Majority Leader Schumer Floor Remarks On Hard Right Republicans’ Continued Refusal To Condemn Putin’s Violent Aggression And Threats To Democracy

Washington, D.C. – Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) today spoke on the Senate floor on Republicans defending and excusing Putin’s ongoing threats to American national security and democracy. Below are Senator Schumer’s remarks, which can also be viewed here:

Yesterday, reports came out that Vladimir Putin announced Moscow will deploy tactical nuclear weapons in Belarus, as well as position nuclear-armed Iskander Hypersonic missiles within Belarus, with a range of 300 miles.

In the past, Putin’s conduct over the last year would have won swift and unequivocal condemnation from both parties. But today, an increasingly vocal minority within the hard right is more comfortable defending and excusing Putin rather than condemning him.

One Republican governor from a Southern state even referred to the Ukraine war, as a “territorial dispute,” and I have to wonder what he would have said if he were around in the 1930s.

We know what happened then, when many refused to stand up to aggression. A world war resulted.

This isn’t hard: Vladimir Putin is a threat to American national security and democracy, and MAGA Republicans who fail to condemn him are only empowering him in the long run.

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