McConnell Twisting Speaker Johnson’s Arm to Vote and Pass Ukraine Bill
The arrogance oozes out of McConnell’s pores.
Do you know why Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell can do this? Because the Kentucky voters won’t kick him out.
Ridiculous.
Speaker Mike Johnson already said the Ukraine foreign aid bill is dead on arrival.
Old Man McConnell is trying to push around Johnson to bring the bill to the floor, vote on it, and pass it.
I love how Politico described it as a soft push. No such thing for these politicians:
After nearly winning half his conference in support of a $95 billion foreign aid bill, the Senate minority leader is calling for Ukraine-skeptical Speaker Mike Johnson to allow a vote on sending billions in aid to Kiev. In an interview on Tuesday afternoon, he called on Johnson to bring the issue to the House floor — though McConnell said he would not be “so presumptuous as to tell him how to do it.”
The soft push is an acknowledgment of the reality both GOP leaders face. While Johnson confronts more immediate threats to his speakership, McConnell has his own battle scars. That includes his campaign last fall for a clean funding bill, his embrace of linking foreign aid to border security as his party leaned in that direction, then watching 22 Republican senators support a border-free national security spending package on Tuesday — blowing four months just to end up right back where the Senate started.
We have no money. The money we do have should be spent on our southern and northern border.
Sorry, Ukraine and Israel. We do not have any spare change because politicians have screwed up America for decades. People like McConnell.
Listen to McConnell. I just cannot with this guy:
“I’ve been with the minority of my members on raising the debt ceiling, on funding the government. There are just some issues that come along that are so important: You have to do the best you can,” McConnell explained in the interview. “No question I have a group that’s not fans of my work — and also, they just don’t like the idea of helping Ukraine. So the two got merged together.”
—
“I have my complaints with how the Biden administration handled it, but at least they’re in favor of supporting Ukraine’s fight for independence. And goodness, what is wrong with a situation in which we’re not losing any of our personnel?” McConnell said on Tuesday. “The Europeans are stepping up. They just sent $55 billion to Ukraine.”
I see, though, that the Republicans aren’t going to stop their “no foreign aid without border security” whining instead of insisting these bills stay separate.
Instead, demand a separate border security bill first and then a separate foreign aid bill for each country: Ukraine, Israel, and even Taiwan.
I hope Johnson sticks to his guns. A source said Johnson does not even “intend to put the package up for a vote in the House, at least ‘not in its current form.'”
My statement on Senate’s failure to address the most critical aspect of national security supplemental legislation: pic.twitter.com/ENjJ0WzKsK
— Speaker Mike Johnson (@SpeakerJohnson) February 13, 2024
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Comments
McConnell is the GOPe. He has become a rich fat pig while serving as either Minority Leader or Speaker. Our fight is to remove him as well as Biden and Obama puppets.
Speaker Mike Johnson, what will it be?
— Profile in Courage
— Profile in Putty
Putty! He’ll cave, after all, he’s a Republican, right?
Trump is the establishment and plenty of those Trumpian establishment elitists are making money hand over fist.
Mate, ya shoulda kept your mouth shut so we’d be unsure you were an idiot or not. Now there’s no question 😂😂🤡
Hey Mitch, GFY.
That’s what Cocaine Mitch does. What a scumbag.
Mitch is the enemy and he must be vanquished
forever and always
Johnson should you take this package and then merge it with hr2 which is an actual border security package, pass that and then send it back to the senate. If he does anything other than that then the second choice would be don’t bring it to the floor at all or simply resign because if you pass this crap you’ll probably won’t get reelected.
Good idea. I’d be fine with that.
The Kentucky voters are only 20% liable for this disaster. The Senate GOP is 80% liable for returning this post-turtle to power time after time, even after he fails miserably.
McConnell was the idiot in charge of the Senate GOP when the treasonous Gang of Eight tried to ram through aiding and abetting illegals to print up citizenships for them. That went down in flames, but McConnell was not kicked out of leadership. So, now, 10 years later, still in leadership after countless other failures, McConnell pushed almost the same exact hated treasonous crap as he had done with the Gang of Eight.
