe Biden, another misguided Cold War warrior that hasn’t caught up with the times. Speaking the evangelical Hugh Hewitt Show, Pence showed why the former radio host should go back to right wing broadcasting not run for president. Hewitt and Pence yucked it up together, preaching to the choir of their hatred toward 70-year-old Russian President Vladimir Putin and the Russian Federation. To Hewitt and Pence, there are no differences in their views, parroting each other on their warmongering views of Russia. When you consider they think like Biden, how can any conservative trust Pence? Talking about the Ukraine War, Pence said “is not just warfare. It’s evil,” Pence told Hewitt, again mirroring their evangelical views of Russia, a Godless state.
Pence and Hewitt have come up to speed with post-Soviet Russia, where the Russian Orthodox Church has become an integral part of Russian society. “I have no doubt that if Vladimir Putin overran Ukraine, it would not be too long, Hugh, before the Russian military crossed a border where we would have to send our fighting men and women to fight against them,” Pence said, repeating verbatim Biden’s Democrat talking points. How does a conservative who hopes to be president repeat the Democrat incumbent’s talking points? Biden and Ukraine’s 45-year-old President Volodymyr Zelensky often sell the West on the Ukraine War saving European democracy. Zelesky told a joint session of Congress Dec. 21, 2022, that Ukraine is not a “charity case” but an investment in democracy’s future. What a cynical sales job when you consider Ukraine is a war-torn, bankrupt country.
Pence admits under his leadership he would take the U.S. to war against Russia under the phony theory that Putin would, as Biden claims, take over Europe. Putin asked Biden for months before the Feb. 24, 2022 Ukraine War that he wanted to renegotiate new security arrangement. Putin said the U.S. and NATO arming Ukraine to the teeth on the Russian border threatened Russian national security. Biden told Putin that his idea of new security arrangement was a “non-starter.” Putin told Biden in no uncertain terms that without a new security arrangement, he would implement “technical military operations” to mitigate the threat to the Kremlin. Yet Biden ignored Putin’s overtures on a new security arrangement for Ukraine. Pence sees the inevitability of a future war with the Russian Federation, showing he learned nothing as 77-year-old former President Donald Trump’s vice president.
Pence likes to quote President Ronald Reagan who believed in “strength to maintain the peace,” yet the situation in Ukraine stems from Biden’s inability to conduct U.S. foreign policy. Biden had plenty of chances, but ignored them, to let diplomacy, not war, resolve the Ukraine crisis. Biden chose proxy war over a negotiated settlement, now costing the U.S. Treasury billions to pay Ukaaine to fight the Kremlin. “If you’re willing to fight the enemies of the United States on your soil, we’ll give you the means to fight them there so our men and women in uniform don’t have to fight them,” Pence said, making no sense. Pence endorses Biden’s policy of fighting proxy war to degrade the Russian military to the point it can no longer wage war. What happened to the decades of diplomacy and détente with the Russian Federation? Pence told Hewitt that Putin is “evil,” requiring regime change.
Pence has no foreign policy other than following what Biden has already done to destroy U.S-Russian relations. You’d think working with Trump for four years Pence would have learned something about the value of maintaining healthy diplomatic relations. Pence joins the Trump-hating crowd thinking it helps his chances in the 2024 GOP primary race. Trump said if elected in 2024 he would end the Ukraine War in 24 hours, calling both Putin and Zelensky to end the conflict. Pence committed himself to Hewitt to continue the Biden policy of perpetual war with the Russian Federation. Biden’s proxy war with the Kremlin has left Ukraine bankrupt, destroyed infrastructure, killed thousands and driven millions more into exile. Pence plans to continue the Biden policy, something popular with Russian war hawks like Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) and other Democrats and Republicans.
Pence has a plan to follow Biden’s foreign policy to continue antagonizing the Kremlin and to start a new war with Communist China. Talking to Hewitt, it’s clear that Pence has no foreign policy at all, only to join Capitol Hill war hawks in continuing the Ukraine War. When it comes to Ukraine, Zelensky must be told at some point he’s welcome to continue his war but not with U.S. funding. When NATO meets in Vilnius, Lithuania July 11, the 31-member alliance should tell Biden that the alliance is perfectly capable of defending Europe from a Russian invasion. When it comes to Ukraine, NATO has no intention of joining Biden’s proxy war with the Kremlin. Zelensky can talk about defending European democracy but it’s no excuse for continuing the war. Any GOP candidate running for president should have a plan to end the war not continue the failed Biden policy.
About the Author
John M. Curtis writes politically neutral commentary analyzing spin in national and global news. He’s editor of OnlineColumnist.com and author of Dodging The Bullet and Operation Charisma.
