Conservatives try to support Ukraine aid for bullshit reasons

Just days before Russia invaded Ukraine, a small group of Republican lawmakers seized on Russia’s troop buildup on the Ukrainian border to offer a helpful perspective on a situation 6,600 miles away: President Joe Biden needs to do something about the southern border of the United States.

The group of conservative lawmakers has introduced legislation that binds military assistance to Ukraine with the status of the US-Mexico border.

You might think conservatives would give up their political enforcement laws after Russian President Vladimir Putin actually hit: His forces killed civilians and attacked Ukrainian cities in two this week. Only this Wednesday Russian forces bomb a Ukrainian maternity hospital.

But despite the carnage, many of these Republicans are double down.

Representative Bob Good (R-VA), one of the bill’s original co-responders, told The Daily Beast that he “absolutely” still wants to move the proposal forward, even though it now needs to be re-elected. aid Ukraine like never before.

“I support aid to Ukraine. However, I support this,” Good told The Daily Beast this week.

He confirmed that he thinks the Biden administration should deal with the southern border before Ukraine, and said the federal government’s greatest responsibility is the safety and security of the United States.

“The answer is, we should protect our borders,” Good said.

Another co-respondent of the bill, Representative Ralph Norman (R-SC), expressed a similar view: He still wants aid to Ukraine on the condition that it is on the southern border. “It’s still relevant because of what’s happening,” Norman said.

And Representative Paul Gosar (R-AZ), who also supports the bill, told The Daily Beast he still thinks southern border security should take precedence over Ukraine.

“I remain firmly convinced that our open southern border…is the greatest threat to our prosperity and security,” Gosar told The Daily Beast. “Sadly, the Ukrainian border is not important to our country.”

Gosar continued that, even after Russia invaded Ukraine, “our border is more important to our national security and it must be protected.”

These Republicans are so committed to their quixotic bill that they are actually willing to give rail aid to Ukraine – and shut down the government – to make their point.

Of course, there is little traction to shut down the government and leave Ukraine in shambles to show how tough conservatives are on the border. Instead, there is bipartisan support in passing a massive government spending bill that includes nearly $14 billion for Ukraine.

But the Freedom House caucus doesn’t have it.

The conservative group even sent a letter to House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) on Tuesday requesting that omnibuses not be used at all. including Ukraine’s aid. The Freedom Caucus also demanded that border security provisions be included in the omnibus bill and it appears conservatives intend to vote against the spending measure if it fails to address the border. southern.

“If we’re going to do it together, then we have to have border security,” said Good, a member of the House Caucus.

Republicans have questioned the state of the southern border for months now, capturing Russia’s construction of the Ukrainian border in 2021 and earlier this year as a way to criticize its handling of the southern border. Biden’s male. Fox News ‘Tucker Carlson Last month, Russia ramped up border aggression, claiming that Russia’s military buildup on the border with Ukraine was a simple “border dispute”.

But comparing the influx of immigrants into the United States to a military invasion of a sovereign state is a false and derisive equivalent, according to Brett Bruen, a former U.S. diplomat and diplomat. is the former director of global affairs at the White House.

Bruen, now president of the Global Situation Room, said: “It is really important for lawmakers to understand the gravity of the situation and not try to score cheap political points at a time when where global stability and security are seriously threatened.

“There are very serious implications of what would happen if we delayed or denied Ukraine some of these weapons systems and support, so we should not regulate the delivery of these weapons,” Bruen said. that system in partisan politics,” says Bruen. “We should do everything we can as quickly as possible to get that into their hands.”

Good admits there is a difference between an attack in Ukraine and immigration problems on the southern border – although he insists an “invasion” is happening on the southern border.

But instead of arguing against the idea that you can’t compare two issues, he points out that he argues that legislators must, and they must make a choice between the two.

“Obviously they are different,” Good told The Daily Beast. “But it was also a wrong choice. Because the answer is, we should protect our borders.”

Norman said part of his resistance to providing assistance to Ukraine was because he considered it “too late” to help Ukraine when Russia had invaded.

But that is far from reality in Ukraine. While aid packages to Ukraine have taken months to roll out in the past, the Biden administration has worked to speed up the process so that aid can be delivered not in months but in hours and days. , according to a senior defense official.

A senior defense official told reporters on a call last week: “In a more conventional situation, you could let those processes play out in practice, weeks or maybe even months,” a senior defense official told reporters. “We just sped up our process” to “hours and days,” the official said.

Good acknowledged some of the emphasis behind the bill’s introduction was on the message, noting that the bill is a way of saying, “‘Hey, we shouldn’t be more concerned or worried about our borders. me, because we are the border of Ukraine?'”

It’s not just talking, Good told The Daily Beast. “We should still declare that we will defend our own borders today, not just say it in [a] Good said.

The lawmakers behind the bills are not exactly clear about the future of their proposals.

When asked if he still wanted to pass the bill when Russia invaded Ukraine, the bill’s sponsor, Representative Matt Rosendale (R-MT), declined to answer questions directly, asserting that his communications director will hold an interview. His communications director did not return a request for comment.

When The Daily Beast approached another co-reviewer of the law – Representative Matt Gaetz (R-FL) -refusing eye contact with this reporter and ignoring repeated questions. His office also did not return multiple requests for comment.

Despite how much these Republicans want to call for the southern border and suggest that the country should take precedence over Ukraine, the US Department of Defense has assessed that the “major” threat to the homeland at This is not the influx of immigrants on the southern border, but rather – you guessed it – Russia.

“Russia is the main military threat to the homeland,” General Glen VanHerck, commander of the US Northern Command, told lawmakers in testimony Tuesday. “Russia has deployed a line of advanced air, sea and land-based cruise missiles that threaten critical military and civilian infrastructure.”