Stefanik says Putin ‘is committing genocide’

PONTE VEDRA BEACH, Fla. – House Republican Conference Chairwoman Elise Stefanik (N.Y.) on Thursday accused Russian President Vladimir Putin of genocide and war crimes in his country’s invasion of Ukraine. 

“Putin is an authoritarian. He is committing genocide. He is a war criminal,” Stefanik told reporters at the House GOP’s annual retreat in Florida. “The House Republican caucus has been consistent in this.”

Stefanik’s remarks came little more than a week after President Biden called Putin a war criminal and just a day after the U.S. made the formal determination that the Russian military has committed war crimes in Ukraine. 

Stefanik and other House Republican leaders are hoping to use the three-day retreat outside of Jacksonville to hone the GOP’s messaging and unify the Republican conference around a singular agenda ahead of the November midterm elections, when the party will have a shot at recapturing control of the House.

Her hard-line remarks on Putin and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine marked an obvious effort to stake out a clear stance on the crisis. 

While most Republicans have been vocal champions of U.S. efforts to support Ukraine, some in the party’s far-right flank — Reps. Marjorie Taylor Greene (Ga.) or Madison Cawthorn (N.C.), for instance — have been more equivocal in their stance and have at times gone as far as to echo Russian talking points. 

Cawthorn drew intense criticism earlier this month after he described Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky as a “thug.” That comment drew a rebuke from House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) who called Cawthorn’s remark “wrong.”