Pro-Putin Republicans Threaten Vital Ukraine Aid

A fifth column has developed in America aligned with foreign fascists and against democracy here and abroad

It has been six months since President Joe Biden announced in October a $61 Billion aid package for Ukraine. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer promised then to bring it to the floor “within weeks.” The Senate finally approved the aid on February 13, but Speaker Mike Johnson refused to allow a vote on a similar bill in the House

Until now. This week, Johnson said he would bring a stand-along bill for Ukraine assistance to the House floor, along with separate bills for aid to Israel and Taiwan. Standing in the way are the leaders of what has become a pro-Putin faction in the MAGA Republican Party.

• House Freedom Caucus Chair Bob Good said “every true conservative” should kill the aid, even before the text of the package was released.

• Rep. Chip Roy said he would oppose even bringing the bill to the floor.

• Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene said she would move to remove Johnson as Speaker if he brings up the aid bill.

All Democrats and many Republicans in the House support helping Ukraine defeat what Rep. Jamie Raskin calls “Russia’s fascist aggression.” But the MAGA base has become increasingly aligned with Putin’s Russia, following the lead of Donald Trump.

Greene should be known as “Moscow Marjorie” said former GOP Congressman Ken Buck, a Colorado right-winger who left Congress in disgust last month. “Moscow Marjorie is focused now on this Ukraine issue and getting her talking points from the Kremlin,” Buck said.

He is not the only conservative Republican concerned about the emergence of what has become a pro-Putin fifth column in American politics.

Rep. Mick McCaul, the GOP chair of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, said that Russian propaganda has “infected” the Republican Party. “Russian propaganda has made its way into the United States, unfortunately, and it’s infected a good chunk of my party’s base,” he said.

House Intelligence Committee Chair Mike Turner agrees that anti-Ukraine talking points from Russia are being parroted on the House floor. “There are members of Congress today who still incorrectly say that this conflict between Russia and Ukraine is over NATO, which of course it is not,” he told CNN. “Vladimir Putin has made it very clear, both publicly and to his own population, that his view is that this is a conflict of a much broader claim of Russia to Eastern Europe, including claiming all of Ukrainian territories as Russian.”

This is not the first time that America has seen far-right conservatives - including sitting members of Congress - consciously align with fascist foreign governments. MSNBC host Rachel Maddow details in her riveting podcast, Ultra, the extensive pro-Nazi movement in America that worked to block resistance to Hitler’s occupation of European nations.

“Studying this history and being clear on what went right and what went wrong the last time our country faced something like this might be helpful because apparently this stuff recurs,” she told Fresh Air host Terri Gross. “We should learn from how we handled it in the past and from what Americans who went before us were able to do to fight this stuff effectively.”

Speaker Johnson can overcome this Putin faction, but he will need to cooperate with Democrats to pass the rule allowing the bill to come to the floor and then to pass it. Ukraine is running out of ammunition, including air-defense missiles, and desperately needs American aid to stop Russia from seizing more land and placing more Ukrainians under vicious occupation.

A new letter from leading Ukraine supporters such as Ambassador Mike McFaul and Timothy Snyder and more than 35 celebrity champions, including Barbara Streisand, Sean Penn, Mark Hamill, J.J. Abrams, José Andrés and the rock band Imagine Dragons, says it all:

Together we call upon Congress to do the right thing.

Ukrainians are fighting for their existence. On territory that Russia occupies, it tortures Ukrainian citizens, kidnaps Ukrainian children and murders Ukrainian leaders. On territory Russia can reach with its weapons, it strikes civilians and rescue workers. Russian missiles, drones and bombs destroy churches and monuments to the Holocaust. Russian occupation threatens Ukraine’s Muslims, the Crimean Tatars.

Russian leaders say openly that their goal is the destruction of the Ukrainian state and the elimination of Ukrainians as a people. Russian propagandists threaten genocide almost every day. Right now, Russia is using missiles and glide bombs to destroy the ancient and beautiful city of Kharkiv, once home to 1.5 million people, just as Russia destroyed Mariupol, Aleppo and Grozny.

Ukrainians are also fighting for our safety and for everyone’s freedom. By resisting Russian dictatorship, they show that democracy can defend itself. By defending their borders, they are protecting the international order and holding off chaos. By fighting Russia alone, they protect Europe. By showing how hard offensive operations are, Ukrainians make a Chinese war in the Pacific less likely. By fighting a conventional war against a nuclear power, they are making nuclear proliferation and nuclear war less likely.

……….

Ukrainians are giving us a chance. A chance for Americans to do the right thing, for them, for us, for decency, for humanity. Ukraine can protect itself and bring stability around the world. If we allow Ukraine to lose, though, we are inviting catastrophe for them, and catastrophe for ourselves.

Congress returned to session this week. Time is short and new dangers can arrive very quickly. Together we call upon Congress to do the right thing – right now. Support Ukraine.