The late, great Sen. John McCain repeatedly warned us about the tyrant Putin and his end game, but did we listen? No! Putin knows all too well that the biggest threat to his dictatorship is democracy.

Putin played the long game by methodically disrupting Western democracy by spreading disinformation, influencing elections and getting his puppets in key positions like the U.S. government, including the presidency.

He had a little help of course because he knew support would come from the greed of cooperate America who saw the dollar signs. Remember the trillion-dollar tax breaks for the wealthy that were signed into law in Trump’s first year in office? Putin also knew that there was a certain percentage of the voting population who believe Elvis is still alive therefore; could be fed anything even if it came from bogus news outlets.

Now we have a democratic nation brutally under attack by a dictator who is also threatening the world by flexing his nuclear muscle. Meanwhile, his puppet and enablers are using terms like “savvy” and “genius” to describe this tyrant. Now of course, the Putin puppet and his enablers are somehow trying to twist this thing and direct the blame back to the current administration.

Anybody that has not been living under a rock know that Trump tried to hold up military funding to Ukraine for bogus reasons and have watched his one-sided bromance with Putin go on for years. This clearly is not the GOP that I once supported, and try as they might they will not get out of this one unscathed.

It finally became clear to me why Trump started insulting one of the greatest of Americans of my generation on. McCain had Trump and his handler’s number and they knew it.

Gerard Austin

Solon