LOS ANGELES.–President Joe Biden, 81, tried-but failed to get Ukraine’s 46-year-old President Volodymyr Zelenky’s wife Olena Zelenska and Russia’s dead dissident Alexi Navalny’s wife Yulia Navalnaya to the State-of-the-Union Speech to show more phony patriotism supporting his Ukraine War against the Kremlin. Biden wanted to turn his State-of-the-Union speech into a circus to pressure Congress, specifically House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.), to give him another $60 billion for the Ukraine War. Biden has no plan to end the Ukraine War, telling voters that if reelected, he’ll keep the war going indefinitely, costing the Treasury nearly $200 billion, climbing every day. Getting Zelenska and Navalnaya to attend the State-of-the-Union would have been great theater but instead has to settle for the parents of 32-year-old jailed Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich.
Gershokovich was arrested and detained by Russian authorities March 30, 2023, accused of Espionage, something denied by the Wall Street Journal [WSJ] who really doesn’t know what, if anything, Russian officials say they found in Gershkovich’s possession. Whether the arrest of Gershkovich is fake or not, Biden’s war in Ukraine against the Kremlin has made prisoner swaps next to impossible. Why would 71-year-old President Vladimir Putin do any favors to Biden knowing that the U.S. tries to defeat the Russian State? Biden has called Putin a “murderous thug,” blaming him for the Feb. 24, 2022 Ukraine War. Biden denies that the U.S. arming Ukraine had anything to do with the Russian invasion. Yet any look at failed diplomacy between Biden and Putin in the months leading up the invasion shows that Biden refused to discuss any new security arrangements with Ukraine.
So when Biden announces Evan Gershkovich’s parents at the State-of-the-Union he’ll continue to demonize Putin but won’t have any answer for how get their son out of a Russian prison. When former Fox News host Tucker Carlson interviewed Putin Feb. 5, he asked him about releasing Gershkovich to his custody. Putin politely declined, telling Carlson it must go through the proper back channels, saying he didn’t oppose releasing the WSJ reporter but only through proper channels. Bringing Gerkovich’s parents could backfire on Biden by showing he’s incapable of restoring normal diplomacy with the Kremlin. Biden has had a vendetta with Putin since his Obama days as Vice President, when Putin defeated White House efforts to topple Syrian President Bashar al-Assad in 2015. Biden says he and Zelensky would eventually defeat the Kremlin. No one believes it.
When you think Biden would have brought Navalny’s widow Yulia to a joint session of Congress, it shows how he’ll use any means to condemn Putin. How does Biden in the future plan to restore normal diplomatic relations with the Kremlin if he continues to slam Putin and the Russian Federation? If Biden had any practical diplomatic relations with Moscow, he could get Gerskovich, through a prisoner swap, out of a Russian jail. But because Joe wages proxy war in Ukraine against the Kremlin, the chance of getting Gerskovich out are slim-and-none. When Biden paid to get WNBA star Briney Griner out of a Russian gulag Dec. 8, 2022, U.S.-Russian relations continued to deteriorate. No president in post-WW II history has ever waged war against the Kremlin. Putin said recently that any U.S. troops in Ukraine would be a major escalation of the conflict.
Biden went out on a limb Feb. 16 accusing Putin of killing Navalny, further damaging U.S.-Russian relations. Bringing Navalny’s widow to the State-of-the-Union would have whipped up more misplaced Kremlin hatred but would have delayed Gershkovich’s release into the indefinite future. Navalny’s widow hopes to take over his dissident group planning protests March 17 on Election Day, clogging up Russian polling places. Whatever opposition Navalny ever enjoyed, it was largely manufactured by the CIA to foment revolution in Russia. If that’s not foreign meddling then, what is? Navalny was most likely a CIA operative, working inside Russia to overthrow Putin’s government. Biden’s accusations of Putin killing Navalny only sets back U.S.-Russian relations for the foreseeable future. Only by getting rid of Biden is there hope to restore normal U.S.-Russian relations.
Anyone watching Biden’s State-of-the-Union Speech knows that he has nothing good to report about his last three years in office. With the Ukraine War raging, inflation continuing to hammer American consumers and the open border with Mexico flooding the U.S. with millions of illegal aliens, the immediate future looks bleak. Biden wants to tax his way out of his failed proxy war in Ukraine, costing U.S. taxpayers nearly $200 billion. How’s Biden going to reduce the whopping $1.6 trillion budget deficit and $34 trillion national debt unless he’s willing to stop wasteful defense spending? Fed Chairman Jerome Powell said monetary policy alone cannot fix today’s inflationary economy. Biden must stop punishing billionaires and corporations with higher taxes because he can’t get his fiscal house in order. Only by stopping the Ukraine War can Biden make any progress on anything.
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.
