More than half of House Republicans didn’t attend Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky’s Wednesday night address to Congress, The Hill reported on Thursday.
According to The Hill, 86 out of 213 House Republicans were at the Capitol for Zelensky’s speech. While some of the absences could be explained by lawmakers getting an early start on Christmas travel, as about a third of House members had active letters to vote by proxy on Wednesday, there is growing opposition to the policy of arming Ukraine among Republicans.
Ahead of Zelensky’s address, Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY) wrote on Twitter that he would not be attending the speech of a “Ukrainian lobbyist.” Some Republicans that attended the address were spotted sitting during moments when the rest of Congress was giving Zelensky a standing ovation, including Reps. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) and Lauren Boebert (R-CO).
After the speech, Boebert said in a video posted on Twitter that she wouldn’t support “sending additional money to this war” until “Congress receives a full audit of where our money has already gone.”
Gaetz released a statement that said Zelensky “should be commended for putting his country first, but American politicians who indulge his requests are unwilling to do the same for ours.” Gaetz said the speech did not change his stance on “suspending” aid to Ukraine.
Rep. Warren Davidson (R-OH), who attended the address, said the speech sent the wrong message. “We should be focused on trying to contain the war, not expand the war. And this kind of sends the message we’re kind of OK with expanding the war. And I think we should be sending a different message,” he said.
Massie, Boebert, Gaetz, Davidson, and 53 other House Republicans all voted against the $40 billion Ukraine aid bill that was passed back in May. Since then, new aid for Ukraine has been rolled into other massive spending bills, including the new $45 billion that was packed into the $1.7 trillion omnibus bill the Senate passed on Thursday.
While there is some dissent among Republicans, the majority of GOP members in Congress still support arming Ukraine, and Republican leadership is extremely hawkish on the issue. Rep. Michael McCaul, who is expected to lead the House Foreign Affairs Committee next year, has criticized President Biden for not sending Ukraine more advanced and longer-range weapons.
Senate Minority leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) said this week that arming Ukraine was the “number one priority” of most Republicans in Congress as he celebrated the $1.7 trillion omnibus bill.
I heard from a guy from Ukraine. That “hand to the heart” gesture you saw in Congress is a typical Ukrainian Mafia gesture. That should tell you something. This is open mockery of the Americans.
When speaking to the Greek parliament through video, Zelensky had the introduction made by a Greek … who is a hardcore nazist. That was at least funny. And at least then the Greeks understood what a joke that was played on them. Not that the rest of the world was informed, except in small notes. Imagine if Putin had done that. You’d hear it EVERY TIME the war was mentioned.
How easy to fool a fool.
McCaul won’t be elected to his position if the dissidents don’t support him …
Boebert wouldn’t support “sending additional money to this war” until “Congress receives a full audit of where our money has already gone.”
i never imagined that dimwit would ever be the voice of reason
She is a bit spicy. But give credit where it’s due.
Good, why worship the lead war lobbyist from Ukraine as if it’s the next coming of Christ. Shame the Progressives clapped along, just like they did with Israeli lobbyists. An absolute shame for the antiwar left.
Someone once said, it’s like inviting Saddam Hussain to speak in the Congress.
The US / NATO will continue sending arms to the Ukraine until WW2 breaks out and then it will be we didn`t expect that , if the US gives Z weapons to hit deep inside Russia or Crimea i have no doubt Putin will hit back hard .
The Russians/Putin will even less likely respond to any such hit with a direct hard hit back – conventionally NATO can hit Putin harder than Putin can hit NATO – but certainly he will threat such strikes and use them internally to gather support – which will likely curb support for Ukraine.
For these exact reasons the US will not likely give such weapons and the Ukrainians will not likely use US weapons for deep strikes in Russia – lest they want the support to end. NATO has been working hard to avoid being directly involved and Ukraine has been working hard to avoid using western equipment for the rather few strikes they have made on Russian territory.
Russia has more nukes than the US. In what world does that equate to not being able to hit back? There is no scenario where NATO attacks Russia directly, conventionally or otherwise, where Russia doesn’t wipe Europe and the USA off the map. This is why the war needs to end now, escalation could lead to the end of humankind very quickly, very easily. Zelensky already tried to make it happen with his claims that the Ukraine missile that hit Poland was from Russia. We are a hair’s breadth from mutual annihilation.
