Pete King: Speaker Showed Courage on Vote

(ConservativeJournal.org) – Former New York Rep. Pete King (R) hailed Speaker Mike Johnson’s willingness to risk his position to advance foreign aid bills. He suggested Johnson was being courageous and a strong leader when he pushed Ukrainian and other foreign aid through the House during a conversation on Newsmax’s “Wake Up America.”

He called the vote to send the aid a win for American foreign policy while protecting “American lives and jobs.” He did not elaborate on how funding a foreign war protected American lives or income, however.

King suggested Johnson will take a public relations hit in the short term, but he suggested sending more money and thus prolonging the Ukrainian conflict was a good thing that will eventually be acknowledged as such down the line.

King called opposition to further funding of the war “a small fringe” perspective inside the party with “an outsized voice.” He neglected to mention that over half of the Republicans polled outside of Congress disapprove of additional war spending in Ukraine.

The multi-bill legislative package advanced to the Senate by the House over the weekend on April 20 had one component for border security which didn’t pass with the others.

Georgia GOP Rep. Jack Kingston highlighted that the Democrats have opposed border security under the Biden administration which is a new development. Kingston added that Hillary Clinton and Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY) both argued for border security in the past. He suggested that the issue has become partisan in the wake of Donald Trump.

Kingston claimed that the only way to pass border security would be “to absolutely force it,” which is why conservatives in Congress were frustrated by the passage of aid without the border component. He agreed that the aid for Ukraine was necessary, but he said that the Republicans should have used it as leverage to advance border security.

King said that passing security for the border is more difficult when there are “some Republicans undermining” Johnson’s control of the House.

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