As Russian President Vladimir Putin was preparing to invade Ukraine, former President Donald Trump made some surprising comments.
“I went in yesterday and there was a television screen, and I said, ‘This is genius.’ Putin declares a big portion…of Ukraine, Putin declares it as independent,” Trump said during a Feb. 22 interview with a conservative radio show.
Later in the interview, Trump referred to Putin as “savvy” and “smart.”
The comments sent ripples across the race for South Carolina’s seventh congressional seat, which includes Horry County. One candidate has earned Trump’s endorsement and others are closely aligning themselves with the former president.
Do the candidates in the SC-7 race who support Trump also support his praise of Putin? Western nations, including the United States, view Putin as having invaded a sovereign nation.
The Sun News sought comment from some of the top contenders for the congressional seat. While some sidestepped or defended Trump’s comments, all of the candidates interviewed agreed that Putin’s invasion of Ukraine was wrong. Some argued that the invasion wouldn’t have happened if Trump had been reelected in 2020, a case Trump has tried to make himself.
None of the candidates, though, said they support sending U.S. troops to fight on the ground against Russia, at least at this point in time.
Here’s what else they had to say:
U.S. Rep. Tom Rice
Rice, the incumbent in the race, has condemned Putin and his invasion.
“Putin’s attack on the innocent people of Ukraine is an assault on a sovereign nation,” Rice said in a Feb. 24 tweet. “I condemn this senseless violence and we must hold Russia accountable for their actions. I’m praying for the Ukrainian people and for peace in Europe.”
Two days earlier, Rice called for the United States to exhibit strong leadership in response to Putin, but didn’t argue that Trump could have prevented the aggression, as others in the race have.
“Right now, America and the world needs strong leadership,” he said. “We must stop hiding from threats to our democracy and make Putin pay for his aggressions.”
Rice, who voted for Trump’s agenda 94% of the time, has broken with the former president as he’s pursued reelection. Rice was one of 10 Republicans who voted to impeach Trump for his role in the Jan. 6 riot at the U.S. Capitol, immediately drawing Trump’s ire. Trump has since called for Rice’s ouster and has backed state Rep. Russell Fry, R-Surfside Beach, to replace him.
In his reelection campaign, Rice has argued that the GOP should stick with Trump’s policies and agenda but move away from the man himself, who he views as divisive.
He’s criticized his challengers for aligning themselves with Trump, especially when it comes to Russia and Ukraine.
“I will…always call out Putin, who Donald Trump is cheering on as Russia invades Ukraine,” Rice said in a statement last week.. “Voters here understand that it takes more courage to stand up than to bend the knee.”
Rice called the invasion “shocking and inexcusable” in a statement Wednesday, and said the United States’ response so far has been “weak.” He criticized both President Joe Biden and Trump.
“On the one hand, Biden is too weak to call it an invasion and to use all the tools at his disposal,” he said. “On the other, Trump calls the ruthless maniac Putin ‘brilliant’ and cheers him on. We can do better.”
Rice said he’s introduced legislation, called “the Defund Putin Act,” that would allow the United States to place tariffs and other trading sanctions on Russia, including imports of its oil. He said he and other members of Congress are exploring “other means of inflicting financial pain on Russia for its ruthless violence against the Ukrainian people.”
S.C. Rep. Russell Fry
Fry, who has been endorsed by Trump, has walked a fine line when talking about Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. He doesn’t agree with Trump’s praise of Putin but argued that Putin wouldn’t have invaded Russia if Trump were still in office.
He’s previously said he believes the 2020 election was “rigged,” while Rice has made a point to recognize Biden as the true winner of that race.
“There’s no question that if Trump was in the White House, Putin would not have invaded Ukraine,” he said in an interview Tuesday. “I think peace through strength is a real thing. Trump was a good foil (to Putin).”
Asked if he supported Trump’s praise of Putin, Fry said Wednesday he agreed with a statement Trump had made about Ukraine at the Conservative Political Action Conference in which Trump called the invasion “an outrage” and said it “should never have been allowed to occur.”
Since Putin’s invasion, Fry has taken a stronger stand against the Russian leader and has filed legislation in Columbia in an effort to weaken the country’s economy. One bill would force the S.C. investment commission to divest its money from Russian investments, and another would ban liquor stores in the state from selling Russian-made alcohol.
Fry has also been critical of the Biden administration for the invasion. He said the administration’s sanctions on Russia haven’t gone far enough.
“Putin couldn’t care less what this administration or the international community thinks right now, which is further proof that the policy of peace through strength is vastly diminished under this administration,” he wrote on Facebook.
