House Speaker Mike Johnson spoke with Punchbowl [1] about his plans and hopes. They did not include helping Ukraine.
I don’t have an appetite for further Ukraine funding, and I hope it’s not necessary. If President Trump wins, I believe that he actually can bring that conflict to a close. I really do. I think he’ll call [Russian President Vladimir] Putin and tell him that this is enough. And I think everybody around the world is weary of this, and they want it to be resolved. So whatever the terms are, I’m not sure, but I think if Kamala Harris is president, I don’t think it ends, and that’s a desperate and dangerous scenario.
It didn’t take long for Putin’s lead crony (Dmitri Medvedev) to press the advantage [2] and demand Ukraine “capitulate.” Given how much Trump has gone out of his way for Putin (including sending COVID testing machines to him as we faced a shortage – WaPo [3]), I think Medvedev already knows the answer. So do we.
In other words, the Putinization [4] of the Republican [5] Party [6] has now [7] reached [8] the Speaker [9] – meaning that anyone who promises to keep him in post (i.e., any Republican running for Congress) is officially part of the problem. They have to lose – all of them.