There's a war going on in Europe, and some Americans wonder: would this have happened
under Trump?
"I don't think so.
I don't think so."
After President Vladimir Putin invaded Ukraine, some Republicans claimed that the Russian
leader would not have attacked Ukraine if Donald Trump was still president.
In a February 26th speech, Trump furthered this notion by proclaiming things would be
different if he was still in the White House.
Trump made the claim during his speech at the 2022 Conservative Political Action Conference,
or CPAC.
"This horrific disaster would never have happened if our election was not rigged and if I was
the president."
For the record, all claims of the election being rigged against Trump in 2020 have been
comprehensively disproven.
On February 23rd, Trump even told a group of donors at Mar-a-Lago that Putin's actions
were, quote, "pretty smart," according to a video of the speech circulating on Twitter.
Meanwhile, Daily Beast reported Republican Sen. Tom Cotton's claim during a recent press
conference that Putin's attack was due to, quote, "a year of Joe Biden's impotence and
incompetence towards Russia in particular and in foreign policy more generally."
Days before the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Sen. Ted Cruz shared similar sentiments to
Fox News Sunday.
"Joe Biden becoming president is the best thing that ever happened, tragically, for
Vladimir Putin."
Meanwhile, GOP Sen. Mitt Romney was more nuanced in his criticism of Biden.
Romney told The Atlantic that Biden was, quote, "wise to bring in allies" and share intelligence,
but also shared the opinion that the White House should have been more aggressive and
proactive in sending weapons to Ukraine.
A poll released on February 26 showed that some Americans agree with these kinds of GOP
claims about Putin's invasion, finding that a large number of respondents believe that
the invasion may not have happened under Donald Trump's watch.
Of the Americans polled, 62% believe this assertion.
Conducted by the Harvard Center for American Political Studies, the poll collected online
responses from 2,026 registered voters.
Broken down by party lines, the poll results showed that 85% of Republicans and 38% of
Democrats surveyed believed Putin would not have made his aggressive advance on Ukraine
if Trump was in the White House.
However, Voice of America talked to experts who countered these GOP claims and poll results.
Brookings Institution director of research Michael O'Hanlon, who's the author of "Beyond
NATO: A New Security Architecture for Eastern Europe," talked to Voice of America and disagreed
with the idea that Putin was afraid of Trump.
O'Hanlon said,
"The only reason that Putin might not have wanted to do this ... wouldn't have been out
of fear of Trump.
It would have been affection for Trump and not wanting to do this on the watch of his
fellow strongman."
Joshua Shifrinson, a Fellow at the Woodrow Wilson Center, told VOA that Putin might have
felt driven to act by what he called, quote, "Biden's embrace of America's NATO allies."
That's not the only poll casting Biden in a bad light.
Another survey indicated that the majority of Americans are not happy with how President
Joe Biden is currently tackling the Russia-Ukraine crisis.
According to a Gallup survey, only 36% of Americans are in favor of the president's
handling of the situation, while 55% expressed their disapproval.
Less than two-thirds of Democrats, at 64%, 11% of Republicans, and 35% of independents
back Biden's efforts.
Conversely, 86% of Republicans think his response has been ineffective, as do 53% of independents
and 31% of Democrats.
Many Americans also say that they're unhappy with how Biden is compromising America's leadership
in the world.
A Washington Post-ABC News poll found that 48% of citizens believe that the country's
leadership in the world has gotten weaker under Biden's presidency.
Only 23% think it has gotten stronger, while 26% believe it has remained the same.
Going along with these trends, in recent months, President Joe Biden's approval rating has
noticeably plummeted.
In fact, it has reached the point where he now has the second-lowest approval of any
president in history, beating out only Donald Trump.
Many Republicans view Biden in such a negative light that they seem to believe he's worse
than President Vladimir Putin himself.
In a poll conducted by Fox News before Russia invaded Ukraine, 92% of Republicans polled
had a negative perception of Biden, while only 81% viewed Putin negatively.
Meanwhile, Democrats viewed Trump more negatively than they did Putin, with 87% admitting their
disapproval of the former president, while 85% showed contempt for the Russian leader.
As of the making of this video, the war between Ukraine and Russia still has not eased, and
Biden has not made a move that's made a significant impact on the situation.
Only time will tell if his poll numbers on the matter will eventually improve.
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