And STILL, McConnell is the Senate GOP leader. STILL. This falls on the Senate GOP turds. McConnell needs to be taken out of leadership and all of his toadies taken off all committee assignments and thrown in the closet with him.
McConnell would not be in any position to do anything if the voters didn’t keep returning his worthless Professional Republican carcass to DC. It’s 100% the voters in KY’s fault for sending him there far past his shelf life.
Name recognition and $$$ in hand always gets politicians ew-elected
Re-elected
Ew-elected is appropriate in this case.
“Ewe-elected”, he said, sheepishly.
Are you convinced of the integrity of election in KY? It may not be voters who return the prasite class to power.
Not in the least convinced
Kentucky voters try to get rid of him, but if he wins the primary, they’re not going to elect a Democrat.
It’s not their fault the GOPe in the Senate keep electing him their king.
This is going to be yet another instance when our laughably thin majority is going to bite us in our own ass. Jeffries will likely be able to force a floor vote using a discharge petition, something he only needs a handful of Republicans to make work. I have to believe he won’t have any real problem getting four or five GOP morons on board to spend another $100B we don’t have to benefit people who don’t live here.
To make matters worse, if we lose that special election today – something the weather certainly isn’t helping us with – it’s not inconceivable that Jeffries becomes Speaker before the year ends, particularly considering the Motion-to-Vacate rule that Republicans adopted to begin this term.
Thinking about this more, one potentially HUGE obstacle for Jeffries would be a large contingent of his own party who will never vote for this bill because of its support for Israel. I’m not sure what that number is. But, I think it’s conceivable it might be as many as a few dozen DNC House members. Maybe its passage in the House isn’t a fait accompli.
I’m really disappointed that Kennedy voted for this
the political climate has really changed in LA
it’s a lot redder
Same. Cassidy has always been a treacherous ass, but Kennedy hasn’t been.
commie red?
the 80’s called
KENNEDY did?!? What a shame. I’ve always liked the guy and he didn’t seem the type to be a sell-out.
Yeah, I saw that, too.
The only thing Cassidy did right was to get Mary Landrieu out of office.
After that? He’s done everything to appease his wife and her political outlook.
2026 can’t come fast enough.
I wonder what McConnell is offering Johnson in exchange for relinquishing his Speaker position.
Where is the conservative border bill? Have they even introduced one?
No they have t and Trump better be in . Johnson ear 24/7
The Secure the Border Act It passed the House last.
The argument presented in this post hardly deserves to ve taken seriously.. Congress spent $2.3 trillion on Covid-era stimulus,, and therefore it would be bad to contribute $0.096 trillion toward a friendly country’s self-defense.
This
Not one dime for the corrupt Ukraine regime.
Just negotiate a peace!
HR 2
I slogged through most of HR 2. Not everything I would like or tough enough by half in my view but it’s a good, solid start.
we don’t need a border bill, we just need to enforce existing law
Arm-twisting is microaggression.
I don’t see the right’s hostility to it though. It benefits the US, is the argument for it, not love of Ukrainians. It’s a judgment matter whether its price is worth the benefit, but compared to practically everything else Congress spends on, it’s a wildly good investment.
How is it possibly a good investment to throw a bunch of money at someone who can’t win the fight they’re involved in? Not a combatant that has a chance, Ukraine can’t win, period. That’s nothing but an absolute waste of money we don’t have for people who don’t live here.
The future calculation it affects is Russia’s. The cost to them is much higher than they’d been planning on, which would have made even this one unattractive.
Ukraine have massively out performed Russia. The casualty ratio is 12:1 in Ukraine’s favour and the Russian resupply is drunk conscripts in T72’s and older. The only reason Ukraine is struggling in any respect is due to lack of artillery shells thanks to Republican stupidity.
The support of Russia’s genocide makes me hate Republicans as much I hate Democrats.
Zelensky and his American handlers are the ones getting the Ukrainians killed
The strategy is that it raises the cost of aggression, which affects future decisions. It’s less often that expansion is worth its estimated cost..
Putin is an irredentist and it was Russia who started the war.
