December 27, 2022 11:50 AM UTC

They Love "Luhansk Lauren" In Moscow

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• by: Colorado Pols

Barely re-elected Rep. Lauren Boebert received the usual headline-making scorn she cannot distinguish from praise last week after publicly dissing Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky during Zelensky’s address to Congress. Joining with Rep. Matt Gaetz to ostentatiously sit out repeated standing ovations for Zelensky while scrolling on their phones, Boebert announced afterward that she would be a no on any future aid to Ukraine in their defense against the ongoing Russian invasion.

As Newsweek reported yesterday, the Motherland is grateful for the sympathy:

Representatives Lauren Boebert and Matt Gaetz have been praised on Russian state TV after they refused to clap and join a standing ovation for Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky in Congress last week.

In a clip shared by Russian Media Monitor—an independent project monitoring Russian news media—TV host and Kremlin propagandist Dmitry Kiselyov reported on Zelensky’s unannounced visit to Washington on December 21 with a focus on the Republican figures that have greeted the Ukrainian leader with skepticism: Boebert, Gaetz and Fox News host Tucker Carlson…

“Congress members Gaetz and Boebert didn’t clap,” Kiselyov said. “They demonstratively remained seated and didn’t jump up. You can feel the fatigue in Washington over the boundless aid to Ukraine.”

If you’re a Russian propagandist, definitely you want to encourage a sense of “fatigue” over American support for Ukraine, a nation that has defied all the predictions made early in the war and doggedly held on against Russian aggression. But unfortunately for Vladimir Putin and Lauren Boebert, that’s not what the polls say:

A Reuters/Ipsos poll in October found that 73 percent of Americans — including 81 percent of Democrats and 66 percent of Republicans — favor continued U.S. support for Ukraine against Russia.

This tracks with a poll from the Chicago Council of Foreign Affairs conducted in November. It found 65 percent of Americans support continuing to support Ukraine with arms, 66 percent support continuing economic aid and 75 percent favor continuing sanctions on Russia.

Before Boebert came within 550 votes of losing her ostensibly safe Republican seat this year, taking a position wildly at odds with the overwhelming consensus of public opinion was considered part of her charm. Viewed through the lens of Boebert’s vulnerability demonstrated in this year’s elections, it’s a warning that Boebert has learned nothing from almost losing–despite her offhanded promise in a single Tweet to help “take down the temperature” in Washington.

In addition to ever-present Russian propaganda on social media and Tucker Carlson’s monologues, animus against Ukraine from the MAGA movement goes all the way back to the first impeachment of Donald Trump. But that animus has not aged well, and today it has the effect of providing aid and comfort to the enemy on the business end of all those billions of dollars we’ve spent helping to defend Ukraine.

There was a time in history when that alone could end a political career faster than you can say “Jeanette Rankin.” While Lauren Boebert’s re-election in 2024 probably won’t hinge on carrying water for Vladimir Putin, we don’t see how this can possibly help her.

And a 550-vote election can hinge on just about anything.