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Stefani Reynolds/CNP via Zuma Get your news from a source that’s not owned and controlled by oligarchs. Sign up for the free _Mother Jones Daily_. Despite repeatedly being told otherwise,
and being specifically told by Trump intelligence officials that the Russian government has worked to propagate the theory that Ukraine meddled in the 2016 elections, Republican officials
continue to insist that Ukraine should be under scrutiny—not Russia. The latest example came Sunday when Sen. Ted Cruz, (R-Texas), told NBC’s Chuck Todd said that “the media” was trying to
downplay Ukraine’s meddling by solely focusing on Russian meddling. Todd asked Cruz whether he believed Ukraine meddled in 2016, and Cruz said, “I do, and I think there’s considerable
evidence.” Cruz acknowledged that Russia did interfere in the 2016 election, but also insisted that “Ukraine blatantly interfered in our election.” As proof, Cruz cited an August 2016 op-ed
written by Valeriy Chaly, then Ukraine’s ambassador to the United States, which slammed then-Republican nominee Donald Trump after he said that people in Crimea, “from what I’ve heard, would
rather be with Russia than where they were.” > WATCH: @SenTedCruz says he believes Ukraine meddled in the 2016 > election. #MTP #IfItsSunday pic.twitter.com/OPAxpe6T6t > > —
Meet the Press (@MeetThePress) December 8, 2019 In that op-ed, Chaly wrote that Trump’s comments had “raised serious concerns in Kyiv and beyond Ukraine,” and that Trump’s proposal
represented an “appeasement of an aggressor and support the violation of a sovereign country’s territorial integrity and another’s breach of international law.” Underlying the Republican
insistence that we should all be looking at Ukraine rather than Russia, is an effort to defend the president’s animus toward Ukraine, which is rooted in the president’s baseless conspiracy
theory that the country’s officials “tried to take [him] down” by manufacturing a hack of the Democratic National Committee and blaming it Russia. His disdain for Ukraine was also clear when
he tried to extort the Ukrainian government to announce an investigation into former Vice President Joe Biden’s son in exchange for nearly $400 million in military aid, an episode at the
heart of his looming impeachment.