As RedState has reported, Russia has officially thumbed its nose at Joe Biden and invaded Ukraine. That happened after Vladimir Putin formerly recognized regions of Eastern Ukraine as autonomous, setting up the pretext to move in troops across the border as a peacekeeping force.

The administration has responded by quibbling about the definition of “invasion,” and signing a toothless executive order to sanction financial dealings in the Donbas and other regions now officially occupied by Russia. Whether tougher measures are coming is still an open question.

Regardless, what we do know is that Biden, for his proclamations of Putin being afraid of him, has been thoroughly embarrassed, having a Russian invasion of Europe take place on his watch. How has the left decided to cope with that?

By talking about Donald Trump, of course.

What ever happens in Ukraine we shouldn't underestimate the fact the United States has retaken the adult chair in the world. Biden has restored American leadership so damaged by Trump. The world needs us and we have a President who can and does lead.

— Joe Lockhart (@joelockhart) February 22, 2022

We are so lucky Donald Trump isn’t president today.

— Ben Ritz (@BudgetBen) February 21, 2022

Opinion | With Biden standing firm, Putin must wonder: Where’s Trump when I need him? https://t.co/lzqWVUflgk

— Eugene Robinson (@Eugene_Robinson) February 22, 2022

Yes, we are so lucky Donald Trump isn’t president today. Otherwise, Russia might go off and do something crazy like…invade Eastern Europe.

These reactions are comical and clearly coordinated in some way. The Washington Post has no less than three op-eds out this morning trying to spin Biden’s abject failure as some kind of victory, including one by the gaslighter du jour, Jennifer Rubin. No doubt, shadow president Ronald Klain will be hitting the retweet button soon enough.

Yet, despite these desperate attempts to deflect, what can’t be explained away is the clear fact that Russia behaved while Trump was in office. Whatever one would like to attribute that to, that is the reality of what happened. Obsessions about Helsinki (which had no practical impact on anything) and platitudes about Biden being the “adult in the room” will not change that. Russia waited to make its move once Trump was out of office, and that was not a coincidence.

We could also talk about the fact that early in Biden’s presidency, he lifted sanctions on Russia and green-lit the Nordstream 2 pipeline, which went a long way in making Putin believe he had the leverage to go ahead with his incursion. But I digress, that’s hardly new information.

In the end, what we are witnessing is Democrats doing their best to cope with the fact that they were simply wrong. They truly thought that a senile old man could be put into the White House, and that it wouldn’t lead to horrible consequences. In their world, “mean tweets” and arguments over gender pronouns were the most important issues of our time. Well, how’s that working out?

The ultimate lib cope right now is pretending things would somehow be worse than Russia invading Europe if Trump were president.

— Bonchie (@bonchieredstate) February 22, 2022

It’s honestly pathetic to see this kind of flailing, with the left falling back into its obsession with the orange man, instead of dealing with the problems at hand. Donald Trump is not president, and no matter what they thought of him personally, he was far more successful in his foreign policy pursuits than Joe Biden. That inconvenient truth enrages them, and it shows.