You are quite right, but if you read what I wrote you will see that I specifically said conventionally. I.e. the Russians most certainly can hit back but with nuclear weapons – looking at it now I can see that the formulation was perhaps not clear enough – the point was that if the Russians want to hit back hard then they likely have to go nuclear.
If you read my comment you will see that this is why the US will not provide Ukraine with the weapons to hit deep inside Russia – so the threat of Russia hitting back at Europe or the US is not substantial.
No because we would not hit back with nuclear weapons nor likely even conventional ones if a rocket had gone wrong and killed two people in a field in Poland.
We will not force the Ukrainians to end the war nor will we end our sanctions on Russia – simply because doing either when the Russians have so clearly threatened nuclear escalation would make the threat of nuclear war in the future much much higher than it is or will be in the present conflict.
This is because you would convert a weapon that up until now has been used to deter war (except in WWII) into a weapon that could be used to threaten concessions in a war of territorial conquest – that would start nuclear proliferation on a scale not seen at any time previously and it would cause a near world wide arms race.
How worthless these Democrats have become. Bunch of MIC simps and shills for the Empire. The fact that Republicans show more reluctance to war these days (for weak and wrong reasons) should be an indictment of how corrupted and utterly pathetic the Democratic “Left” have become. Corporate Left fakers who probably orgasm day and night to pics of John Bolton and Paul Wolfowitz.
“for weak and wrong reasons” indeed. Likely their instruction comes from a different faction on Parnassus where the gods of creation are apparently beginning to have doubts re the wisdom of this neocon project, warring against Russia. And, of course, The Donald who promised he was going to oppose it … well, we all know how they’ve been beating him over the head now going on t yrs.
Even Gaetz must know that Zelensky puts his bank account first, not the country and not the young Ukrainian men he sends to be slaughtered for nothing. That is why Democrats oppose any audit concerning the USA/NATO funding, covering a criminal. Young men pay the price for corrupt people like Biden and Zelensky and the Kagans, Nuland and the Fiona what is her name and all the other neocon criminals.
To deny permission to surrender in lost battles is pure and simple slaughter, as happened in Mariupol. Next is the list of war crimes committed by the Azov gang, the killings of Ukrainian civilians and young Russian POWs, including castrations of young soldiers, there is plenty of concrete evidence to support the reports of their war crimes. Our government must knows about it and they have nothing to say. They are guilty as charged war criminals, they KNOW.
And our rotten congress people stand up and applaud, the two characterless women with the UK flag behind Zelensky were sickening. They are war criminals as much as officials in Hitler’s government.
Fiona Hill
I agree, and it’s the greatest war crime of the whole litany, war of aggression, … except Hitler’s gov’t had a great degree of autonomy. The Washington gov’t is acting on orders. I’m afraid the real criminals are untouchable.
You said it, that is true of all the Western so-called Democracies. The corporate and political elite is united meeting in Davos or on their big yachts on the French Riviera, one big family.
What a bunch of propaganda crap!
And nothing negative to say about Russia.
“ there is some dissent among Republicans, …”
Over half did not show up?
That is a bit more than “some.”
It seems like the foundation for a substantial movement – and it represents a considerable sentiment at the populist GOP grassroots. Otherwise there would not be so many pols championing it.
Someday, hopefully, they’ll write a book on how they convinced Biden to get in bed with the ultra-nationalists who overthrew the elected government of Ukraine in 2014. I had assumed that we had no choice but to work with the malcontents we had. Perhaps that is still the case. But as we see what the nationalists have done to Ukraine since the power transfer, it likely had nothing at all to do with Democracy, or Freedom.
The ultra nationalists were by all accounts an important part of the Maidan revolution and the certainly got a very important role in the interim government, and also in the government elected in mid 2014 largely because they got more popular because they were the only forces ready and able to resist the Russian supported insurrection in the Donbas.
They did however lose their last seat in parliament in the 2019 elections – so the Biden administration did not have to get into bed with them. In the next election they are likely to get more votes – it is ‘funny’ how Putin’s meddling creates the exact thing he wants to fight – the US has some experience of doing so themselves.
