On Feb. 18, President Donald Trump upped his game, declaring that Ukraine started the war with Russia.
Fact-checkers have proven that he told thousands of lies during his campaigns and his first term in office, but none has been so bold as this — a lie that anyone, anywhere can prove false.
So, why has he not been soundly rebuffed by Republicans — especially those representing us Kansans in Washington, D.C.?
Sens. Roger Marshall and Jerry Moran vigorously condemned Russia and following its invasion of Ukraine on Feb. 24, 2022.
Speaking on the Senate floor on March 7 that year, Moran declared, “Vladimir Putin is a thug and is solely responsible for the invasion of Ukraine,” adding, “There is nothing that justifies Russia invading Ukraine. This is the most significant intrusion from one country into another since the beginning of the 1930s, which resulted in World War II.”
He went on to praise Ukraine President Vladimir Zelenskyy as “an inspiration to the world.”
Sen. Moran’s Common Sense newsletter that day included a video of his speech, noting that he had spoken with Zelenskyy just days before. He related Zelenskyy’s final plea: “Don’t let the Ukrainian people be exterminated.”
The Congressional Record of Oct. 3, 2023, reports Moran’s impassioned speech on the Senate floor for the Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative. It includes the following statement: “When I say that I fear today we are failing, I speak of the ambivalence of our commitment to support the efforts to repeal, repulse, remove the Putin invasion across the borders of Ukraine.”
Sen. Marshall appeared on “Good Morning America” on March 24, 2022, after visiting Germany and Poland with a bipartisan group of fellow senators.
After praising the humanity of the Polish people for welcoming the Ukrainian refugees, he said, “But of course, we also saw the worst in mankind. And that’s the war, the horror created by Vladimir Putin.”
Sens. Moran and Marshall spoke boldly during the Biden administration but are now silent — a deafening, complicit silence supporting Trump’s lies about the war in Ukraine, and about President Zelenskyy.
My late son swore an oath to defend the Constitution when he joined the Army. He fought in Iraq and Afghanistan and died as a result of those wars.
Now, I find myself ashamed to think of what our nation is becoming as lie upon lie is heaped on us.
Sens. Moran, Marshall and all other elected leaders: Our country is failing today because of your silence.
I fear for my children and grandchildren when our officials are not courageous enough to uphold democracy abroad and at home. I hope it is not too late to change the dangerous course our country is on.
