In recent remarks on the Senate floor on the occasion of what became the chamber approving a new foreign assistance deal setting up tens of billions of dollars worth of new help for Ukraine, Sen. Mitt Romney (R-Utah) directly confronted the voices in the GOP clamoring against the idea.
“Now, I know that the shock jocks and online instigators have effectively riled up many in the far reaches of my party,” Romney told his colleagues. “But if your position is being cheered by Vladimir Putin, it is time to reconsider your position. Now, I can’t see into the future. But there are no guarantees that Ukraine will defeat Russia, but that does not mean that we should stand back and let Putin have his way with Europe. What sending weapons to Ukraine does do is help discourage further Russian and Chinese invasions, which could draw us in. It helps preserve NATO. It allows America to remain the leader of the free world, and it shows that we honor our word to our friends and allies.”
Romney argued elsewhere in his remarks that a Russian military successful in Ukraine would be empowered to potentially try confronting members of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), a mutual defense alliance including the U.S.
Speaker of the House Rep. Mike Johnson (R-La.) released a sharply critical statement after the Senate approved the foreign aid package that Romney was discussing, suggesting nearly from the get-go that GOP leadership in the House wouldn’t bring the Senate-approved deal up for a vote. Though their precise path forward was unclear, the chamber’s leading Republicans already took a similar position around an eventually failed, earlier proposal in the Senate linking foreign assistance and changes to border policy.
In the prepared statement after the Senate’s successful aid vote, Johnson again clamored for action on the border despite rejecting proposals for expanding hiring on border security teams, adding to those personnel’s technology on hand for going after the dangerous drug fentanyl, and giving the federal government new powers to close the southern border between ports of entry (meaning established crossings) in periods of particularly extensive strain.
