Topic: CNSNews.com
It seems that CNSNews.com was surprised enough by President Biden's visit to Ukraine that its initial coverage was actually somewhat balanced. Susan Jones' main story about the Feb. 20 visit was shockingly straightforward and devoid of her usual editorializing. A sidebar by Jones even more shockingly criticized Russian leader Vladimir Putin for starting war, a surprising move since CNS is also working to undermine U.S. support for Ukraine by criticizing Biden over the money being spent:
From both Republicans and Democrats on Sunday came a chorus of support for Ukraine -- one day before President Joe Biden made a surprise visit to Kyiv, where he also emphasized continuing U.S. support for Ukraine, one year after Russian President Vladimir Putin launched his unprovoked and vicious war.
The raging war has no end in sight, and that's a problem for some members of both parties, although congressional support for Ukraine remains strong, to hear both sides tell it.
He quoted President Biden as saying that the U.S. will "support Ukraine for as long as it takes."
"And I think when you see the president -- when you see him go to Poland next week and Warsaw, he'll make that case before the entire world and the Polish," Kirby said.
Jones also wrote an article hyping a couple Republican congresmen insisting that U.S. support for Ukraine "is still very strong" despite a Republican resolution insisting that the U.S. "must end its military and financial aid to Ukraine."
CNS soon reverted to form, however; just a few hours after her main story appeared, Jones devoted an article to a presumed Republican presidential candidate whining about the money the U.S. is spending in Ukraine:
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis was in Staten Island, New York on this holiday Monday to discuss law-and-order, while President Joe Biden was thousands of miles away, making a surprise visit to Ukraine, where Biden announced another half-billion dollars in aid to the war-torn country.
"They have effectively a blank-check policy," DeSantis said of the Biden administration, "with no clear strategic objective identified."
[...]
DeSantis reminded viewers of "Fox & Friends" that the Obama/Biden administration opposed sending lethal aid to Ukraine when Russia invaded and took Crimea:
Patrick Goodenough wrote an article that largely repeated Russian attacks on the U.S. over the visit:
Former Russian president and close Putin ally Dimitry Medvedev said Monday President Biden had received “security guarantees” ahead of his unannounced trip to Kyiv. The White House said it notified Moscow ahead of the visit “for deconfliction purposes.”
Medvedev, now deputy chairman of President Vladimir Putin’s national security council, made the claim in a post on his Telegram channel in which he also referred derisively to the president of the United States as “the old man from across the ocean” and to Ukrainian leaders as a “gang of drug addicts.”
The next day, Melanie Arter uncritically repeated a political attack on Biden over the visit that also touched on CNS' attempt to politicize a train derailment in Ohio:
Former Director of National Intelligence (DNI) John Ratcliffe criticized President Biden for visiting Ukraine on President’s Day instead of visiting East Palestine, Ohio, where residents are dealing with the aftermath of a train derailment that resulted in hazardous chemicals being released into the environment.
“Even if you look at how badly the Biden administration has mismanaged Ukraine up to this point and a war that many of us believe a strong president could have avoided. We believe that it was Biden's weakness in Afghanistan that prompted Putin to move on Ukraine in the first place,” Ratcliffe told Fox News’ “Hannity” on Monday.
The same day, Micky Wootten -- CNS' point person on setting up the Ukraine overspending narrative -- complained that "On Feb. 20, the Department of Defense (DoD) announced President Joe Biden’s 32nd Presidential Drawdown, which includes $460 million in 'additional security assistance' for Ukraine. This raises the total value of assistance provided to $29.7 billion since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine on Feb. 24, 2022."
For a Feb. 22 article, Goodenough repeated a narrative CNS pushed at the time of Russia's invasion that the war is Biden's fault because he provoked Russia by not decisively shutting down Ukraine's interest in joining NATO:
Twenty-six years ago, then-Senator Joe Biden ridiculed the notion that Russia might respond to NATO’s eastward enlargement by drawing closer to China or Iran.
Addressing an audience in Washington in 1997, Biden said that when Russian lawmakers with whom he discussed the issue suggested that expanding the alliance into Moscow’s backyard might prompt Russia to “look to China,” he had wished them “lots of luck in your senior year.”
“And if that doesn’t work, try Iran,” he recalled telling the Russians.
With U.S. concerns aired this week that China may provide “lethal aid” to Russia’s war on Ukraine, and amid signs of a deepening Russia-China-Iran collaboration in the economic, military, and diplomatic spheres, the remarks by the then-ranking member on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee are worth revisiting.
Goodenough didn't mention that NATO is a defensive alliance and does not engage in military offensives -- nor did he note that Russia's invasion of Ukraine, which his co-worker Jones agrees was unprovoked, proved that Ukraine's desire to join NATO was not without merit.
Jones followed with an article that seemed to approve of former Republican Vice President Mike Pence sounding like Putin: "It appears that former Vice President Mike Pence and Russian President Vladimir Putin agree on one thing: Ukraine is the vehicle by which the West aims to stop Russia from re-establishing the former Soviet Union." Jones went on to hype that "Pence accused President Biden of 'failed leadership.'"
