The Democratic senator who held a stopgap budget bill hostage for several hours over aid to Ukraine said Wednesday that he would go a whole lot further if the next bill to run the federal government does not include aid to Ukraine.
Democratic Sen. Michael Bennet of Colorado last week indicated that he supported the current stopgap funding package, which does not include aid for Ukraine because “we were able to get a statement from the leadership that’s going to be released soon, talking about the bipartisan support for fully funding Ukraine,” according to Fox News.
But the Saturday night vote in which the Senate passed a House-approved bill is ancient history now that a House Republican revolt toppled House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, leaving a void at the top of House leadership.
As noted by Axios, despite public comments to the contrary, McCarthy largely supported funding Ukraine in its war against Russia. Some Republicans who have emerged as contenders to succeed McCarthy are less enamored with sending more funding to Ukraine, leading to speculation the House might balk at funding that may have been agreed to last week.
If that happens, Bennet said he would be willing to take the matter to the brink.
When asked Wednesday by MSNBC’s Katy Tur if he was willing to shut down the government over Ukraine, Bennet said “I definitely am. I definitely am,” according to Breitbart.
“I said on Saturday that my mom — she’s a Polish Jew, she was born in Warsaw, Poland, in 1938 — it’s very easy to see from her perspective, she survived — with the perspective of the 16 million people that were killed in Ukraine and Poland during World War II, how they get forgotten by politicians here that seem to be concerned with a different set of imperatives,” he said.
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“I don’t think this is a moment for politics. It’s not a question of when we go home, do we stay here, do we make a trade for this, or do we make a trade for that,” he said, adding that he believed the United States should be “at the head of these free countries around the world standing against tyranny.”
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President Joe Biden said Wednesday that the potential for aid to Ukraine to become collateral damage to the House Republican infighting “does worry me,” according to NBC.
“But I know there are a majority of members of the House and Senate and both parties who have said that they support funding Ukraine,” he said.
Biden also indicated there could be an end run around the contentious budget process.
“There is another means by which we may be able to find funding for that,” he said without offering any details.
Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina said that if the U.S. does not support Ukraine the consequences would be grave.
“If Putin is allowed to get away with the destruction of the neighbor, he will not stop,” Graham said, predicting the next step would be “a war with NATO.”
House Judiciary Committee Chairman Rep. Jim Jordan of Ohio, who is among the candidates for speaker, indicated Wednesday that he was not in favor of sending more aid to Ukraine, according to The Hill.
“I’m against that. The most pressing issue on Americans’ minds is not Ukraine. It’s the border situation, and it’s crime on the streets,” Jordan said.
A representative of Jordan’s office later said his position on aid “hasn’t changed” and that Jordan wants “know what the mission is” and “how the money is being spent.”
