Speaker Mike Johnson Angers Far Right, Declares ‘We Can’t Allow Vladimir Putin to Prevail’ in Ukraine

Isaac SchorrOct 27th, 2023, 10:01 am
 

Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) declared that the United States could not “allow Vladimir Putin to prevail” in Ukraine during an interview with Fox News’ Sean Hannity Thursday night while expressing concerns over President Joe Biden’s roadmap to victory.

Hannity kicked off the discussion by criticizing Biden’s attempt to “put handcuffs on the Ukrainian army by denying them certain weaponry.”

“So they’ve got 78 billion, he wants another 61 billion. How will you deal with the issues? He wants to tie all of these issues together, which now gets into the budgetary process? Would you go issue by issue?” asked Hannity.

“I told the staff at the White House today that our consensus among House Republicans is that we need to bifurcate those issues,” answered Johnson.

He continued:

I agree with your assessment in Ukraine, and that’s why the American people are demanding some real accountability for the use of those dollars. Now, we can’t allow Vladimir Putin to prevail in Ukraine because I don’t believe it would stop there and it would probably encourage and empower China to perhaps make a move on Taiwan. We have these concerns. We’re not going to abandon them. But we have a responsibility, a stewardship responsibility, over the precious treasure of the American people. And we have to make sure that the White House is providing the people with some accountability for the dollars. And we want to know what the objective there is. What is the endgame in Ukraine? The White House has not provided that. I was at the White House for a couple of hours today and I told the staff there that this is where we are. This is where the House Republicans are.

Hannity followed up by asking if if America was in a “proxy war” with Russia.

“It’s a great concern,” replied Johnson. “We’ve got agroup of our colleagues here in the House led by Mike Garcia out of California, a brilliant legislator and a Top Gun pilot. And some of our veterans have gotten together, [Dan] Crenshaw is involved in this and others. They came up with a document that presents twelve critical questions for the White House to answer as a condition of our supplying the additional support. These are not hard questions, Sean. These are things the White House should be forthcoming about. I delivered that myself.”

The words chosen by Johnson, who has voted against a number of Ukrainian aid packages, were met with howls on the isolationist right.

“To his great credit, the new speaker has been a stalwart on the Ukraine issue—voting consistently against an endless conflict with no plan from the Biden administration,” commented Senator J.D. Vance (R-OH). “It’s concerning to see him change his tune so quickly after being elevated to this role.”

Human Events editor and conspiracy theorist Jack Posobiec responded to Johnson’s promotion of the interview on X with a GIF of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky fist-pumping.

“Well DAMN! It didn’t take Mike Johnson 5 MINUTES of having the gavel before he started talking about THE NEED to keep giving Zelensky money!” commented right-wing influencer and congressional candidate Lavern Spicer.

Johnson and other House Republicans are pushing to have aid for Ukraine scrutinized separately from an aid package for Israel.

Watcha above via Fox News.

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