There is going to be no further U.S. aid for Ukraine—at least not in this round of Congressional discussions. As was widely expected, President Joe Biden’s national security supplement was Dead On Arrival on the Senate floor today, failing by a vote of 49-50. That wasn’t anywhere near the 60 votes needed to advance.
Biden and his Democratic buddies are blaming Donald Trump for pressuring Republican Senators to vote against it, on the grounds that U.S. security on the southern border needs to be addressed before more money is given for Ukraine’s security. The Financial Times reported on Feb. 6 that both Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) and President Biden were blaming Russian President Vladimir Putin, as well as Donald Trump, for sabotaging the bill.
FT wrote: “‘He’d rather weaponize this issue than actually solve it,’ Biden said of his predecessor from the state dining room of the White House on Feb. 6. ‘For the last 24 hours, he’s done nothing at all but reach out to Republicans in the House and the Senate and threaten them and try to intimidate them to vote against this proposal. And it looks like they’re caving,’ Biden added. Failure to pass the bill would mean ‘fewer tools’ for Ukraine to fight Russia’s invasion and that was ‘just what [Vladimir] Putin wants,’ Biden added … `History is watching. A failure to support Ukraine at this critical moment will never be forgotten.’”
Schumer was even more hysterical, the Senate Democrats quoted him: “Well, the sun may be shining outside but today is a gloomy day here in the United States Senate,” he began, concluding that, “Tomorrow, the American people will find out whether Senators seek border security and oppose Russian expansionism, or whether they stand with former President Trump in support of chaos and Vladimir Putin.”
The leadership of the Congress is scrambling, with both the $118 billion compromise war budget bill in the Senate and the $17 billion Israel-only bill in the House heading to failure. Axios reports today that Senator Schumer plans to remove the border provisions from the Senate supplemental and hold a vote on it with just Israel, Ukraine and Taiwan aid. Schumer’s plan, however, looks destined to fail in the House. “So they’re going to send us a multibillion-dollar package without pay-fors to secure the Ukrainian border without securing our southern border? Good luck,” Rep. Kelly Armstrong (R-ND) told Axios.
House Speaker Mike Johnson said he would hold a revote on the Israel-only bill after it failed to get the two-thirds vote required to pass under suspension of the rules yesterday but, according to Axios, there are Republicans opposed to even doing that.