If this was the case then they would hardly have lost their last seat in parliament in 2019 and a Russian native speaking comedian from a family of the Abrahamic faith standing on a platform of peace would not have been elected – so everything suggests that democracy worked better in Ukraine than in many other of the democratic countries in the world.
Biden DID get in bed with them in 2014. Zelensky HAS banned political opposition and is now going after the Russian orthodox church.
No Zelensky has banned parties that advocated collaboration with the Russians – like UK interred fascists under WWII – and he is now going after the organization behind the Russian Orthodox Church – as the ROC has been advocating undermining the Ukrainian government – i.e. if you are a believer of the Russian Orthodox Church you have no problems – if you are a priest in the church you may face having your place searched.
No, Zelensky has banned all political parties, all journalism. There is zero freedom of the press in Ukraine, there is no political opposition and the goal of all the new laws is to disenfranchise anyone of Russian heritage in Ukraine. Opposition leaders and journalists are disappeared, tortured and killed. Ukraine could have averted the war if they implemented MINSK, but as Poroshenko and Merkel admitted in public, Ukraine had no intention of implementing peace accords, they were buying time to arm for war. Stop defending genocidal neo-Nazis.
There are 18 banned parties:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Banned_political_parties_in_Ukraine
There are far more than 18 parties in Ukraine:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Political_parties_in_Ukraine
So no Zelenskyy did not ban all political parties – do say i I have to enumerate all the ones that are not banned!
And no he did not ban all journalism – there is ‘control’ of the press but then so there was in UK during WWII.
There is very limited freedom of the press – like in most other democratic countries experiencing invasion or war there is censorship (carried out in various forms) there are some new laws created to deal with treason and behavior associated with it, and that is about it.
Any links to substantiate any of the killings or disappearances – or the incarceration of any of the parties leaders of the many not banned opposition parties?
Not by December they could not – nor could they have averted it had they been unwilling to cede their claim to sovereignty over Crimea.
The rest is just too disturbed for me to be bothered with – you will have to build the case for your assertions or argue why it would even be half plausible (e.g. that the Ukrainians a people of the Slavic race should consider themselves a subhuman race – or why so many of the ethnic Russians in Ukraine would be engaged in the fight against the insurrectionists if it was a genocidal neo-Nazi war).
In a divided country like Ukraine very intertwined with Russia its OK to bann pro-russian parties but not pro-western parties? That is a really unintellectual postion.
When the country is being invaded by the Russians then it most certainly is OK to ban pro Russian parties and intern their leaders – and only a person with little understanding of prior historical examples would think that it has any connection to an intellectual position.
The uprising in east was a reaction of banning and ultranationalistic agenda, the result of a bloody coup. Dont change history please.
The Uprising in the east predated the Ultranationalists setting any agenda – so unless you believe in reverse order of cause and effect you have a problem with the timeline. I.e. the separatists contacted people like Igor Girkin (a Russian FSB agent serving in Crimea at the time) to get support that was in March/April – whatever the policy of any new administration would be would have had to be based on guesswork.
The agenda was clear from the very beginning of the bloody coup. They did it with help of US.
I have yet to see any evidence that the US helped to overthrow the Ukrainian government – all I have been provided so far is a very pedestrian and very weak evidence in the shape of an exchange between Victoria Nuland and someone lese where she expresses what the US would like – we (the Danish) also would likely have had desires for some outcome that is not evidence that we helped bring it about.
More importantly after the government was ousted, the people who took over the rains of government did not act as any non popular or anti democratic group would do – they set about to get a democratic vote, a job which was hugely complicated by the fact that within 5 days of the old administration fleeing office the Russians marched into Crimea and within a bit over a month the Russians helped start and fund an insurrection in the Donbas.
As pointed out – the idea that the uprising in the Donbas was a reaction to a ultranationalist agenda is getting the sequence of events wrong – as in guessing what the agenda of a new administration might be and acting on that before it was an established policy – so not a reaction to, but an action based on a presumption.
Everyone in the US who supports the neo-Nazi militias in Ukraine, including Azov Battalion, Right Sector, C14, Svoboda, Kraken and many others is committing treason. Our world war 2 vets fought the Nazis for our freedom, allying with these people is the worst possible betrayal of our veterans. Any politicians who has supported these groups in the US needs to be made an example of and jailed after a very public trial.