Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy told congressional leaders that, without additional aid from the U.S., Ukraine could lose its two-year war against Russia but House Republicans left town for an Easter recess without passing critical military aid for the war-torn nation as it runs dangerously low on ammunition needed to fight against the Russian invasion.
A national Veterans organization that represents over 1.5 million Veterans, military families, and civilian supporters and is calling for a vote on the security aid package recently passed by the Senate, confronted Putin Republicans with a moving 60-second ad narrated by President Ronald Reagan.
The ad features part of a speech Reagan delivered on the 40th Anniversary of D-Day juxtaposed with footage of the current war Russian President Vladimir Putin is waging in Ukraine.
The ad was sponsored by VoteVets Action Fund at a cost of $100,000 and a video billboard featuring the commercial was circling the Capitol building.
The ad used only Ronald Reagan’s words, without any other speaker, from his 1984 speech at Pointe du Hoc, France.
“You all knew that some things are worth dying for,” says Reagan in the ad. “One’s country is worth dying for, and democracy is worth dying for, because it’s the most deeply honorable form of government ever devised by man. All of you loved liberty. All of you were willing to fight tyranny, and you knew the people of your countries were behind you….”
“These are the things that shaped the unity of the Allies,” Reagan continued. “We in America have learned bitter lessons from two World Wars: It is better to be here ready to protect the peace, than to take blind shelter across the sea, rushing to respond only after freedom is lost. We’ve learned that isolationism never was and never will be an acceptable response to tyrannical governments with an expansionist intent….”
“The strength of America’s allies is vital to the United States, and the American security guarantee is essential to the continued freedom of Europe’s democracies,” Reagan declared in his timeless message. “We were with you then; we are with you now.”
“Republican Leaders in Congress like to claim Ronald Reagan and his legacy as their North Star, but they’re currently working against everything he stood for when it comes to Russian aggression and threat to our democratic allies and NATO,” said VoteVets Chairman Jon Soltz, an Iraq War veteran who discussed the ad.
“You cannot claim Reagan if you help Putin. Period, end of story,” said Soltz. “We are going to be in your face about this and ensure that they hear and see this ad, as well as others who hold Reagan dear to their hearts. Today is just the start. We’ll have much more coming.”
Speaker Mike Johnson said he won’t shift his attention to foreign aid for a trio of U.S. allies: Ukraine, Israel, and Taiwan until mid-April — at the earliest.
As he rebuffed calls to put the $95 billion Senate-passed aid package on the House floor, Johnson said he is drafting his own Ukraine package.
The debate over sending aid to Ukraine has vexed the divided government in Washington.
President Joe Biden, along with both Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, have been exerting pressure on Johnson to quickly take up the Senate bill that includes $60 billion for Ukraine.
Putin fans, including former President Donald Trump and neofascist Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene, have demanded that Congress secure the southern border before sending any more aid to Ukraine while also rejecting a bipartisan deal that included provisions giving the GOP everything Republicans wanted on immigration.
Because of the desperate situation on the ground, the White House unilaterally rushed $300 million in lethal assistance earlier this month after finding cost savings in Pentagon contracts but, U.S. military readiness could suffer, top Defense Department officials warned.
“The only viable path forward is for House Republicans to take the national security bipartisan and comprehensive bill that was sent over by the Senate weeks ago and put it on the House floor for an up-or-down vote,” said House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries. “House Republicans need to stop bending the knee to the pro-Putin faction that is growing and ascendant in their party. … The Senate bill is bipartisan, it’s comprehensive and it’s the only viable way forward.”
“What I’ve said repeatedly is we’re running out of time and the best way to get Ukraine the help they need is for the House to pass the Senate bill,” said McConnell, the GOP leader in the Senate. “The problem with changing it, as you all know, it can take three days to do the simplest thing here in the Senate. We don’t have the time.”
House Democrats are circulating a discharge petition to force the Senate-passed bill to the floor, bypassing Johnson and GOP leaders. The petition requires 218 signatures, which would need to include a handful of Republicans to trigger a vote; Democrats have just 191 signatures.
New Jersey’s three Republicans in Congress, Reps. Tom Kean Jr., Jeff VanDrew, and Chris Smith, have refused to sign the discharge petition, but every Democrat in the Garden State delegation has endorsed it.
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