Last Updated on November 29, 2023
GOP Speaker of the House Mike Johnson has once again backed even more taxpayer-funded aid for Ukraine as he spoke to reporters this week on a trip to Florida, where Johnson parroted neocon talking points about Vladimir Putin “marching through Europe” without continued American intervention.
Speaker Mike Johnson, whose list of donors includes several big names within the military-industrial complex and forever war lobby, backed additional US aid for Ukraine as he fielded questions from the press alongside members of Florida’s congressional delegation at Bradenton International Airport.
“Ukraine is another priority, of course,” Johnson said. “We can’t allow Vladimir Putin to march through Europe and we understand the necessity of assisting there.”
Johnson went on to claim that his GOP will not approve additional Ukraine funding unless it comes in tangent with funding to secure America’s own border, but the GOP’s track record on this promise and others like it is not very good.
“What we’ve said is that if there is to be additional assistance to Ukraine, which most members of Congress believe is important, we have to also work in changing our own border policy and so there’s been a lot of thoughtful negotiation ongoing with that,” said Johnson, adding that he believes that the Senate, which has been vehemently pro-Ukraine and pro-war, agrees with him.
“I think that most of our Senate colleagues recognize that those two things need to move together because we owe those to the American People. That is what they’re demanding that we do.”
Video footage of Johnson’s statement on Ukraine funding has been posted to X by the pro-war page Republicans for Ukraine, and can be viewed below:
Speaker Mike Johnson: “Ukraine is another priority…We can’t allow Vladimir Putin to march through Europe.” pic.twitter.com/wI8eeDtZZi
— Republicans for Ukraine (@GOP4Ukraine) November 27, 2023
Related Video: Speaker Mike Johnson Supports ‘Additional Aid for Ukraine’
Johnson’s repeated endorsement of Ukraine war funding comes after he was initially lauded upon his election as Speaker of the House as a conservative who would actually oppose the funding of foreign wars, wide open borders, and wasteful government spending that led to the end of his predecessor Kevin McCarthy’s short-lived speakership.
However, as National File has previously reported, this image of Johnson clashes with his campaign finance records, which show him to be funded by the military-industrial complex.
