Europe worries U.S. isolationism is back

On the Hill

European leaders fear the GOP embrace of WWII-era isolationism

The Republican Party’s isolationist streak — past and present — was a topic of concern and conversation as pro-Western leaders met over the weekend at the Munich Security Conference, according to several people who attended. 

In a sidebar meeting with Estonian Prime Minister Kaja Kallas, Sen. Chris Coons (D-Del.) said he and Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.) warned that the United States must not forget its isolationist past. 

• “That was repeated in several bilateral meetings,” Coons told us in an interview. “Isolationism had disastrous consequences and should not be repeated.”

The concerns swirled at the conference as Ukraine gave up a key town, Avdiikva, to Russian forces and as Alexei Navalny, one of the fiercest critics of Russian President Vladimir Putin, died in a Russian Arctic prison.

Meanwhile, House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) has refused so far to hold a vote on a military aid package that includes $60 billion for Ukraine, and Donald Trump has renewed fears he might abandon NATO if reelected president.

Until Trump’s “America First” ideology started to take hold, Republicans in recent decades were the party of defense, echoing President Ronald Reagan’s mantra of peace through strength. But the party has deep roots in isolationism — something Vice President Harris alluded to while speaking at the conference on Saturday.

• “History has also shown us: If we only look inward, we cannot defeat threats from the outside. Isolationism is not insulation,” she said. “I need not remind people of Europe a dark history when the forces of tyranny and fascism were on the march, and then America joined our allies in defense of freedom to safeguard our collective security. 

History on repeat

As World War II raged in Europe, Republicans initially opposed U.S. involvement even as proponents argued that helping allies would prevent direct aggression toward the U.S. — the same argument used today to support Ukraine. President Franklin D. Roosevelt, who supported involvement, found creative ways to overcome isolationist sentiment in the GOP. 

In 1941 Roosevelt proposed the Lend-Lease Act, a way to help U.S. allies, especially Britain, in the war without becoming directly involved by lending military aid to nations he thought needed it. 

Only two dozen Republicans in the House supported the Lend-Lease Act. In the Senate, 10 Republicans — one-third of the conference — backed it. (Twenty-two Senate Republicans backed the military aid package two weeks ago — about 45 percent of the conference, which is far less than the share of Republicans who supported previous iterations of funding for Ukraine.)

Weeks later, the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor, forcing the U.S. into the war. 

The attack sidelined the isolationist element of the party, but it didn’t go away. After the war, Sen. Robert Taft, an influential Republican from Ohio, opposed the creation of NATO. After his loss to Dwight D. Eisenhower in the 1952 Republican presidential primary, the isolationism string of the party went mostly dormant (or at least mostly ignored) until recently. 

•  “It's always hard to convince Americans about things overseas. That was true before Pearl Harbor and I can understand that,” Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), a strong proponent of defending Ukraine against Russia, told our colleague Liz Goodwin in a recent interview. “I think this is the most important thing going on right in the world.”

McConnell said his father sent letters to his mom from the front lines of World War II, warning that Russia would continue to be a threat. “He proved to be accurate,” McConnell said of his father.

John E. Herbst, former U.S. ambassador to Ukraine, attended the Munich conference and said he compared prewar isolationism with similar sentiments today in the meetings he attended.

• “This is a critical moment, like in the late ’30s,” he told us. “We can’t ignore the danger.”

What’s next

Coons said European leaders made “specific reference” to Roosevelt’s Lend-Lease program as well as a program where Roosevelt traded navy destroyer ships for 99-year leases on military bases on British territories in the Caribbean. They asked if there’s something similar that Biden can do. 

• “They understand the stakes because of their history and their proximity to the battlefield,” said Sen. Brian Schatz (D-Hawaii), a member of the Senate delegation. “And they know they can’t do it without us. And that’s why it was so jarring too for them to see American politicians who are part of the America First movement today sound like the America First movement of 80 or 90 years ago.”

For now, Biden is putting pressure on the House to act. On Monday he told reporters that House Republicans’ inaction is a “big mistake.”

“Russia just saw its most significant gains in Ukraine in nearly a year because Ukraine is running low on supplies and Congress has failed to pass critically needed support. We must stop Putin from continuing to murder innocent women and children while threatening our own national security,” White House communications director Ben LaBolt said in a statement. “Speaker Johnson and House Republicans must act — time is of the essence.”

A bipartisan group of House members, led by Reps. Brian Fitzpatrick (R-Pa.), who was in Munich with the House delegation, and Jared Golden (D-Maine), drafted a new bill to fund Ukraine if Johnson doesn’t put the Senate bill on the floor.

• “Our message is: This secures the border, gets military only aid to Israel, Ukraine and Taiwan, and costs 30 percent less than the Senate bill,” Rep. Don Bacon (R-Neb.), one of the 10 co-sponsors, said of the bill. 

Bacon said he’s still waiting to get a meeting with Johnson about the effort. 

What we're watching

At the White House

Biden is on the West Coast this week.

He’s heading to California this afternoon, where he’ll headline a fundraiser in Los Angeles tonight. He’ll appear at another fundraiser on Wednesday in San Francisco and headline a third one on Thursday in Los Altos Hills, Calif.

He’ll also give an official speech in Culver City on Wednesday and hold a campaign event in the Bay Area.

The White House is deploying Harris and Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Michael Regan to Pittsburgh today to announce nearly $6 billion for clean water projects from legislation passed in Biden’s first two years in office.

Other administration officials are fanning out across the country to make similar announcements, including Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo and National Economic Council Director Lael Brainard. They’re headed to Malta, N.Y., to announce “$1.5 billion to help build a vast new computer-chip factory in New York state as part of an effort to strengthen the country’s ability to mass-produce the brains of modern consumer and military electronics,” as our colleague Drew Harwell writes. Senate Majority Leader Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.) and New York Gov. Kathy Hochul will also be there. 

Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack, Interior Secretary Deb Haaland, White House climate adviser Ali Zaidi, White House domestic policy adviser Neera Tanden and Deputy Secretary of Transportation Polly Trottenberg are part of the blitz, too.

The campaign

Biden campaign reports raising $42 million in January

New this morning: President Biden’s re-election campaign raised more than $42 million in January, officials announced Tuesday.

The campaign said it will report $130 million in cash on hand, touting it is the largest haul of any Democratic candidate in history in the first month of an election year, our colleague Tyler Pager writes. In the final quarter of last year, Biden’s campaign raised $97 million, notching more money than former president Barack Obama raised during the same period of his re-election campaign.

“January’s fundraising haul – driven by a powerhouse grassroots fundraising program that continues to grow month by month – is an indisputable show of strength to start the election year,” Julie Chavez Rodriguez, the campaign manager, said in a statement.

The campaign said January was its strongest grassroots fundraising month since the president launched his re-election campaign in April.

Sen. Rosen picks up key endorsement

Sen. Jacky Rosen (D-Nev.) will be endorsed by Reproductive Freedom for All in her Senate race today. The endorsement, provided to us exclusively, is not unexpected but a sign that the group, formerly known as NARAL, will invest in her race and mobilize the group’s 48,000 members in the state. The leading Republican candidate, Sam Brown, has tried to soften his antiabortion stances since he entered the race last year. 

“Reproductive Freedom for All Nevada and our members are on the ground mobilizing the 4 in 5 Nevadans who support the right to abortion — and we’re ready to leave it all on the field to protect our fundamental rights this November,” Denise Lopez, the director of Nevada campaigns for Reproductive Freedom for All, said in a statement.

Democrats and abortion rights advocates are working to ensure that abortion is a key voting issue in the second election since the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade. The group is planning a massive voter mobilization effort in the 2024 cycle, promoting pro-choice candidates and ballot initiatives.

In addition to the competitive Senate race, Nevada is also a presidential battleground and will have up to three competitive House races, too. It’s also one of a dozen states that could have a ballot initiative to protect abortion access in November. 

At the White House

Naps, jokes and younger advisers: How octogenarians think Biden can win

Our colleague Meryl Kornfield spoke to a small group of octogenarians who had some advice for the 81-year-old commander in chief as he “seeks reelection as the oldest president in history.”

“While some mostly Democratic seniors in Kent County — a once reliable GOP-stronghold in a key swing state that has shifted left since Trump won in 2016 — reflected on their own experience with aging, they expressed both worries for Biden rooted in their own age-related troubles and hope that he could better adapt himself to the rigors of the job in the next four years,” Meryl writes. 

Here’s what Barry Johnson, 81, told her: 

Johnson “said it is important at his age to ask for assistance,” Meryl writes. “He pointed to his friend Carol Townsend, 79, seated on a nearby couch in a common area and relayed a story of recently helping her flip her mattress when she couldn’t do it herself.”

• “Whether it be furniture or running the country, when you’re older, you need to know when to ask for help, he said. Biden can, but Trump can’t, he added, saying he thinks the former president appears less willing to take in the input of others.”
• “The really problematic combination is someone who is autocratic by nature getting older,” said Johnson, who added he intends to vote for Biden. “What we all learn here is when we get older we need to be willing to rely on other people. The ability to be collaborative, to listen to others, to learn from others, is more important the older you get.”

On the Hill

Looming testimony of Biden relatives has high stakes for both sides

Happening tomorrow: “A review of nearly 2,000 pages of transcripts from recent witnesses before the House impeachment inquiry, many with deep knowledge of Hunter [Biden’s] business affairs, suggests Republicans are still struggling to uncover firm evidence that Joe Biden benefited from the business pursuits of his son and his brother,” our colleague Matt Viser reports.

“If anything, the House Oversight and Judiciary committees have compiled an extensive record of sworn statements from firsthand witnesses saying the president was never involved,” Matt writes.

• “That raises the stakes for two high-profile witnesses appearing soon before the committees in closed-door sessions: James Biden is scheduled to sit for a deposition on Feb. 21, followed by Hunter Biden on Feb. 28. Their appearances could provide the Republicans with perhaps their last, best hope of obtaining testimony that would alter the trajectory of the inquiry.”
• “One area of focus during James Biden’s testimony is expected to be a $200,000 loan he received from Joe Biden on Jan. 12, 2018. James Biden repaid the loan on March 1, the same day he received $200,000 from Americore, a health care company that has since gone bankrupt and has filed suit against James Biden in part for making ‘representations that his last name, ‘Biden’ could ‘open doors.’’”
• “Carol Fox, the trustee in the company’s bankruptcy proceedings, testified that she had no evidence that Joe Biden was involved in Americore or its bankruptcy. James Biden’s attorney, Paul J. Fishman, has said that ‘at no time did Jim involve his brother in any of his business relationships,’ but declined to answer questions about why James needed the large sum.”

The Media

Must reads

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From across the web: 

• Widow, ex-prime minister and former police chief indicted in 2021 assassination of Haiti’s president. By the Associated Press’s Dánica Coto and Evens Sanon.
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• Trump’s final hours in office were consumed with fury at Snoop Dogg. By Rolling Stones’s Asawin Suesbang.

Viral

The National Bobblehead Hall of Fame and Museum has unveiled three new bobblehead series to celebrate Presidents’ Day: first lady bobbleheads featuring 15 first ladies, including first lady Jill Biden; resolute desk bobbleheads with 11 presidents and White House podium bobbleheads with seven presidents.

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