Trump sought to channel the growing public wariness of the endless military conflicts in the Middle East, most notably by initiating discussions about a complete withdrawal of US troops from Afghanistan. The pronouncement angered many Republicans who were caught between their hardline roots and the emerging isolationist streak of a then president who promised to reduce America's involvement abroad but largely failed to deliver. Now that Biden is withdrawing troops, the Republican Party is rediscovering its traditional position on global affairs and peppering the president with contempt.
"For my Republican friends, if 10 angels came swearing from above that the president's decision on Afghanistan was the correct one, they would say that the angels lied," joked the chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Bob Menรฉndez (DN.J.) .
Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) Said of the GOP's decision to criticize Biden for a withdrawal move that Trump had adopted: โI just don't think it should be surprising that Republicans are going to criticize one of the representatives. more visible foreigners of the president. -political priorities ".
With nearly all Republicans united in opposition to Biden's decision in Afghanistan, the party is backing a common message in the Biden era: portraying the president's stance abroad as weak and motivated by liberal ideology.
"Our reckless race for exits is becoming a global embarrassment," Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell said Tuesday, noting the rapid advances of the Taliban in the country that coincided with the departure of the United States. "[Biden is] ignoring the truth that unfolds before our very eyes: Afghanistan is crumbling. "
Many of Biden's moves are also allowing potential 2024 presidential rivals to carve a foreign policy lane of their own. Democrats argue that political maneuvering is making Biden's job difficult as he tries to tackle diplomatic crises in challenging parts of the world.
"Ted Cruz is making it very difficult for him," Murphy said bluntly of the Republican senator from Texas. "Ted Cruz is detaining all the State Department nominees right now, so the Republican strategy is to try to make it as difficult as possible for President Biden to handle crises around the world."
Cruz, who is widely considered a possible candidate in the next presidential cycle, has elevated Biden's nominees to key national security positions. He says it is an effort to encourage the administration to fully implement the sanctions imposed by Congress for the controversial gas pipeline from Russia to Germany known as Nord Stream II.
โIt would be very easy for Biden to make me lift the dams. He just has to follow the law and impose the sanctions that were overwhelmingly approved by Congress, โCruz said in a short interview. โJoe Biden has decided that his foreign policy priority is to give [Russian President Vladimir] Putin, a billion dollar gift that is, I think, a generational geopolitical mistake. "
Biden has refused to fully impose those sanctions, which could have paralyzed the pipeline, as the German government pushes for its completion. The president has said he wants to fix America's alliances with European allies like Germany, which suffered under Trump.
โWhat Biden is doing is essentially what he said he was going to do as a candidate, and I think the American people appreciate that. His primary focus has been to mend these very broken relationships, โSenator Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.), Member of the Foreign Relations Committee, said of Biden's approach.
"I'll put it this way," he added, "I think President Biden has been doing a good job with his hand."
Closer to home, Haiti is recovering from the assassination of its president, Jovenel Moรฏse, last week; And in Cuba, pro-democracy protests have erupted across the island amid the harsh repression of the regime and its inaction with Covid-19 vaccines.
The United States sent a small contingent of additional security forces to Haiti to protect the US embassy in the wake of Moรฏse's assassination, according to an official familiar with the matter. But Biden seems reluctant to comply with the Haitian authorities' request that he send US troops into the country to help stabilize the government, even as the White House is nominally keeping the option open.
Biden issued a statement supporting the Cuban people earlier this week, but has failed to renew a US policy toward Cuba that has largely failed over the past five decades. Republicans have taken political shots at Biden over Cuba - with Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) Calling his stance "pathetically weak" - but they did not go so far as to attempt to blame the new president for Haiti's unforeseen calamity.
"Neither Cuba nor Haiti are their fault," acknowledged Senator Marco Rubio (Republican of Florida), a few hours after his staff met with White House officials to discuss possible options to prevent further bloodshed and war. large-scale civilian.
โThe question is, what if we are on the brink of this unprecedented massacre in our hemisphere, 90 miles from our coast? And what that would mean morally and geopolitically, what it would mean from the point of view of instability and mass migration โ, added Rubio.
Intermediate crises like those in Cuba and Haiti are the kind that have defined entire presidencies and White House foreign policy doctrines. And like any other commander-in-chief, Biden faces twin pressures from Congress and his voters at home.
โWe are at a crucial moment in the history of our country. Our constituents see some fundamental changes when it comes to our foreign policy, โIndiana Senator Todd Young, an emerging voice for the Republican Party on foreign policy, said in an interview.
"When you seek acceptance from members of Congress and the American people for your actions, you will find that your policies are sustainable in our form of government," Young added. โWhen you try to go it alone, you will find that those policies are unpopular with the American people and ultimately unsustainable. Because, in the United States, the people rule. "
