Is concern trolling is the new “alternative facts?” Based on the number of ultra-conservative pundits who are currently attempting to reinvent themselves as caring human beings, it sure seems that way. On Wednesday, both Marjorie Taylor Greene and Laura Ingraham tried to spin their previously pro-Putin-seeming rhetoric as concern for the people of Ukraine, with slightly different tones.
First up is MTG: Her day got off to a shaky start when the whole of Congress gave Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy a standing ovation, while she neglected to clap and seemed more interested in her phone:
As the US Congress gave a massive standing ovation to President Zelensky, Marjorie Taylor Greene was on her phone. pic.twitter.com/PZZ79XMA65
— Wall Street Queen (@WallStreetQuee2) March 16, 2022
Later, as PatriotTakes shared, Greene posted a video to her Facebook page in which she claimed that if we truly want to help the people of Ukraine, we should not send them any weapons or money “to fight a war they cannot possibly win,” despite many expert opinions to the contrary and the staggering number of Russian soldiers being sent home in body bags. Still, Greene—with as much emotion as a robot—declared that “it’s not our responsibility to give President Zelenskyy and the Ukrainian people false hope about a war they cannot win.”
Marjorie Taylor Greene went on Facebook Live after President Zelensky spoke to Congress and communicated three times during her speech that Ukraine will end up losing to Putin. pic.twitter.com/dXvKvjD9lW
— PatriotTakes
(@patriottakes) March 17, 2022
On Wednesday night, Ingraham pretty much echoed the same talking points while interviewing Arkansas senator Tom Cotton. While speaking about the $800 million in weapons Biden promised Ukraine, Cotton commented that “the Ukrainian people and army have proven they are capable of fighting the Russians. We need to encourage them to do so, and we need to provide them with the weapons they need to fight the Russians” (which was a pretty major turn of events given Cotton’s recent reluctance to condemn Donald Trump’s pro-Putin comments).
Cotton was barely through his statement when Ingraham interrupted to ask/suggest, “Now you don’t think we’re giving the Ukrainians, at this point—and the rest of the world—false hope? You think, given the fact that Russia is closing in on Ukraine at this moment—you heard the air raid sirens outside of Lviv—that we’re not building people up to this false hope at this point? I’m worried about that!” Cotton, looking somewhat dumbfounded by the question, disagreed.
Of course, this isn’t the first instance of concern trolling we’ve seen this week. On Tuesday, Tucker Carlson attempted to justify his own seemingly pro-Putin rhetoric by explaining that he would just hate for us to do anything that might “prolong the fighting in Ukraine at the expense of the vulnerable civilian population in Ukraine.” Because, like Greene and Ingraham, Carlson can’t help being just so darn caring.