Before Zelensky came, Russia was a happy place. They had flowering meadows and rainbow skies, and rivers made of chocolate, where the children danced and laughed and played with gumdrop smiles.
You are welcome to donate all your money to Zelensky and to fly to Ukraine to fight for their land all you want. No one is stopping you from giving everything you have to Ukraine.
You probably only love Ukraine because of that country’s complicity in one of the illegitimate impeachments of Trump.
You forgot the unicorns crapping out skittles.
How dare the Ukrainians refuse to die peacefully
How does the mass resistance to conscription in Ukraine square with your assertion?
The neocons among the western powers used Ukraine as a cats paw to push and prod the Russians. The Russians pushed back.
Does that make the Russian Gov’t morally superior? No. Does that mean we don’t have sympathy for the Ukrainian citizens? No.
The key lesson is don’t allow yourself or your Nation to be used as a proxy by others unless you are willing to accept the inevitable consequences of being used to provoke a larger, more powerful neighbor. That neighbor will eventually decide their initial restraint isn’t going to deter future provocation. Then that neighbor will act in the manner they see fit to stop the provocation.
“How does the mass resistance to conscription in Ukraine square with your assertion?” There is little evidence its mass resistance, someone’s been reading a little too much Russian Propoganda
“The neocons among the western powers used Ukraine as a cats paw to push and prod the Russians. The Russians pushed back.” This is just a silly thing to say
“The key lesson is don’t allow yourself or your Nation to be used as a proxy by others unless you are willing to accept the inevitable consequences of being used to provoke a larger, more powerful neighbor. That neighbor will eventually decide their initial restraint isn’t going to deter future provocation. Then that neighbor will act in the manner they see fit to stop the provocation.” Except no one provoked Russia
Zelensky and his American extortionists.
You don’t have to support Russia to not want to waste American money on something that’s not going to change the outcome. Ukraine can’t win and we damn well know it, they are out classed.
I’m not sure if they’re ‘out-classed’ (Russia lost its flagship to an opponent that doesn’t even sail a blue-water navy). But, Ukraine is definitely OUTNUMBERED. Russia is doing in the 21st century what it fell back upon in almost every war it fought in the 19th & 20th centuries: It threw bodies at the problem. Russia is eventually going to win simply because it has more bodies to lose.
It seems McConnell is stuck in the Senate like he was epoxied there. The only way to get rid of him would appear to be for him to die in office.
Damn him for making me wish for that to happen ASAP.
Repeal the 17th Amendment.
This alone would return power to the several States vs. the Fed. I’m still amazed the amendment was ratified.
Johnson isn’t in charge. He couldn’t get the GOP to agree to put the toilet lid down.
Europe is putting up 55 billion??? So what?
That’s peanuts to what we have spent and are proposing to spend given the number of lame duck countries involved. It’s like the EU wants 1 country to pay half and then back out of even their part.
They are a bunch of crooks and they have far too many bedfellows in our own political aristocracy.
Strip out the poison pill that ties the hand of any President that won’t spend the money based on the opinions of the IC and the military. Add in language that closes the southern and northern borders to anyone seeking asylum or caught crossing illegally. Also add language that forces Xiden to deport all illegals immediately. If the turtle wants to apply pressure Johnson should just send this type of “ kick in the nuts” legislation right back to him. FJB
You know if we can inflate away the Ukraine and Taiwan spending.. what are we really getting out of it??
Will Iran, Yemen and Russia roll over and the Western global economy continue to spread wealth across the globe and at home? Can American individuals really compete with global corporations?
Will the immigration power the American economy through the next century? At what cost to Americans today?
I’m not totally convinced either way.
I’m coming around quickly to Rep Massie’s position that the US should not be borrowing money from China to send anywhere. I support Israel getting the funds for it’s defense until they can stand on their own unless they are attacked by other nations and that’s about it.
No money for Ukraine until there is an audit at worst. None ever for anything in Palestine. Let the Arab Countries fund those terrorists.
Starting to agree with that position as well…but I can’t stand Massie..what an arrogant, anti-semitic sob…
In a sane world, the media would be demanding the Senator explain why we should keep funding Ukraine when Team Biden sent the former British Prime Minister to scuttle a peace deal reached by Russia and Ukraine just a few months after the invasion.
