According to this report from Politico, Biden is in a bad position at the moment since the invasion undercuts both legs of the foreign policy positions he ran on in 2020.

When he ran for president in 2020, Joe Biden structured his foreign policy doctrine on two major themes: that democracies must triumph over autocracies and that he would restore the world order turned on its head by Donald Trump.

More than a year later, these two pillars are under the most intense assault to date amid Russia’s invasion of its neighbor Ukraine.

However, Biden’s allies see division within the GOP that could serve as a lifeline for the president. In particular, they think the approach taken by Tucker Carlson is going to help them round up support for Biden.

…they argue that the Republicans who have been lauding Putin — everyone from Donald Trump to Fox News’ Tucker Carlson — are playing to a winnowing crowd and will find themselves increasingly out of step with the majority of Americans…

A person familiar with the White House’s thinking said that inside 1600 Pennsylvania Ave., the Fox host is perceived as someone with a “toxic ideology” who is “playing a character he invented, not communicating sincere beliefs, which are often antithetical to the beliefs he spoke about in public for many years, including on his MSNBC show.”

But there is also recognition that the strand of thinking Carlson represents has been adopted by elected Republicans or those running for office. These individuals are already serving as a foil for Democrats eager to rally the country behind the president during turbulent times.

Earlier, Allahpundit wrote about the reactions to the Russian invasion of Ukraine by various Republican officials. Both Trump supporters like Rep. Elise Stefanik and moderates like Sen. Mitt Romney are saying pretty clearly that the invasion is bad news by a villainous leader. Stefanik called Putin “a gutless, bloodthirsty, authoritarian dictator” which seems pretty blunt and uncompromising. Meanwhile, the position that Carlson staked out on his show last night was isolationist and nearly the opposite of what Stefanik said about Putin, i.e. who says Putin is such a bad guy anyway?

On Tuesday night, he asserted that Democrats believed Americans had a “patriotic duty to hate Vladimir Putin,” but questioned why the Russian president had been vilified.

“It might be worth asking yourself, since it is getting pretty serious: What is this really about? Why do I hate Putin so much?” Mr. Carlson said. He added, “Has he shipped every middle class job in my town to Russia?” He also argued that Ukraine was not a democracy.

“But Joe Biden likes Ukraine, so Putin bad, war good,” Mr. Carlson said.

If Carlson is betting on the fact that most Americans aren’t interested in going to war in Ukraine, he’s on solid ground. But it’s not necessary to side with Putin in order to be against boots on the ground. President Biden himself is against boots on the ground but he’s not giving Putin a pass. And that brings us to the former president whose position on this is a lot more important.

If the breathing room solution for Biden’s foreign policy is going to work, Democrats really need to convince people that this message isn’t just coming from one Fox News host it’s also coming from President Trump himself. And here things get a little more complicated. President Trump has openly praised Putin’s shrewdness for seizing a large piece of territory for what he suggested was a low price in terms of sanctions. He did it again just last night at a fundraiser:

NEW: Donald Trump AGAIN repeatedly praised Vladimir Putin from a Mar-a-Lago fundraiser tonight — attended by #NCSen candidate @TedBuddNC, #NVSen candidate @AdamLaxalt, and #GASen candidate @HerschelWalker. pic.twitter.com/TPptW6czHM

— American Bridge 21st Century (@American_Bridge) February 24, 2022

At the same time, Trump has said repeatedly that the invasion wouldn’t have happened while he was president and that it’s only happening now because of Biden’s weakness. The implication being that the invasion is a bad thing which he’d have prevented, not something Americans shouldn’t care about. That’s basically the Rep. Stefanik position.

Trump called in to Laura Ingram’s show last night and she bumped her scheduled guest, Glenn Greenwald. Greenwald just happens to hold a position on Russia not that different from what Tucker Carlson has been offering, but Trump took a harder line saying repeatedly that the invasion was “a very sad thing for the world,” and one which wouldn’t have taken place under his watch.

“I really don’t believe he wanted to do this initially, I think he wanted to do something and negotiate and it just got worse and worse,” Trump said. He continued, “And then he saw the weakness. And you know it really started I think with the weakness in Afghanistan, the way they pulled out of Afghanistan. I really believe that’s where he started thinking he can do this.”

It’s arguably not helpful to have the former president trying to score points on the current one in the middle of an international crisis. Trump will take some heat for that. But he’s not the first to suggest that the disaster in Afghanistan may have sent a signal to other aggressive parties including Russia and China. Here’s the full interview from last night.