Georgia Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., claimed that “not another penny will go to Ukraine” if Republicans win control of Congress next week, The Hill reports.
“The only border they care about is Ukraine, not America’s southern border,” Greene said during a Trump rally in Iowa. “Under Republicans, not another penny will go to Ukraine. Our country comes first. They don’t care about our border or our people.”
Greene, whose profile has risen during her first term, has warned House Republican Leader Kevin McCarthy that the Trump base of the party would be “unhappy” if he does not give her more power next term.
“I think that to be the best Speaker of the House and to please the base, he’s going to give me a lot of power and a lot of leeway,” Greene told The New York Times Magazine in October.
McCarthy threatens Ukraine aid:
McCarthy himself has also suggested that Republicans would limit aid to Ukraine if they win.
"I think people are gonna be sitting in a recession and they’re not going to write a blank check to Ukraine. They just won’t do it," McCarthy told Punchbowl News last month.
The comments marked a split between the House leader and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell.
"The Biden Administration and our allies need to do more to supply the tools Ukraine needs to thwart Russian aggression," McConnell said, urging the White House to "be quicker and more proactive to get Ukraine the aid they need.”
McConnell said a GOP Senate majority would "focus its oversight on ensuring timely delivery of needed weapons and greater allied assistance to Ukraine."
Pushback:
Republican Wyoming Rep. Liz Cheney slammed McCarthy as the leader of the “pro-Putin” wing of the GOP over his comments.
“Look, the speaker is second in line to the presidency,” Cheney told NBC News last month. “At every moment since, frankly, the aftermath of the election in 2020, when Minority Leader McCarthy has had the opportunity to do the right thing, or do something that serves his own political purpose, he always chooses to serve his own political purpose.
“Such as the aid to Ukraine, the idea that the party is now no longer going to support the Ukrainian people. For somebody who has the picture of Ronald Reagan on his wall in his office in the Capitol, the notion that now Kevin McCarthy is going to make himself the leader of the pro-Putin wing of my party is just a stunning thing.”
Fellow Republican Adam Kinzinger also slammed McCarthy.
“Maybe in his mind, he actually did believe that all he was saying is, ‘Hey, we want to have some oversight in this,’” Kinzinger said on CNN. “But what he did … you’re giving aid and comfort to the enemy, intentionally or unintentionally.”
