LOS ANGELES.–Meeting at the White House with 81-year-old President Joe Biden, 59-year-old Vice President Kamala Harris, 73-year-old Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) and 82-year-old Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), 51-year-old House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) was mobbed, trying convince him to sign off on a $95 billion security package to give Ukraine another $60 billion. Biden, Senate and House Democrats pressure Johnson to bring the funding bill for a vote, all because Biden’s priority is funding his proxy war against the Kremlin. Biden can’t explain how giving Ukraine $60 billion is going to lead to the defeat of the Russian Federation, drive Russian troops from Ukraine. Over two years into the war, Ukraine is in ruins, it’s economy bankrupt with the U.S. subsidizing its destitute Kiev government. Yet Biden pushes for more Ukraine War funding.
Johnson is the lone wolf advocating for border security first, before any discussion of more Ukraine War funding. Biden is due to visit Brownsville, Texas next week, his first visit to the border in his over three-year presidency. Biden takes the border more seriously only because he’s got eight months before his possilbe reelection, asking voters at age 82 to give him four more years. Biden’s handlers have him jumping through hoops in a carefully orchestrated script to disprove the obvious age-related cognitive and physical decline, leaving him face-planting and babbling in public. Johnson has a very different take on the Ukraine War than McConnell who essentially rubber stamps Biden’s proxy war in Ukraine to fight the Kremlin. McConnell has no answer for how U.S.-Russian relations can be restored to its pre-Biden state of cooperative, pragmatic relations.
Johnson doesn’t want to fund the Ukraine War because he sees no evidence that the war has done anything other than destroy Ukraine, creating mortal enemies of the U.S. and Russian Federation. Johnson sees the big picture when it comes to foreign policy and national security, realizing that cooperative relations with Russia are in the U.S. interests. If the U.S. had normal diplomatic relations with Moscow, they could figure out a way to stop the attacks on commercial shipping in the Red Sea, Gulf of Aden, Persian Gulf and Gulf of Oman. Russia and the U.S. used to cooperate on global issues, before Biden joined Ukraine’s war with the Kremlin. Now the Kremlin considers itself at war with the U.S. Johnson knows that Biden has no plan for restoring normal diplomatic relations with the Kremlin, leaving U.S. foreign policy out on a dangerous limb.
Johnson sat in the meeting as the lone wolf, resisting calls for him to acquiesce on Ukraine War funding before discussing border security. Johnson has said the America must come first before spending lavish sums on foreign governments or war like Ukraine. “Well their reports are pretty accurate. They said that I was on an island by myself, and it was me versus everyone else in the room,” Johnson told Fox News Sean Hannity. Johnson knows that everyone in the room, including McConnell, rubber stamps Biden’s policy of proxy war with the Kremlin. Biden promised, if given four more years, to continue the war indefinitely no matter what the destruction of Ukraine and cost to U.S. taxpayers. Former President Donald Trump promises to end the war in 24 hours over the objections of Ukraine’s 46-year-old President Volodymyr Zelensky vowing to defeat the Kremlin.
Johnson knows that Zelensky has no resources on his own, blaming Johnson now for battlefield losses in Ukraine due to the delay in war funding. “What the liberal media doesn’t understand, Sean, is that if you’re here in Washington and you’re described as a leader that’s on an island themselves, it probably means you’re standing with the American people,” Johnson told Hannity. Johnson finds himself the odd man out because he backs Trump’s America First policy, dealing with the open border that floods millions of illegal aliens across the U.S. Mexican border, not to mention the open flow of fentanyl, heroin, cocaine and other dangerous drugs. Johnson wants Biden to commit to a stand-alone border security bill before talking about more Ukraine War funding. Johnson said he reminded Biden that the open border was the No. 1 priority in America.
Johnson stands alone against the White House and majority of Senate Democrats that want to give Ukraine another $60 billion to continue the war with the Kremlin. If Biden capitulates on a stand-alone border bill, it’s going to be difficult for Johnson to keep the $95 billion security bill from coming to a floor vote. Whatever conservatives’ opposition to Ukraine, it’s probably too late to stop the latest $60 billion installment. Only if Trump can win in November will Ukraine funding change. Biden hopes he can continue duping the public into the fake narrative that the Ukraine War prevents 71-year-old Russian President Vladimir Putin from taking over more countries in Europe. Putin told Tucker Carlson Feb. 6 that he wants resolve the Ukraine conflict with neutral U.N.-brokered peace talks. Johnson can’t hold out forever, especially if he gets his border security bill.
About the Author
John M. Curtis writes politically neutral commentary analyzing spin in national and global news. He’s editor of OnlineColumnist.com and author of Dodging The Bullet and Operation Charisma.
