(Molly Bruns, Headline USA) MSNBC host Andrea Mitchell vocalized hope that the invasion of Ukraine was “at least helping the Democrats,” in the lead-up to the midterm elections.
Phil Rucker, deputy national editor at the Washington Post, agreed with her assessment and discussed how the Biden administration was using the situation as a convenient scapegoat for high gas prices, NewsBusters reported.
After acknowledging the laundry list of problems the Democrats are facing, she queried: “Do you think that this at least is helping the Democrats and helping the White House as they head into the midterms?”
“You know, it certainly is giving Biden an opportunity to be the strong leader that he campaigned as and that he hopes to appear to be in the first year of his presidency,” Rucker responded.
“And importantly, the issue of inflation, which has been so troubling for Democrats politically for the last few months, this war gives Biden an opportunity to pin some of the blame for the rising gas prices and other consumer prices around the country, to pin that blame on Putin and on Russia,” Rucker said.
“So he has a bit of a scapegoat that can be helpful in the campaign season as midterms approach.”
The other guest on the show, PBS NewsHour chief correspondent Amna Nawaz, agreed with Rucker, and added her opinion.
“You have to remember, this is coming off a disastrous response to the end of the war in Afghanistan, when all of his foreign policy credentials were really being called into question.,” Nawaz said.
“Was this a president who could really lead on the world stage,” she said. “And the Russian invasion of Ukraine changed everything. Americans are seeing the President in a new light.”
This interview comes on the heels of a different MSNBC interview despairing that Biden was not getting a “Zelenskyy bounce” in the polls in reaction to his handling of the situation.