This will be Johnson’s Waterloo.
Because of the House rules that were adopted when Republicans won the House back last year, it’s MUCH easier for the minority to force floor votes today than it was when Pelosi was Speaker. If Jeffries can find enough Republicans to get him to 219-votes, there’s nothing Johnson can do to stop it. It seems silly to blame Johnson for all this.
The reality is in 2022, with great economic uncertainty, an emerging border crisis and a hugely unpopular incumbent Democrat president, Republicans had the most favorable political landscape working for them since 2010…and maybe even 1994. What did they do with it? No much. If the House had a 25-seat majority as it did in 1994, they could get some things done. But, they don’t.
No border is more important to the real interests of US Citizens than the US borders. Secure those borders, build a wall, keep them secure, remediate the decades of lax security by deporting the tens of millions of illegal aliens, prosecute any person or entity who conspired to protect, employ or support illegal aliens. Do those things over the span of five years and then maybe we can discuss other borders.
McConnell even LOOKS like your typical smarmy, know-it-all politician who knows he can get away with virtually anything, and keep getting re-elected. He also has that teflon coating so many crooks have.
If we couldn’t get a “clean” bill separating out foreign aid to Ukraine and Israel into two separate bills – Reps were entirely justified with dirtying it up with southern border spending money – but they couldn’t manage to even avoid blinking on that.
Another concern is the current bill iteration also includes an anti-Trump landmine – just in case he gets elected. It REQUIRES the then president to spend the Ukrainian money. From the language it reads like impeachment bait for Trump. Trump has already promised he will try to end the Russia-Ukraine war – removing his ability to pressure one of the two sides makes any post-election negotiation literally handicapped.
blmplo still got their $9 BILLION+ so the violence that the lefty needs to continue to be in control is in full swing
“Instead, demand a separate border security bill first and then a separate foreign aid bill for each country: Ukraine, Israel, and even Taiwan.”
I can understand this thinking, but it should be emphasized that we do not truly need a “border bill” in the first place. A return to the policies that Trump had in place before Traitor Joe took over should do the trick, without yet another spending bill. (I admit I do not know what happened to the funds that were allocated to wall construction.)
We also need to eliminate all the welfare that is encouraging the illegals to come here. All the food, housing, healthcare, education, etc.
Funding Ukraine to be America’s pawn in a proxy war against Russia is not “helping Ukraine.”
The peace deal that Ukraine was ready to sign with Russia before the war began was ideal in terms of any legitimate concept of a “rules based international order.” It was going to turn the fate of the eastern parts of Ukraine over to the people who live there.
All we needed to do was demand that this new era of republican democracy, where the people are sovereign, must be permanent, with the constitutions of the new states guaranteeing honest elections forever, along with no weaponization of the powers of government against political opponents.
Of course our Democrats could not allow that, having just stolen our 2020 election and in the process of rapidly weaponizing every power of government against Trump and his supporters, so actual acting president Barack Hussein told Zelensky that it was either war with Russia, funded by an initial hundred billion dollars of U.S. taxpayer money that he could he could take a personal cut of, or he would get nothing.
The corrupt Zelensky chose what no patriot would ever choose: to let his country be the pawn in a proxy war between two much larger powers, guaranteeing Ukraine’s total destruction.
McConnell is also getting a cut, which I believe has been his only actual interest in the Ukraine war from the beginning. He is certainly not “helping Ukraine,” which is already out of young men to throw at the Russians.
Neither should we celebrate the deaths of similarly large numbers of young Russian men. The Russians were not our enemies.
We might have made an implacable enemy out of them, by funding this proxy war against them, but even then it is likely that the original peace deal would still be available.
It is a good deal for everyone involved. The only beneficiary of this Christian on Christian war is jihadist Islam, which explains why Barack Hussein forced it into existence.
Hussein is the biggest America-hater who ever lived. It is really disgusting how many of our supposed representatives of both parties are willing to do Hussein’s jihadist bidding for him.