Biden bans Russian oil

Last week, while watching the State of the Union address, I was struck by the empowering sight of two women seated on the platform behind the president for the first time in SOTU history. While the symbolism of this breakthrough moment understandably took a back seat to the cascade of horrific news coming out of Ukraine, I think it's important to highlight it today on International Women’s Day. This isn't about politics; it doesn't matter whether you agree with or voted for Kamala Harris or Nancy Pelosi. It’s about representation. For every woman in a position of power, there are millions of girls and young women who see her and know that they too can aspire to the same. The late Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg said, “When I’m sometimes asked, ‘When will there be enough [women on the Supreme Court]?’ and I say ‘When there are nine,’ people are shocked. But there’d been nine men, and nobody’s ever raised a question about that.” If Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson, President Biden’s nominee for the Supreme Court, is confirmed, she'll be the fourth woman (and sixth overall) to sit on the SCOTUS bench—a historical high point. Women belong in all places where decisions are being made. Step by step, we’re getting closer to Justice Ginsburg’s vision. Happy International Women’s Day! —Mary Anna Mancuso, National Spokeswoman, Renew America Movement 

Ed. Note: Be sure to join us for this week’s RAM Chat tomorrow, March 9, at 2pm ET, when we’ll be joined by author and historian Jon Grinspan. Tune in on the RAM website, YouTube, Facebook, or Twitter. 

• First trial for Capitol rioter ends with conviction by jurors —Associated Press

• Former Proud Boys leader indicted in Jan. 6 investigation —The New York Times

• Government report finds officers were ‘hesitant’ to use force on Jan. 6 for fear of disciplinary action —CBS News

• What to know as Gov. Whitmer kidnapping conspiracy case heads to trial —The Detroit News

• Senate passes anti-lynching bill and sends federal hate crime legislation to Biden —NPR

‘Defending freedom is going to cost’

Over the weekend, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky requested two things from U.S. lawmakers—a no-fly zone over Ukraine and a ban on imports of Russian oil and gas, which are helping to fund Vladimir Putin’s increasingly bloody war effort. Though a no-fly zone is unlikely, as there is bipartisan concern that it could lead the U.S. and Europe into World War III with Russia, President Biden ordered the oil ban today. It won't come without some economic pain for Americans, especially at the gas pump, where prices are already high. But more importantly, the ban will deliver a “powerful blow” against Russia’s ability to fund the ongoing offensive. “We will not be part of subsidizing Putin’s war,” Biden said. —Associated Press

• “We have the opportunity to cut off Putin’s largest revenue source.” Renewer Rep. Josh Gottheimer was instrumental in getting the oil ban done by introducing legislation in the House—the companion to the legislation the Senate passed on Saturday. “I’m proud to join forces—both across the aisle and across chambers—to help lead this critical bipartisan bill to ban Russian oil and petroleum from being imported to the United States,” Gottheimer said. “We have the opportunity to…support America’s own energy independence and security, and to work with our allies to stabilize the global energy market to help us mitigate rising energy costs for our hardworking families.” —Sparta Independent

• A visit to the border. Renewer Rep. Susan Wild and fellow Pennsylvania Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick, part of a bipartisan group of lawmakers in the area, traveled to Poland near the Ukraine border over the weekend to assess the situation on the ground there. Wild said the group is committed to making sure that the country is supplied with fighter planes and that the U.S.’s NATO allies are well supported. Fitzpatrick proposed that Russia be given one week to remove all troops from Ukraine—and if he fails to do so, the U.S. should immediately move to make Ukraine a permanent member of NATO. —WFMZ

• Keeping tabs on China. Renewer Rep. Elissa Slotkin and Rep. Young Kim introduced a bipartisan bill yesterday—the Direct Investigations on China, Take Action to Oppose Russia Act of 2022, or the DICTATOR Act—that would require Secretary of State Antony Blinken to brief Congress on the extent to which the Chinese government has supported Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. “The way Russia has cozied up to the Chinese in recent months is concerning, and we need to make sure China isn’t helping Putin and his cronies evade sanctions and, by extension, supporting this appalling, violent invasion of a sovereign country,” Slotkin said. —Yahoo! News

MORE: Flashpoint interview: Michigan Rep. Slotkin talks war in Ukraine, what U.S. can do —WDIV Detroit 4

McKew: Putin's war isn't only about Ukraine

“The greatest lie Putin has ever sold us—ensnared us with—is the idea that our hands are tied against him. That there is nothing to be done. That he must win to abandon the infliction of more violence, more terror, more pain—even though allowing him to do so entails violence and terror and pain. That he is more dangerous when confronted than when he is allowed to nibble away at us from the shadows. … We didn’t start the war. But it was always about us. The collective us of free nations of which Ukraine is now firmly a part, and a leader. About the imaginary enemy that we are for Putin. About putting us in our place. About refreshing our belief that we can do nothing against him. We didn’t start the war. But Russia is at war with us already.” —Molly McKew on Great Power

Molly McKew served as an adviser to then-president of Georgia Mikheil Saakashvili from 2009 to 2013. She is an expert in information warfare, specializing in U.S.-Russia relations.

MORE: David French: On the enduring power of malevolent leaders —The Dispatch

Hasen: Americans have mastered Putin’s tool of choice—disinformation 

“The rise of cheap speech poses special dangers for American democracy and for faith and confidence in American elections. To put the matter bluntly, if we had the polarized politics of today but the information technology of the 1950s, we almost certainly would not have seen the insurrection of Jan. 6, 2021, at the United States Capitol. Millions of Republican voters would probably not have believed the false claims that the 2020 election was stolen from former President Donald Trump and demanded from state legislatures new restrictive voting rules and fake election ‘audits’ to counter phantom voter fraud.” —Richard Hasen in The New York Times

Richard Hasen is a professor of law and political science at the University of California, Irvine, and the author of “Election Meltdown: Dirty Tricks, Distrust, and the Threat to American Democracy.” 

