The Democratic US House minority leader, Hakeem Jeffries, has dismissed certain Republican colleagues as the “pro-Putin caucus” amid a congressional fight over whether to send more aid to Ukraine in its efforts to fend off Russian invaders.
During an interview with CNN on Wednesday, Jeffries singled out the far-right House firebrands Marjorie Taylor Greene and Jim Jordan as the face of a “loud and … growing” movement aiming to undermine a $61bn military aid package that Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskiy lobbied for during a trip to Washington DC on Tuesday.
Jeffries told the network that Donald Trump and Tucker Carlson, the ex-Fox News host who is friendly with the former president, were like-minded figures from outside Capitol Hill whose stance can only benefit the prospects of victory in Ukraine for the Russian leader, Vladimir Putin.
“The pro-Putin caucus … is extreme,” the New York representative remarked. “And it seems increasingly clear that this pro-Putin caucus would like to see Vladimir Putin win in Ukraine.”
This interview with Jeffries came as nearly all of the $62.3bn in Ukraine allocations previously approved by Congress had been used up after Russia’s invasion in February 2022. Greene, Jordan and other Republicans who hold a slim majority in the House have urged their fellow legislators to end monetary and military aid to Ukraine so that they can instead focus on issues at the US border with Mexico.
Joe Biden on Tuesday said that position had prompted expressions of gratitude from Russian television personalities, who say it has helped the forces invading Ukraine. Nonetheless, the Democratic president’s administration was under pressure from Republicans to grant concessions on US-Mexico border security as a condition for a deal to provide continued aid for Ukraine.
Zelenskiy went to the US capital on Tuesday and reportedly reassured legislators that such additional assistance would not go to waste because of corruption.
Elsewhere in his CNN interview, Jeffries said a Russian victory in Ukraine “would be bad for America’s national security, which is why it’s an open question as to whether House Republicans are serious at all about funding the Ukrainian war efforts”.
The network on Wednesday also asked Jeffries to address mounting Republican efforts to hold a formal vote to launch an impeachment inquiry into Biden.
Republicans spent months investigating business dealings by Biden and his son Hunter in hopes of finding improprieties that could form a basis for an impeachment. Some in their party are worried that investigators have not found misconduct by the president, but House Republicans on Wednesday were nonetheless pushing for a vote to formally authorize an impeachment inquiry into Biden.
Jeffries accused Republicans of doing Trump’s bidding by staging the effort to impeach Biden.
Trump is facing more than 90 criminal charges accusing him of trying to illegally overturn his defeat to Biden in the 2020 presidential election, of improperly retaining government secrets after leaving the White House, and of illicitly paying hush money to a pornographic film performer. Assorted civil litigation has also threatened his business ventures and resulted in a rape accusation that a judge deemed “substantially true”.
“There is zero evidence that President Biden has engaged in an impeachable offense,” said Jeffries, who called the proposed vote “a political hit job”. He added: “There is zero evidence that President Biden has engaged in any wrongdoing whatsoever. There is zero evidence that President Biden has broken the law.
“The Republicans … can’t find a scintilla of evidence to justify this impeachment inquiry.”
Source: US Politics - theguardian.com
