UPDATE: Proving my point for me, Speaker McCarthy told reporters tonight that he’d be willing to accept the Senate’s Continuing Resolution to fund the government – but only if aid to Ukraine is taken out (NBC News [1]). Never mind the spending cuts; never mind funding for “the border.” Just leave Ukraine to get crushed and the House GOP will be happy. Utterly despicable.
… and they said being a conservative Democrat would be hard (The Hill [2], emphasis added).
The House late Thursday night overwhelmingly approved $300 million in new aid to Ukraine.
The 311-117 vote came after House GOP leaders on Wednesday stripped the Ukraine assistance from a Pentagon funding bill. All “no” votes came from Republicans.
That means a majority of the 221 Republicans in the House of Representatives are on record in support of cutting off Ukraine (in Virginia, four of the five Republicans agreed; only Jen Kiggans voted to support Ukraine).
The pro-Putin fervor on the right was such that the Speaker had to take it out of the defense appropriations bill last night just to ensure that it passed. In the Senate, the usual suspect was already threatening to keep the government shut down unless Ukraine is abandoned (David French [3]).
As Josh Rogin [4] put it: “It’s official. More than half of the GOP House caucus is against Ukraine. Putin must not believe his luck. Shameful.”
I couldn’t agree more.