This is exactly the attitude Neville Chamberlain had. “Let’s keep engaging with Hitler. Maybe THIS time things will be different”.
How Putin behaved in the past determines how he gets treated in the future. He doesn’t get perks and special treatement that he hasn’t earned.
Like- having our security staffs come to some sort of working dialogue, or even entertaining the notion that we would allow our citizens to be questioned by Russian authorities.
That’s just ridiculous to the extreme.
And there’s plenty of ways to deal with Putin between appeasement and going to war with him before the next Trump supporter comes in with a stupid “Oh…so you want war with a nuclear power, do you?” comment.
The GOP Congress (and especially the Senate) are going to apply maximum pressure to scuttle this Fall Summit. But if their pressure doesn’t work privately, they will apply it publicly. It seriously damages their credibility and puts them in an awful place for the Fall elections.
Congress critters are motivated first and foremost by political survival. Whether Putin gets to stand before Congress and deliver an address will depend entirely on whether letting him do so generates less political fallout for them than standing firm and denying him the opportunity.
We’ll see what happens. For now this is little more than tough talk from Mitch and Paul.
