Several of you have asked, why half the Republican party has voted for Ukraine aid today, if the party is against it.
The truth is, many republicans have wanted this aid for months — even Mike Johnson was for it in the beginning.
But Trump wanted Biden’s Ukraine agenda to fail, and very few Republicans dare to go against the tzar, because if they do, Trump will immediately endorse another political candidate in their home district.
But what turned this around was security briefings…
where experts told politicians, that if they kept delaying the aid, Ukraine could lose the war.
I think that made Mike Johnson and others realize, they risked destroying their political careers by being the ones to hand the victory to Putin.
Every member of the House depends on being reelected in November, and if Ukraine was suddenly on retreat because of their clown show, many patriotic Republicans might vote for someone else.
They were scared of Trump, but this scared them even more.
@randahl I am not convinced. I think they knew that a number of republicans would either sign the discharge petition or resign from Congress if they did not pass the Ukraine bill. The only way to avoid an embarrassing defeat was to do this.
@anderspuck I agree the discharge petition also played a role in this. I just do not think it was the key, because we had not seen any new signatures since April 12, and with only 195 signatures, there was still a long way to go.
@randahl Yes, I also think it was more likely that a number of representatives had threatened to resign after April 30 (after that and the seat will be vacant until November). Only a small number would be required to swing the House to the democrats.
@anderspuck he directly stated that in front of the press, and I have heard two other Republican members also mentioning these briefings as their reason.
That's what the news here in the Netherlands is telling us, "Johnson heeft een opmerkelijke draai gemaakt nadat hij meerdere geheime rapporten van de inlichtingendiensten heeft ingezien.
( Johnson has made a remarkable move after seeing multiple secret intelligence reports.)
@anderspuck
Sure, as the Chairman he should be updated.
But I got the feeling that he was invited by the intelligence people for some extra (classified?) information.. 🤔
But then, I wasn't there. 🙂
@PlukkiePanda@anderspuck
The speaker is one of “the gang of eight,” so he gets the highest level of intel briefing of anyone in congress. (Besides the other seven)
@anderspuck
The guy thinks the Flintstones was a documentary.
It's very hard to take any reasons he gives for anything at face value.
If he comes out & says that the biblical prophet Joshua told him in a dream that he needed to allow a vote we'd all just shrug. It's impossible to embarrass these people. @randahl
Seems like a valid analysis. The scary thing is that for this to be true, Ukraine must be in a very compromised position and in desperate need of this aid immediately.
War is always a mess. Seems like things need to become completely FUBAR before politicians reach consensus to act. Hopefully, now that the blister has burst, national pride will dictate a rapid, sufficient and sustained response. Of course, a big part of this will be relegating Trump to the dustbin of history.
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