On Thursday, after former President Obama, referring to European officials, had bragged about how he had to “drag them kicking and screaming to respond” after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2014, conservatives on social media furiously slammed him for his self-serving version of historical events, calling it “revisionist history.”
Obama boasted at the “Disinformation and the Erosion of Democracy” conference at the University of Chicago, “I will say that, as someone who grappled with the incursion into Crimea and the eastern portions of Ukraine, I have been encouraged by the European reaction. Because, in 2014, I often had to drag them kicking and screaming to respond in ways that we would’ve wanted to see, from those of us who describe ourselves as Western democracies.”
Obama’s chest-pounding puffery triggered genuine anger.
Northeastern University professor Max Abrahms, an expert in international security and the author of “Rules for Rebels: The Science of Victory in Militant History,” fired, “Watch Obama’s self-serving revisionist history of how his administration responded the last time Russia invaded Ukraine in 2014.”
Watch Obama’s self-serving revisionist history of how his administration responded the last time Russia invaded Ukraine in 2014: pic.twitter.com/JvqclXnBhi
— Max Abrahms (@MaxAbrahms) April 7, 2022
Mark Hemingway, senior writer at RealClearInvestigations, echoed, “‘grappled’ = did nothing after spending years mocking anyone that thought Russia was threatening and still refused to arm Ukraine.”
"grappled" = did nothing after spending years mocking anyone that thought Russia was threatening and still refused to arm Ukraine https://t.co/CM97Kmz3UK
— Mark Hemingway (@Heminator) April 7, 2022
Obama also claimed of Russian President Vladimir Putin, “He was always ruthless. You witnessed what he did it Chechnya. He had no qualms about crushing those who he considered a threat.”
That provoked Stephen Miller, contributing editor to The Spectator, to reference Obama’s infamous response to GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney in a 2012 debate after Romney stated that Russia was America’s main geopolitical foe. Obama taunted, “Governor Romney, I’m glad that you recognize that al Qaeda’s a threat because a few months ago when you were asked, what’s the biggest geopolitical threat facing America, you said Russia. And the 1980s are now calling to ask for their foreign policy back because, you know, the Cold War’s been over for 20 years.”
In response to Obama’s acknowledging that Putin was “always ruthless,” Miller posted an image of Romney laughing.
https://t.co/WOgrb76Tup pic.twitter.com/VksZO8vCOw
— Stephen L. Miller (@redsteeze) April 7, 2022
Conservative Twitter account AGHamilton29 reacted:
Umm I definitely remember this going a little differently. What I remember is that after Russian separatists shot down a civilian airliner and Russia invaded a sovereign country, we just passed weak and targeted sanctions. All because Obama wanted Putin’s help w Iran deal. And then Obama was publicly thanking Putin less than a year later for that deal. … It was no wonder Putin assumed the international costs of another invasion of Ukraine would be relatively low. Putin knew another Iran deal was on the table w an admin that mirrored Obama’s. Had every reason to believe the consequences of invading Ukraine in 2022 [would] be similar to what they were in 2014. It wasn’t Obama, Trump, or Biden that changed that. It was Ukrainians & their Pres.
Umm I definitely remember this going a little differently. What I remember is that after Russian separatists shot down a civilian airliner and Russia invaded a sovereign country, we just passed weak and targeted sanctions.
All because Obama wanted Putin's help w Iran deal. https://t.co/mlgQ7CrWER
— AG🌻 (@AGHamilton29) April 7, 2022
Putin knew another Iran deal was on the table w an admin that mirrored Obama's. Had every reason to believe the consequences of invading Ukraine in 2022 wd be similar to what they were in 2014.
It wasn't Obama, Trump, or Biden that changed that. It was Ukrainians & their Pres.
— AG🌻 (@AGHamilton29) April 7, 2022
"I'll have more flexibility after the election." https://t.co/U1ebVDbFtF
— Derek Hunter (@derekahunter) April 7, 2022
Obama’s former Director of National Intelligence, James Clapper, told Fox News in February, “I wish we as an administration had been more aggressive in 2014.”