A group of anti-communists led by Trevor Loudon has announced a "Conservatives 4 Ukraine Speakers and Media Bureau" to counter pro-Russian propaganda from the likes of Tucker Carlson. I support them wholeheartedly. My fear is that “Team Joe” is doing far more damage to Ukraine than Tucker could ever do.

“Team Joe” is the name of the Joe Biden for president campaign. He makes anti-Russian sounds and goes through the motions of appearing to support Ukraine over Russia. But he fails to ask Congress to support a victory by Ukraine over Russia. Instead, he is bleeding Ukraine, as it struggles to survive almost daily bombardments from Vladimir Putin’s Russia.

On another level, we must consider the fact that the modern Democratic Party is a vehicle for the same “values” that Russia has tried to foist on the rest of the world ever since the Russian revolution of 1917. (The “ex-communist” Russian President Vladimir Putin, however, now postures as a Russian nationalist and religious conservative).

Looking back at the history of socialists in the West, Putin himself declared that “the [U.S.] Democratic Party is traditionally closer to the so-called liberal values, closer to Social Democratic ideas, if compared to Europe. And it was from the Social Democratic environment that the Communist Party evolved.”

Viewed in this light, the war over Ukraine is less over freedom versus socialism than what form of socialism Ukraine will be saddled with. Will Ukraine be ruled by Ukraine or by Russia, its previous master? Ukraine wants to join the EU, the European Union, a socialist monstrosity.

I always favor national sovereignty in a case like this, and Ukraine deserves our support. But under “Team Joe,” Ukraine stands no chance of winning. That should be clear by now.

Almost two years ago, Speaker Mike Johnson voted against a Ukraine aid bill, saying, “We should not be sending another $40 billion abroad when our own border is in chaos, American mothers are struggling to find baby formula, gas prices are at record highs, and American families are struggling to make ends meet, without sufficient oversight over where the money will go.”

Such an argument is striking a chord with conservatives, whatever you may think of Tucker’s pro-Putin propaganda show.

Johnson received an F on the Republicans for Ukraine congressional report card.

But such a grade is unfair. Johnson favors a victory by Ukraine over Russia but is also concerned that “Team Joe” does not favor victory. Johnson says, “We want accountability, and we want objectives that are clear from the White House.”

There is a very real problem of Russian influence in the conservative movement, and Tucker is the personification of that problem.

In our report The Big Lie Driving Russian Influence in the Conservative Movement and the Destruction of Ukraine, we examine the operations of the Russian intelligence service going back decades, fomenting anti-Semitism and the present war in the Middle East. We examine how American TV personalities such as Tucker Carlson and Stephen K. Bannon echo Russian propaganda about Ukraine.

They are playing into Putin’s hands, in much the same way that Biden did, when he indicated that a minor Russian “incursion” into Ukraine wouldn’t matter much. That is what has led to Ukraine’s predicament.

The additional problem for conservatives favoring aid to Ukraine is that we now have evidence of how the Biden administration is trying to thwart an Israeli military victory over Hamas. In this case, however, Israeli Prime Minter Benjamin Netanyahu is standing up to Biden.

If Biden doesn’t favor a victory by Ukraine or Israel, and that’s where the evidence leads us, and if the United States is going broke in the process, what good does additional aid do? That is the problem House Speaker Mike Johnson is contemplating.

And since we all know that Tucker has taken the side of Russia in this war, what good does it do to bash him when Ukraine should have won this war with the right weapons months ago? Those were the weapons Biden denied Ukraine.

The Trump position, “We want people to stop dying,” makes more sense as the war continues. Under Biden, negotiations make sense until a new president of the United States can take office and review U.S. policy toward Russia.

Trevor Loudon says, “Allowing Russian forces to defeat Ukraine will almost certainly lead to World War III. Putin's victory would empower China, Iran, and North Korea, who are all targeting the U.S. and its allies.” This is true. The fallacy in this argument is that Ukraine won’t be allowed to win under “Team Joe,” our enemies continued to gather strength under Biden, and Trump’s position of immediate negotiations and even a cease fire is the only way to buy time and save the lives of brave Ukrainians.