NEWSWEEK
President Joe Biden criticized House republicans on Monday over opposition to additional aid to Ukraine.
As the second anniversary of Russia launching its full-scale invasion of Ukraine approaches this month, U.S. support for additional Ukrainian aid is dwindling among Republicans in Congress.
The Senate passed a $95.34-billion foreign aid package last week which includes $61 billion for Ukraine in its war with Russia, $14 billion for Israel as it fights Hamas in Gaza, and $4.83 billion to help America’s allies in the Indo-Pacific region. The package will also give $9.15 billion in humanitarian aid to conflict zones such as Gaza, the West Bank and Ukraine.
The vote was 70 to 29 with 22 Republicans voting for the additional funding. However, despite the support of the bill in the Senate, Speaker Mike Johnson, a Louisiana Republican, signaled that the aid package won’t even make it onto the House floor.
“[In] the absence of having received any single border policy change from the Senate, the House will have to continue to work its own will on these important matters,” Johnson said in a statement last week. “America deserves better than the Senate’s status quo.”
On Monday while talking to reporters outside the White House, Biden was asked by a reporter if he would go so far as to say House Republicans had Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny ‘s “blood on their hands” amid their opposition to Ukraine aid.
