Earlier today, we saw how Dan Frei, the MAGAt who the fascists that have taken over the Nebraska GOP endorsed to run against mainstream conservative incumbent Don Bacon, immediately pledged to follow the Trump line on the Russian invasion of Ukraine— cut off all aid to Ukraine. In his column yesterday, David Frum referred that kind of MAGA thinking as part of the GOP’s Great Betrayal in which “congressional Republicans are blocking crucial aid to Israel and Ukraine out of sheer servility to Trump.”
This past weekend, was the 100-day anniversary of Biden asking Congress for $106 billion in emergency defense aid for Israel and Ukraine, as well as additional funding for border enforcement. The Republicans, on behalf of Trump, have inserted partisan politics into the national security, refusing to grant the request. “The main obstacle,” wrote Frum, “is the House of Representatives, and within the House, the pro-Trump MAGA caucus that toppled the previous speaker, Kevin McCarthy. The MAGA caucus then vetoed McCarthy’s most eligible successors, eventually bringing the ultra-Trumpist Johnson to his high office, which is second only to the vice president in the presidential succession. Johnson has advertised himself as a friend of Israel. He scheduled hearings so that House members could interrogate college presidents about their failure to prevent anti-Semitic harassment on campus. Two of those presidents ultimately lost their job: the University of Pennsylvania’s Liz Magill and Harvard’s Claudine Gay. But when it comes to aiding allies in a shooting war, rather than a culture war, suddenly Johnson and his caucus are nowhere to be found.”
Russo-Republicans like Johnson— who Trump gave the nickname “MAGA Mike”— are purposefully undermining Ukraine’s ability to resist Russian aggression. MAGA refusal to allow aid to even be voted on “has curtailed the flow of supplies to Ukraine. Frontline reports say that Ukrainian units are compelled to ration ammunition, conceding the artillery advantage to the Russian invader… Republicans insisted on linking Ukraine and Israel aid to border enforcement. In deference to their wishes, Biden also sought $14 billion for border enforcement. Among other purposes, the money would fund the hiring of nearly 6,000 new employees, including 375 additional immigration judges. Many of today’s border-crossers will claim asylum, a status protected by U.S. law and treaties. A large majority of those claims will ultimately be rejected. But because of the new mass of claims, processing has greatly slowed. Once a claim is filed, an asylum seeker can look forward to being released into the country and a delay of years before they are ordered to leave… [Biden] needs resources to hasten the adjudication of claims that lack merit. The more judges deployed, the faster the claims will be heard. The faster the claims are heard, the sooner rejected applicants can be removed. The prompt removal of rejected applicants will in turn send a strong message around the world that would-be migrants should stay home rather than pay a human trafficker thousands of dollars to help them game the U.S. immigration system.”
Sounds like what you would expect Republican xenophobes to embrace enthusiastically, right? Not when it’s Biden making the request.
In November, House Republicans passed an Israel-only aid bill. But the bill was written to be rejected. It appropriated $14 billion of Israel aid only by cutting $14 billion out of the IRS budget. Not only would this have been a gift to tax cheats, but the cut specified that the IRS must zero out its pilot program designed to spare taxpayers the expense of software and tax professionals. The big tax-preparation companies have spent millions of dollars lobbying Congress to prevent direct filing. So when Hamas murdered 1,200 people in their homes and workplaces, House Republicans seized the opportunity to come to the rescue not of Israel but of TurboTax.
…[T]the background political reality is that Donald Trump is an enemy of Ukraine and an admirer of the Russian dictator Vladimir Putin. As Trump has neared renomination, his party— especially in the House of Representatives— has surrendered to his pro-Putin pressure. Biden overestimated the time available to keep aid flowing to Ukraine because he underestimated the servility of House Republicans to Trump’s anti-Ukraine animus.
At the same time, the GOP’s presumptive nominee has reportedly been pressuring Senate Republicans to reject a deal on the spending package, because candidate Trump does not want Biden awarded any win, particularly one that involves enhancing border security, in this election year. So vital aid to Israel and Ukraine must be delayed and put in further doubt because of a rejected president’s spite and his party’s calculation of electoral advantage.
The true outcome of the fiasco in Congress will be the collapse of U.S. credibility all over the world. American allies will seek protection from more trustworthy partners, and America itself will be isolated and weakened.
The 100 days of shame that have already passed are a prelude to worse disasters to come. The House Republicans have a majority of only six (219 to 213). On that slim margin hangs the good name of the United States and the security of countries that have been able to trust American promises for decades. All the candles in the world will not compensate for the betrayal under way.
In the Senate, where James Lankford has charged with cutting a deal with the Democrats over border security and aid for Israel and Ukraine, his own state’s MAGA-oriented Republican Party has condemned him for it. “OKGOP State Committee members passed the resolution disapproving of Lankford's work to pass a bipartisan border deal. The resolution, which was posted on social media by state Sen. Dusty Deevers, said the Oklahoma Republican Party will cease all support for Lankford until he ceases these actions.”
On Face The Nation yesterday, Margaret Brennan asked Lankford if he has the support of his fellow Republicans to vote the package he’s been working on for several months. He said no one has seen the final bill so there is no way to know who will support it and who won’t. That’s an idealistic way of looking at it. The MAGAty senators like Marsha Blackburn (TN), Tommy Tuberville (AL), Rand Paul (KY), JF Vance (OH), Rick Scott (FL), Ron Johnson (WI), Tom Cotton (AR), Josh Hawley (MO), Ted Cruz (TX), Stephen Schmitt (MO) and Mike Lee (UT) don’t need to see the bill. It doesn’t matter what the details are. They are against anything Trump tells them to be against. End of story. These are not patriotic Americans and they don’t belong in office.
Brennan:
[T]he conservative Wall Street Journal editorial board called this the best chance in years to fix asylum law and parole loophole. But Donald Trump, who is the front runner to be your party's nominee in 2024 is telling Republicans not to support this. Here's what he said last night in Las Vegas.
Trump on tape:
A lot of the senators are trying to say respectfully they're blaming going to me– I said that's okay. Please blame it on me, please, because they were getting ready to pass a very bad bill. And I'll tell you what a bad bill is– I'd rather have no bill than a bad bill.
Brennan:
Can you get this passed without Donald Trump's approval?
Lankford:
Well, I'm looking forward to President Trump having the opportunity to be able to read it like everybody else. There's a lot of misinformation out there right now that I hear this comment that it waives in 5,000 people, it hands out work permits that— all those things are not true. There's just a lot of internet rumors that are running around on this right now. We're looking forward to getting the information out and I can say, there is no question no matter what your political persuasion is, we would not have had the immigration crisis we're experiencing right now, if President Trump would have been president the last three years. There's no way we would have had 8 million people illegally cross our border, because he would enforce those different authorities and would have made sure that we actually secure a border. But even while he was president, he was specifically asking Congress to change the standard on asylum to be able to tighten up, to be able to give them additional funds for deportation. All of those things are in this bill. So if he were to be president, this would be new authorities that he had actually asked for when he was president before.
In an email to his constituents yesterday, Adam Schiff wrote that “on Monday night, in the U.S. Senate debate, Republican Steve Garvey called me a liar for investigating the connections between Trump’s presidential campaign and the Russian government… When I was Chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, our investigation and Special Counsel Bob Mueller’s revealed that Trump’s campaign chairman, Paul Manafort, was giving internal campaign polling data to Russian intelligence while Russian intelligence was helping their campaign, including in key states. We found that the Russians offered ‘dirt’ on Hillary Clinton— in writing— as part of what the Russians described as their government’s effort to help the Trump campaign, and that the Trump campaign said they would love the help, even arranging a secret meeting with the Russians in Trump Tower. Not long after, the Russians started dumping stolen emails to hurt the Clinton campaign. To anyone other than Donald Trump— and apparently Steve Garvey— that is the very definition of collusion. But to them, I guess, they would just call it good old-fashioned cheating with the enemy.”