On Wednesday, he added this: “(The) sanctions proposed so far do not go far enough. We have to hit them where it hurts, in oil and gas.”
Fry said he does not support deploying U.S. troops to Russia or Ukraine.
Ken Richardson
Horry County school board chairman Ken Richardson said he “can’t speak” for Trump’s praise of Putin, but argued that Putin invaded Ukraine because Biden was a weaker president than Trump.
He said Trump could be “unpredictable” as a president, which kept aggressive leaders like Putin on their heels.
“(Putin is) taking advantage of weak leadership, and I think we need to come together to hold him accountable,” Richardson said Wednesday. “He saw an opportunity, and he seized on it, and that could be an accumulation of Trump not being there or Biden being there.”
Richardson said he supported U.S. sanctions on Russia, but that the United States “can’t afford” another war. He noted that the United States should only send troops to Ukraine or Russia as a “last possibility,” but didn’t rule out sending troops at some point in the future.
“I’d want to do it through diplomatic means first and try to work something out with our partners and NATO, … but at the end of the day we have to protect the American people,” he said. “The one thing we cannot do is project that we’re weak. I’ll vote the way the American people want me to vote.”
In response to Russia’s invasion, some Americans have dumped out their Russian-made alcohol — a move one of Fry’s bills mirrors. Richardson said he doesn’t see those efforts as the most effective response to Russia, though he said he thinks the United States should “cripple” the Russian economy.
“It’s not a time to grandstand,” he said. “I’m praying for the people of Ukraine. How could you not? They need people to step up and try to help.”
Jeanette Spurlock
Jeanette Spurlock, vice president of the state Self Storage Association and a mother of three, said she preferred the U.S. play a more diplomatic role in trying to broker peace between the countries.
“I don’t know necessarily this is our fight to fight, but I am an avid supporter of life,” she said. “We want to make sure we can secure life as best as we can.”
Spurlock said Ukraine’s position as a NATO outsider makes an American military intervention more complicated, but also questioned if President Biden’s wave of sanctions against Putin will alter his plans.
“A good portion of the world has allowed (Putin) to be the supplier of many things and has allowed him a platform to be powerful,” she said. “When you are a powerful country, you want what he wants.”
Spurlock fears economic retaliation by the United States may not force Russia into peace talks.
“I just don’t know that it’s the best message we’re putting out,” she said. “We condemn him for standing his ground, and yet we are standing our ground forcing his hand to do what we want him to do. It’s a double standard.”
Garrett Barton
Garrett Barton, a Cheraw family doctor, supports expanding the European Union and NATO to include Ukraine, but said world leaders need to handle Putin from positions of strength.
“Diplomacy, obviously, is out the window with Putin,” he said.
For now, he’s against using America’s military to act against Putin directly, but would change his mind if China or other aggressors ramp up their own armies.
“There are things we can do without sending our sons and daughters to fight over there,” he said. “That’s what NATO is for; that’s what the EU is for.”
As for Trump’s remarks, Barton believes they’re more nuanced than portrayed by the media.
“I do not believe for one minute, especially with the Russia hoax coming out, that he supports Putin,” Barton said.
Biden’s sanctions have Barton’s support, but he doesn’t believe they went “far enough.”
“We need to stop all kinds of financial support and cut him off.,” he said. “We have to be extremely firm with them.”
U.S. military action could become necessary if Russia spreads its invasion beyond Ukraine, or if China tries to take over Taiwan, Barton said.
Barton said the sharp rise in gasoline prices as a result of the Russian invasion means Congress needs to do more than ever to assure energy independence — something he’d be pushing for right now if he was in Rice’s seat.
“That would hurt Russia, because that’s where they get their money, and that’s a way we can hit them back even harder,” he said.
Mark McBride
The former two-term Myrtle Beach mayor, who announced his candidacy last June as an anti-establishment alternative to Trump’s “America First” agenda, said sending American forces into the region is a “red line.”
“When you have a weak president in place, Putin believes he can do anything he wants, and this is what happens,” he said. “You can’t give him a pipeline, enable him. This is what happens.”
America’s sanctions against Putin and Russian oligarchs came too late to send an effective message, McBride said.
“If you’re going to do sanctions, do real sanctions,” he said. “It’s just absolutely ignorant for the president to have released oil out of our reserves. We don’t have a disaster.”
Like several other candidates, McBride said he would push for policies to make the United States energy “dominant,” backing ideas including wider domestic mining and strategic drilling, though not off the Florida and South Carolina coasts.
