Aid To Ukraine Infuriates The Russo-Republicans
One of McCarthy’s many strategic errors was to give the House Freedom Caucus 3 seats on the Rules Committee, effectively giving them the power to force the Speaker to make a deal with the Democrats on any contentious bill he wants to bring to the floor. That deal is destroying MAGA Mike’s speakership. By appointing nihilists Tom Massie (R-KY), Ralph Norman (R-SC) and Chip Roy (R-TX) to the committee, McCarthy guaranteed that the House would never be able to get anything done, regardless of who the speaker is.
Thursday night the committee met to make a decision on bringing the foreign aid bills for Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan to the floor. It passed 9-3, the 4 Democrats voting with the Republican majority on a committee where— until McCarthy’s abject surrender— the Rules Committee has always been a tool of the Speaker. Believe me, something like this would never have happened when Pelosi— or even Paul Ryan or John Boehner— were speakers.
Earlier, Susan Glasser had wondered aloud how MAGA Mike had finally worked up his courage to bring Ukraine funding to the floor— knowing full well that it would trigger Moscow Marge’s motion to vacate the chair. And that motion has the voters to end his speakership— unless he, unlike McCarthy, can get Democratic support. Welcome to coalition governance that leaves fascists out in the cold?
On Wednesday afternoon, MAGA Mike had announced that, in effect, he had gotten persuasive intel briefings that can’t be shared with Kremlin allies like Matt Gaetz, Moscow Marge, Chip Roy, Bob Good, etc— and that he believes what he was told. “This,” wrote Glasser, “was yet another heresy for many Republicans, who, following Trump, have spent years tearing down the truthfulness and reliability of America’s intelligence agencies. Johnson’s summation of the current geopolitical map differed little from what one might hear from President Biden at the White House lectern— and it suggested that the Speaker’s world view has departed sharply from Trump’s autocrat-admiring brand of American isolationism. ‘I believe Xi, Vladimir Putin, and Iran really are an axis of evil,’ Johnson averred. He warned that Putin, if left unstopped in Ukraine, ‘would continue to march through Europe,’ threatening the Balkans or Poland or another NATO ally. He sounded a personal note as well: ‘To put it bluntly, I would rather send bullets to Ukraine than American boys. My son is going to begin in the Naval Academy this fall. This is a live-fire exercise for me, as it is for so many American families.’ His closing remarks were a rebuke to the publicity-hungry tormentors in his own party already calling for his head. ‘This is not a game— it’s not a joke,’ he said. ‘I’m willing to take personal risk for that, because we have to do the right thing, and history will judge us.’”
Was this the same guy who, a few days earlier, on a visit to Mar-a-Lago, had so eagerly appeared at Trump’s side and prattled on about a bill to stop non-citizens from illegally voting in elections— an unnecessary and redundant measure seemingly concocted in order to pretend that Trump’s oft-repeated false claims of huge numbers of “illegals” voting are actually true?
On Wednesday, Johnson sounded like Republicans used to sound. Before Trump. Before Marjorie Taylor Greene, the Trump favorite who talks of “Jewish space lasers” and echoes Russian propaganda about “Ukrainian Nazis,” became a force in the House. A Republican like the ones who once bashed Democrats for not being tough enough on Putin. Listening to Johnson brought to mind the scene in The Lord of the Rings when the evil spell possessing the good King Theoden is broken and he suddenly returns to himself— an accommodationist no more, revivified, ready to fight. The old-school Republicans soon hailed Johnson’s “courage”; Greene quickly reiterated calls for his ouster. Donald Trump, Jr., made post after post on social media denouncing Johnson’s “garbage bill,” which, he insisted, “would do the bidding of Democrats and hurt my father’s ability to negotiate an end to the war between Russia and Ukraine.” By Thursday afternoon, Trump himself weighed in, finding time amid jury selection in his New York criminal hush-money trial to complain that Europe, not the U.S., should spend more money on Ukraine. His post— which was inaccurate in that E.U. institutions have committed close to twenty billion dollars more than the U.S. to Ukraine— stopped short of attacking Johnson or directly calling for the bill’s defeat. But that did not deter Florida Representative Matt Gaetz from saying it did, in a post bookended by fire emojis: “TRUMP OPPOSES SCHUMER/JOHNSON FOREIGN AID BILL.”
There had been little to suggest that such a last-minute conversion by Johnson was imminent. When Russia invaded Ukraine, he was an obscure backbencher from Louisiana and a fervent Trump supporter… Like Trump himself, Johnson seemed skeptical of Ukraine. He voted against the billions of dollars in military aid that the Biden Administration pushed through Congress. After becoming Speaker, in October, Johnson spent months parrying demands to pass Biden’s aid package for Ukraine, Israel, and Taiwan, insisting that it would have to be paired with conservative legislation addressing illegal immigration at the border, which was a non-starter for Democrats.
…For supporters of Ukraine, Johnson’s pivot was welcome news, albeit frighteningly late. It also raised as many questions as it answered: Will the bill end up passing? Will Greene follow through on her threatened motion to vacate the chair, and, if she does, will it result in the toppling of Johnson, as a similar motion from Gaetz ended Kevin McCarthy’s Speakership last fall? Or perhaps this will finally be the moment that the House bullies are tamed? Then again, Johnson’s majority is about to shrink to just a single vote with the impending resignation of Wisconsin Representative Mike Gallagher. Won’t that simply make an already ungovernable House even more impossible for him to lead?
…Let that be a cautionary tale. In choosing Ukraine over Russia, Johnson has taken a real stand— one that may allow Ukraine to avoid, for now, the defeat that would surely come from the U.S. withdrawing its support. But Johnson is no more a resistance hero than Barr ever was. Both are backing Trump for President. And, with Trump as President, Russia will be a winner no matter how Congress votes this week.
By last night, Politico was reporting that MAGA Mike has now effectively locked arms with the president: Johnson’s alignment with Biden this week has extended at times even to deploying similar talking points in favor of funding Ukraine, and comes in defiance of efforts by conservatives like Sen. J.D. Vance (R-OH) to rally a rebellion… Johnson’s support for the aid bill, part of a package that could pass the House as soon as this weekend, would grant Biden a major foreign policy victory that has eluded him for a year. It would stabilize a Ukrainian defense running low on munitions and bracing for a renewed Russian offensive in early summer. It’s also validation, Biden aides and allies said, of a White House strategy focused on slowly courting Johnson behind the scenes while letting him find his own path to a solution— even if it meant weathering frequent setbacks and building frustration within its own party.”
Yesterday when the rule came up for a vote on the floor, it passed overwhelmingly, 316-94. The 94 included 55 Republicans from the Putin wing of the GOP who want Ukraine to fail (including Moscow Marge, Gaetz, Ogles, Boebert, Perry… all the usual suspects) and 39 Democrats who are serious about stopping Israeli genocide. Among the Democrats to be proud of for their principled stand: Pramila, AOC, Ro, Ilhan, Rashida, Jamaal, Cori, Jamie, Ayanna…
This sounds like the old Republican Party we all knew... and hated: