An amendment proposed by Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) to a funding bill for the Department of State and related areas of the government that would have blocked assistance for Ukraine has been rejected by the House. The chamber voted it down by a massive margin, with 342 members voting in opposition and just 90 in favor. As a reminder, there are 435 members of the U.S. House in total.
Republicans in Greene’s ideological corner of the party have consistently opposed U.S. assistance for Ukraine, though it’s been extensively argued that the U.S. has a vested, even if indirect, interest in seeing Russia’s defeat as that country’s forces push forward the conflict. That’s in addition, of course, to the moral calculations to which many have pointed as many government interests across the world have provided support for the Ukrainian national defense. This support, including what’s come from the U.S., has most prominently taken the form of weapons shipments. No U.S. troops have directly participated in the conflict, and there is no indication of that status changing at any point in the future.
Former President Donald Trump has claimed he could bring a swift end to the war between Russia and Ukraine if only he had the opportunity. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has responded by maligning the possibility that Trump’s idea or the plan from someone similar is to make territorial concessions to Russian leader Vladimir Putin’s regime. The course of the war so far has already shown what can be expected after Russians take control of some geographical area: continued terror inflicted on accessible civilians. Besides, what’s to say the Russian government wouldn’t accept territorial concessions and then, after whatever amount of time, just keep militarily clamoring for the rest of the smaller country?
As for the far-right argument to focus more closely on ostensible domestic issues, Republicans of Greene’s persuasion continue failing to accurately relay the basics of what’s actually transpiring in areas like the southern border.
