Just weeks ago, Missouri Sen. Josh Hawley excoriated the Biden administration for what he said was too much focus on deterring Russian aggression — comments that, as the White House noted, parroted the Kremlin's own talking points in the runup to Russia's invasion of Ukraine. Now Hawley is again blasting the administration, this time saying its unprecedented sanctions against Russia don't go far enough and that it should have moved sooner to assist Ukraine.

This is the same senator, remember, who was OK with former President Donald Trump threatening to withhold crucial military aid from Ukraine unless its government helped him win reelection. What chutzpah.

In early February, while the administration warned that Russia was about to invade Ukraine, Hawley made his own position clear: While he favored sanctions on Russia, containing the economic threat posed by China should be America's focus because "Russia poses a far greater threat to Europe than it does to the United States." He also called on the administration to oppose Ukraine's entry into NATO.

Contrast that Neville Chamberlain routine with Hawley's new Winston Churchill schtick: "I cannot believe that the Biden administration continues to keep our energy production turned off and allow the Russians to move forward," he glowered to Fox News last week.

Hawley says the U.S. and NATO should expand the sanctions to squeeze Russia's oil and natural gas markets, which isn't a new or necessarily bad idea. But, as always, he has to dress it up with partisan gamesmanship, promoting the Republican myth that the administration has "turned off" domestic energy production and could simply turn it back on to counter the price hikes that would normally accompany a ban on Russian energy imports.

Neither assertion is true. As multiple fact-checks have noted, the administration's early attempt to temporarily pause new federal oil and gas leases on government land was struck down in court before it could go into effect, and it would have had little impact on overall production anyway. In fact, the U.S. is currently nearing pre-pandemic domestic oil production levels.

As for the notion that the administration could just flip a switch and ramp up domestic production to offset the effects of a ban on Russian oil and gas: That, too, is a myth, as Vox and other outlets have painstakingly explained in recent pieces. Though Russian oil makes up a relatively small portion of U.S. energy imports, banning it would likely spur some level of price hike at the gas pumps — at which point Hawley would, right on chameleon cue, blame the administration. It's his only consistency.

As serious U.S. and global leaders work that delicate balance between aiding Ukraine and avoiding nuclear war with Russia, Hawley is reminding everyone, as he frequently does, that his main contribution to the conversation will be self-serving, grandstanding and ultimately counterproductive.

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