Sen. Tommy Tuberville raised a few eyebrows last week when he suggested that Vladimir Putin is genuinely interested in “a peace agreement,” because the Russian leader said so during an interview with Tucker Carlson. While most U.S. officials tend to realize that the dictator hasn’t earned the benefit of the doubt, the senior senator from Alabama apparently disagreed.

Yesterday, the coach-turned-politician appeared on Fox Business and echoed the sentiment, accepting Putin’s rhetoric at face value and declaring that Ukraine “can’t win” in response to Russia’s invasion.

But as jarring as it was to see Tuberville take such a position, it’s important to note that the Alabaman isn’t the only member of the Senate Republican conference speaking this way.

Take Sen. Ron Johnson, for example. The Wisconsin Republican, who was part of a Senate delegation that famously spent the 4th of July in Moscow in 2018, appeared on a conservative media outlet this week and explained his position. Johnson conceded that the Russian leader is a “war criminal,” before saying, “But an awful lot of what Vladimir Putin said was right.”

In the same interview, the GOP senator — the former chairman of the Senate Homeland Security Committee — criticized U.S. sanctions before concluding, “A lot of the points that Vladimir Putin made are accurate. They’re obvious.”

On Capitol Hill, Johnson pushed a similar line. Politico reported:

Ukraine opponents met late Monday evening and came out resolving to delay the bill as long as they can, even if it requires holding the Senate floor overnight. Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) said they will use as “much time as we can” on the Senate floor. “We’re not helping Ukraine at this point in time. We’re fueling a bloody stalemate. It makes no sense,” Johnson said after the meeting.

It’s a position rooted in the idea that the United States would go a long way toward “helping Ukraine” if we curtailed aid and made it easier for Russia to win faster.

This is the same Senate Republican who argued, in the immediate aftermath of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, that responsibility for the war should fall on the Biden administration, congressional Democrats, and “the West in general.”

Republican Sen. Mitt Romney of Utah said on the Senate floor, “I know that the shock jocks and online instigators have riled up many in the far reaches of my party, but if your position is being cheered by Vladimir Putin, it’s time to reconsider your position.”

Whether Ron Johnson took the message to heart is unclear.