joe biden signed Measures were proposed Friday to preserve funding for the U.S. government, but the bill would not unfreeze funding to Ukraine as Washington reels from its second heavy snowfall in a week. Ta.
Far-right House Republicans, led by Speaker Mike Johnson, are securing a chance to provide Kiev with more money and weapons in its fight with Moscow, which is hanging over immigration reform negotiations.
On Wednesday, the president welcomed Johnson and other Republican and Democratic leaders to the White House for talks.
The talks ended with the two countries still unable to reach an agreement on immigration and the southern border, but Senate Democratic Majority Leader Chuck Schumer of New York said a deal could be reached and aid to Ukraine could be resumed. He said he was optimistic. table.
“Once we avoid a shutdown, my goal is for the Senate to move forward on a supplemental national security bill as quickly as possible,” Schumer said. Said. “Our national security, our friends abroad, and the future of our democracy could not ask for anything better.”
On Friday, Biden addressed a group of mayors at the White House. Said He was “ready to act” and believed the Senate would agree to an immigration deal “if God willing the streams do not swell.”
“My question to the Speaker and House Republicans was: Are you ready?” Biden said.
But after Wednesday's White House meeting, Johnson told reporters: “We know there are concerns about the safety, security and sovereignty of Ukraine. But the American people have similar concerns about our own domestic sovereignty, our safety and security.”
Many officials say Republicans don't want a deal on immigration and the southern border and instead want to use the issue and the concept of additional aid to Ukraine as a club to attack Biden in an election year. Suggests.
“Republicans are more interested in venting grievances and stoking anger than actually solving problems,” says Washington Post columnist Eugene Robinson. I have written. “That's exactly what Donald Trump trained them to do.”
Robinson went on to quote Texas Congressman Troy Neals this month. told CNN: “I'll tell you, I'm not going to do too much right now to help the Democratic Party or to help Joe Biden's approval ratings. I'm not going to do much to help the Democratic Party or help Joe Biden's approval ratings. I won't cooperate with the Democratic Party when they try to do that. I won't do that. Why would I do that?”
Amid all this well-known dysfunction, one slightly dystopian possibility stood out. Party officials say if Mr Johnson brings the Senate deal on immigration to the House of Commons, it could provide Democrats with the votes to keep him in the chair, against a potential revolt from the right. That's what it means. This would put aid to Ukraine back on the table.
“Our job is not to save Johnson, but if he did the right thing…I think it would be a great shame for us not to support him,” the House Homeland Security Committee said. Bennie Thompson of Mississippi, a leading Democratic congressman, said: told Politico. “He's been a pretty honest broker so far.”
In October, Democrats could have prevented Mr. Johnson's predecessor, Kevin McCarthy, from becoming the first speaker to be expelled from the party, but they did not do so.
Fueled by Trumpist isolationism, or similarly by Trumpist authoritarianism and thus a preference for Vladimir Putin and Russia, resistance to aiding Ukraine remains strong among congressional Republicans.
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But the party is not united. During the presidential campaign, former South Carolina governor and United Nations ambassador Nikki Haley, Trump's closest challenger for the Republican nomination, told voters in New Hampshire on Thursday that the United States has “troops everywhere.” There is no need to station them.” What we have to do is deter it.
“There's a reason the Taiwanese want the United States and the West to support Ukraine. Because they know that if Ukraine wins, China won't invade Taiwan.”
Haley also linked aid to Ukraine to Israel's support for Hamas, another issue up for discussion if immigration negotiations are successful.
In the House, Foreign Affairs Chairman Michael McCaul tried a more emotional tactic, appealing to the Republican Party's better angels, or at least the party's foreign policy tradition.
McCall Johnson told the Post“We're going to have to make hard decisions about what to do. Even if we abandon our NATO allies and surrender to Putin in Ukraine, it's not going to make the world safer, it's going to make the world more secure.” It would be dangerous… [Ronald] Reagan would never have surrendered to the Soviet Union. Maybe that's the change in our party. ”
Most observers would suggest that's the case, since the Republican Party has long capitulated to Trump. President Trump has been predictably harsh in his own contribution to the debate over whether to strike a deal on immigration and return to support for Ukraine, clearly intended to stiffen Johnson's spine. was there.
“I simply don't believe we should have a border agreement unless we have everything we need to stop invasion,” the former president wrote on his social media platform.
“And I have no doubt that our wonderful Speaker of the House, Mike Johnson, will get the perfect deal on the border.”
