President Joe Biden addressed the American people from the Oval Office on Thursday evening, linking the conflicts in Ukraine and Israel, arguing “we cannot let terrorists like Hamas and Putin win.”
The president is asking Congress for a reported $100 billion in new funding, which is already meeting resistance on Capitol Hill, with Republicans wary of giving any more money to Ukraine.
Sitting at the Resolute Desk, Biden argued in his 15-minute speech that the causes are the same — and share a common enemy: Iran.
“Iran supports Russia in Ukraine and supports Hamas and other terrorist groups in the region,” he said. “We put all of that at risk if we leave Ukraine if we turn our backs on Israel.”
He continued, “American leadership is what holds the world together.”
“American alliances keep us – America – safe. It is American values that make us a partner that other countries want to work with,” he said. “To jeopardize all that when we leave Ukraine, we turn our backs on Israel – it’s just not worth it.”
President Joe Biden addressed the American people from the Oval Office on Thursday, linking the conflicts in Israel and Ukraine
Biden’s funding request, reportedly $60 billion for Ukraine and $14 billion for Israel, comes at a time when Congress is in chaos and there is growing resistance on the right to keep dollars flowing to Ukraine.
The House of Representatives has been speakerless since October 3, when Rep. Matt Gaetz introduced a motion to remove House Speaker Kevin McCarthy from the top position.
Eight Republicans and the entire Democratic caucus voted to impeach McCarthy, with MAGA-affiliated Rep. Jim Jordan and McCarthy’s second-in-command, House Majority Leader Steve Scalise, seen as the most viable candidates to remove the to grab the gavel.
But efforts to get Scalise and then Jordan as chairman failed.
Scalise, after winning the Republican Party’s first internal caucus race, lost a vote in the House of Representatives and chose to withdraw.
Despite losing votes in the House of Representatives on Tuesday and Wednesday, Jordan told reporters Thursday afternoon that he planned to continue marching.
An attempt to further strengthen Acting Speaker Pro Tempore Patrick McHenry has currently failed.
But Biden will also have problems with the Senate.
On Thursday, Republican Senator Roger Marshall wrote a letter signed by seven additional Republican Senate colleagues demanding that aid to Israel and Ukraine be discussed separately.
The eight senators said Biden “risks a government shutdown” by tying the aid packages together.
“My colleagues and I are convinced that all aid to Israel should not be used as leverage to send tens of billions of dollars more to Ukraine. These are two separate conflicts at different stages and cannot be considered a ‘package deal,'” Marshall wrote.
Republican opposition to sending more aid to Ukraine has increased in recent months.
“These are two separate and unrelated conflicts and it would be wrong to use support for Israel in an effort to get additional aid to Ukraine across the finish line,” continued Marshall, who was joined by Senators Ron Johnson, Josh Hawley and Mike Lee. , Rick Scott, Cynthia Lummis, Mike Braun, JD Vance and Marsha Blackburn.
Ahead of Biden’s Oval Office speech, former President Donald Trump — the Republican Party’s leading candidate — tried to score some political points.
“The horrific catastrophes unfolding in Israel, as well as the chaos at our southern border and in hotspot after hotspot around the world, all have one thing in common: they were caused by Crooked Joe Biden’s deadly combination of incompetence, radicalism and weakness. Trump said in a statement.