Tucker Who? Eighty Percent of Republicans Want Biden to Be Tougher Against Russia

A Quinnipiac University poll released Monday found that Republicans still remain the more hawkish of the two major parties in the U.S. – despite recent suggestions on the right that the U.S. should not care what happens in Ukraine.

The poll asked Americans if they believe that the Biden administration has been “too tough, not strong enough, or just right” in dealing with Vladimir Putin and his brutal invasion of Russia.

A whopping 80 percent of Republicans said President Joe Biden’s response has not been tough enough. Meanwhile, only 44 percent of Democrats said Biden has not been tough enough, while 47 percent of Democrats believe Biden’s response has been “about right.”

Additionally, 61 percent of Republicans believe Biden is doing “too little” to help Ukraine while 53 percent of Democrats believe Biden has done the right amount.

The poll also found overwhelming support, 7 out of 10 Americans, for sending U.S. troops to Europe if Putin attacked a NATO member country.

The poll’s results fly in the face of the messaging that top-rated Fox News host Tucker Carlson, a leader of the American right, has been offering in the lead up to the invasion.

Carlson stirred controversy when he referred to Russia’s incursion into Ukraine as a “border dispute” and questioned on his show why he has to support Ukraine, which he has called “a pure client state of the United States State Department.”

Carlson has taken a noticeably firmer line against Putin since the invasion began.

Carlson was not the only right-wing host, with a large conservative audience to question U.S. support for Ukraine. On Newsmax’s Greg Kelly has diminished the threat Putin poses, while Steve Bannon has declared Ukraine is not even a country on his popular podcast.

The Quinnipiac University poll included 1,364 U.S. adults interviewed between February 25- 27 and has a margin of error of 2.7 percentage points.