“We can protect our national energy security and sell to our friends rather than buy from our enemies — specifically Russia,” the governors’ statement said. “People in our states cannot afford another spike at the gas pump, and our allies cannot afford to be held hostage by Putin’s tyranny and aggression.”

Although some aspects of the Republican critique crumble upon closer inspection, the newly coordinated message is unifying the right after the fractious intramural debate over Putin. And with inflation soaring, linking Biden’s handling of the war in Ukraine to his domestic woes could prove to be a potent argument with voters in the fall.

That might help Republicans return to power next year. The danger, foreign policy experts say, is that a war in the heart of Europe, with vast geopolitical implications, becomes yet another partisan squabble.