MORE: Carole Cadwalladr: Social media turn on Putin, the past master —The Guardian

Focus on voting and elections

The Supreme Court yesterday turned away efforts in North Carolina and Pennsylvania to block state court-ordered congressional districting plans. The justices ordered the maps selected by each state’s Supreme Court to be in effect for the 2022 elections. The selected maps are considered more favorable to Democrats than the ones drawn by the states’ Republican legislatures. In North Carolina, the approved map most likely will give Democrats an additional House seat in 2023. The Pennsylvania map also probably will lead to the election of more Democrats as well. —Associated Press

• A Harris County hiccup. About 10,000 mail-in ballots were tabulated but not counted in Harris County, Texas, home to Houston, on primary election day last week, officials said. An “oversight” led to 10,000 ballots—6,000 Democratic and 4,000 Republican votes—not being counted, but they’ll be added to the final tallies today. Thousands of mail-in ballots were rejected from the March 1 primary, the first statewide election that took place in Texas under new, tighter voting laws. —ABC News

• Fraud hunters? A new group backed by a billionaire former Trump campaign official is enlisting Trump-supporting citizens to hunt for election fraud on their own. The problem? The tools and techniques that the Voter Reference Foundation (or VoterRef) provides to people to prove “election irregularities” have already been discredited. Further, the group’s actions may be illegal, as it has published voters’ names, birthdates, addresses, and voting histories on its website—information that is normally public but only available on request for a fee. —ProPublica

• Maybe they should look into Mark Meadows. The former White House chief of staff has drawn some scrutiny since it was revealed that in 2020, he and his wife registered to vote at an address in North Carolina where they did not physically reside. In fact, as far as investigators can tell, they have no connection to the mobile home in which they claimed to live, apart from renting it briefly from the former owner for vacation a few years ago. Voter fraud? Stay tuned. —The New Yorker

MORE: Trump just endorsed an Oath Keeper’s plan to seize control of the Republican Party —ProPublica

Dent: Does the ‘P’ in GOP stand for Putin? That's up to Republicans

“In the recent aftermath of the violent assault of Jan. 6 on American democracy and the constitutional order, the traditional wing of the GOP must now engage and join the fight. Or, as tweeted by Liz Cheney who urged all Americans to reject the ‘Putin wing of the GOP now.’ Putin's American propagandists and apologists like Tucker Carlson must also be rejected. After all, it was the Soviets who coined the term ‘useful idiot’ to refer to Americans who, in an attempt to advance their own interests, advanced Soviet ones. Tucker Carlson should take note.” —Charlie Dent on CNN

Charlie Dent formerly represented Pennsylvania in the U.S. House of Representatives, where he chaired the House Ethics Committee and the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Military Construction, Veterans Affairs, and Related Agencies. He is a member of the board of directors of CARE USA, a nongovernmental organization that works to fight poverty.

MORE: Former Trump official called Ukrainian President Zelensky a 'puppet' —Insider

Kasparov & Epshtein: The world can only win if we stay unified on Ukraine

“What Americans must recognize is any suffering we experience now is a necessary price to pay compared to the world we would be ushering in through inaction. Russia's invasion of Ukraine threatens to tear apart the fabric of the rules-based world order countless Americans have died to create and defend. In the process, it would make the current shocks we're experiencing our new normal.” —Garry Kasparov & Uriel Epshtein on CNN

Garry Kasparov is a former world chess champion and chair of the Renew Democracy Initiative. Uriel Epshtein is the executive director of the Renew Democracy Initiative. 

MORE: E.J. Dionne Jr.: Have Zelensky (and Putin) created a come-to-democracy moment? That’s up to us —The Washington Post

Bill T. of Arizona’s opine regarding Putin and Trump, and the course of history, is spot-on. Ukraine is to Putin what Czechoslovakia was to Hitler. The similarities are striking. Both have been motivated, in part, by a desire to return their countries to what they believed to be their former greatness. The West's tepid responses (economic sanctions, clicking "like" on anti-Putin social media posts) are not going to stop a psychopath like Putin. NATO must prepare, with no hesitation about "provoking" a Russian response. As much as I hate to say this, we must prepare now for the possibility of a much greater conflict in Europe. Once again. As a nation, with our allies (you know, NATO, that outdated organization that Trump disparaged) we need to step up to stop tyranny. Are we too soft, too divided to do it this time? —Patrick N., Idaho

Thank you, Bill T. of Arizona. I appreciate his clarity, and it is an honor to live in the state with him! —Alice L., Arizona

I feel that Putin thought the world would sit down and shut up, and that Zelensky was weak, and he and the Ukrainian people would just give up. Maybe listening to his Trump mark was not such a good idea after all. Given the lack of human intelligence, decency, honor, respect—Putin's type of loser—the old boy got lied to.

I think it is a very good sign that the world is standing up and even marginal friends and allies are coming together to unite. With all the activity towards Russia, Putin's days may be numbered. Remember, they do not have recalls in Russia. —Donna C., California

The views expressed in "What's Your Take?" are submitted by readers and do not necessarily reflect the views of the editorial staff, the Renew America Movement, or the Renew America Foundation.