Speaker of the House Mike Johnson (R-LA) refuses to let an emergency foreign aid bill — passed by the Senate with bipartisan support that included 22 Republican Senators — get a vote on the House floor.
President Joe Biden says the reason for Johnson’s reluctance is simple: “There’s no question that if the Senate bill was put on the floor in the House of Representatives, it would pass,” Biden said, “It would pass.”
Johnson doesn’t want that — and in a press conference today, the Speaker said it was because the “latest product” the Senate sent didn’t contain “one word” about securing “America’s border.” (For those paying attention, that’s because Johnson — vowing that it would be dead on arrival in the House — helped kill another bipartisan bill a week before that did include extensive border changes and billions to enact them.)
Johnson’s logically fraught positioning was well illustrated by the succinct Aaron Fritschner tweet below:
Mike Johnson: No Ukraine $ without border security
— Aaron Fritschner (@Fritschner) February 14, 2024
Johnson also: No Ukraine $ with border security
Mike Johnson: Congress doesn't have to address border
Johnson also: Congress must address border
Mike Johnson: The Senate must act
Johnson also: I don't care what the Senate does https://t.co/FrfxIpoBMC
Critics including Republicans have accused Johnson of purposely keeping the border problems alive as a service to the GOP presidential frontrunner Donald Trump, so he can use a dangerous, chaotic border as a campaign issue.
Trump’s ‘America First’ populist positioning is also said to be responsible for Johnson’s reluctance — supported by many MAGA House Republicans — to send more aid to Ukraine. It’s a reluctance Biden and others have characterized as a “gift” to Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Already fending off accusations that he is enabling the continuation of the border crisis — and endangering Americans — at Trump’s behest, Johnson now finds himself also besieged online — after his pro-Putin stance against Ukraine funding — by resurfaced questions about campaign donations he accepted from a company called American Ethane that is reportedly majority-owned by Russian oligarchs, including Russian TV mogul Andrey Kunatbaev.
Mike Johnson takes those rubles to scuttle Ukraine support. https://t.co/3rdDFNizMC
— Old Grey Horror (@OldGreyHorror) February 14, 2024
The story, which is being posted in comments in response to Johnson press conference videos, was resurfaced by Newsweek in October and included a tweet by @Davegreenidge57 reading:
“Putin pal Konstantin Nikolaev, who handled Russian spy Maria Butina, was also the principal stockholder in American Ethane Co. when they donated over $37,000 to Mike Johnson’s election campaign. Does anyone else think that might be a problem?”
