Biden urges compromise to pass Ukraine aid deal
Russian President Vladimir Putin ‘is banking on the United States failing to deliver for Ukraine,’ President Biden said today. ‘We must prove him wrong.’
Massive explosions were reported in the Ukrainian capital of Kyiv tonight hours after President Biden, appearing with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, implored members of Congress to reach a deal to provide continued U.S. military support for Ukraine, and said he was willing to compromise.
“We'll continue to supply Ukraine with critical weapons and equipment as long as we can,” Biden said at a joint press conference with Zelenskyy at the White House tonight. “But without supplemental funding, we are rapidly coming to an end of our ability to help Ukraine respond to the urgent operational demands that it has.
Russian President Vladimir “Putin is banking on the United States failing to deliver for Ukraine,” Biden said. “We must prove him wrong.”
“It is stunning that we have gotten to this point,” Biden said. “We need to fully appreciate… how this is being viewed around the world…Russian loyalists in Moscow celebrated when Republicans voted to block Ukraine aid last week. … Ukraine’s freedom is on the line. …If we don’t stop Putin….Putin will keep going. And would-be aggressors everywhere will be emboldened to try to take what they can by force.”
New House GOP Speaker Mike Johnson (R-Louisiana), after meeting Zelenskyy this morning, suggested he was awaiting a strategy from the White House for how Ukraine would win before he might consider moving forward on a vote to pass the supplemental.
“I have asked the White House since the day that I was handed the gavel as speaker for clarity,” Johnson told journalists. “We need articulation of the strategy to allow Ukraine to win. Thus far, their responses have been insufficient.”
Zelenskyy, making an effort to stay above the Washington partisan fray, pronounced his meeting with Johnson “great.”
“I am grateful to the U.S. Congress for the strong bipartisan and bicameral support that has been provided to Ukraine since Russia’s full scale aggression began,” Zelenskyy tweeted, with a video of himself, in his winter wartime uniform of black sweatshirt and green fatigue pants, shaking hands with the bespectacled and be-suited Louisiana arch conservative who succeeded the ousted Kevin McCarthy as speaker only last month, and has since lost two Republicans in his caucus, bringing his majority to just a handful of votes. (McCarthy has announced he will resign his seat by the end of the month.)
Meantime, Senate negotiators reported incremental progress on negotiations on a possible compromise package that would involve Democratic concessions on US policy towards migration on the U.S./Mexican border, for Republicans passing a supplemental package with billions in military support for Ukraine as well as for Israel and the Indo-Pacific, much of it to go to U.S. defense contractors that would produce and backfill the munitions and equipment to be sent.
But Senate minority leader Mitch McConnell reportedly suggested to fellow Senate Republicans today that while there was progress, it was unlikely a deal would pass before the end of the month (the House is reportedly currently planning to break for Christmas recess at the end of the week).
“We made progress,” lead Democratic Senate negotiator Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) told journalists after a meeting among Senate GOP and Democratic negotiators today that included Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas to discuss border issues. Murphy reiterated that the goal is to “get this done before we leave” for the holidays, Punchbowl News’ Andrew Desiderio reported.
Biden said he was prepared to compromise to reach a deal that would strengthen border security and provide for continued defense of Ukraine. But he said Ukraine aid should not be held hostage to overreaching GOP demands and brinksmanship.
“Ukraine’s success and its ability to deter aggression in the future are vital to security for the world at large,” he said. “We also need Congress to make the changes to fix the broken immigration system here at home. My team is working with Senate and Democrats to try to find a bipartisan compromise.
“Compromise is how democracy works,” Biden said. “And I am ready, and offered compromise already. (But) holding Ukraine funding hostage in an attempt to force through an extreme Republican agenda on the border is not how it works. We need real solutions.”
As Russia’s overnight ballistic missile attack on Kyiv grimly demonstrated, the current partisan impasse in Washington is very dangerous, and emboldens Russia and invites further Russian aggression.
“Ukraine has become a battlefield now for America and America’s own future,” former NSC Russia expert Russia expert Fiona Hill told Politico today. “For Putin, Ukraine is a proxy war against the United States, to remove the United States from the world stage.”
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