The White House is using the congressional recess as a political weapon to criticize Republicans who go on vacation without providing aid to Ukraine or funding the government.
World events have added sharpness to the attacks — and perhaps some vulnerability for House Republicans.
Immediately after the House left the Capitol without passing a Senate-approved bill that would provide $60 billion to Ukraine, Russian dissident Alexei Navalny died in prison.
The White House blamed Navalny’s death on Russian President Vladimir Putin and pointed to congressional inaction as one reason the Kremlin leader is increasingly confident about the U.S. withdrawal from the Ukraine and Europe.
Shortly after the shocking news of Navalny’s death in prison, Russia won a significant victory in the battle for Ukraine by capturing the town of Avdiivka. It was Russia’s first significant victory over Ukraine in almost a year, and a wake-up call for Ukraine’s arms-strapped forces.
Navalny’s death and the Russian victory led Biden to go further in the offensive against the House Republican Party and his likely opponent in November, former President Trump.
“They’re making a big mistake by not responding,” Biden told reporters Monday, speaking from the House Republican side. “The way they are moving away from the Russian threat is the same way they are moving away from NATO. The way they stray from our obligations. It’s just shocking. I mean, they’re wild. I’ve never seen anything like it.
President Biden answers a reporter’s question before boarding Marine One on the South Lawn of the White House in Washington, DC, Tuesday, February 20, 2024. Biden will participate in four campaign receptions in California during the next three days. (Allison Robbert)
It was the third time in four days that Biden lashed out at House Republicans for leaving town without taking action to help Ukraine.
“It’s time they stepped up their efforts, don’t you think?” – instead of going on vacation for two weeks. In two weeks, they are leaving. Two weeks. What are they thinking? My God, it’s weird,” Biden said Friday.
Biden on Saturday called abandoning Ukraine “absurd” and “unethical” as the second anniversary of the Russian invasion approaches.
House Republican leaders canceled Friday’s votes and the House will return to Washington on Feb. 28 after the President’s recess.
White House communications director Ben LaBolt in a statement Tuesday highlighted Biden’s support for a Senate proposal on border security and his unwavering support for Ukraine, contrasting with inaction from House Republicans. Bedroom.
“Instead of matching President Biden’s leadership on these urgent priorities they claim to share, House Republicans are on the fifth day of an early and undeserved recess while their inaction causes increasing damage to our national security,” he said. LaBolt said. “Russia just had its most significant gains in Ukraine in almost a year because Ukraine is short of supplies and Congress has failed to provide much-needed support. »
“Speaker Johnson and House Republicans must act – time is running out,” he added.
Johnson issued a statement Friday saying Putin was “probably directly responsible” for Navalny’s death, but he gave no indication that the incident had immediately changed his calculus about presenting aid to Ukraine for a vote.
“In the coming days… we must be clear: Putin will face a united opposition,” Johnson said. “As Congress debates the best path forward to support Ukraine, the United States and our partners must use every means available to prevent Putin from financing his unprovoked war in Ukraine and aggression against the Baltic states. “
On the front page of The Hill
The White House has for weeks sought to argue that congressional Republicans are following orders from Trump, who has urged lawmakers to oppose a bipartisan border security bill and has been skeptical about aid to Ukraine.
Today, the Republican Party’s inaction in the House of Representatives on Ukraine coincides with Trump’s comments that he would not protect NATO allies from a Russian attack if they had not helped enough money for defense spending.
“The idea that we need something more to get help from Ukraine, I mean, is this: in light of a former president’s statement that Russia, if it didn’t pay us his dues, ‘go get them.’ Come on. What are these guys doing? What are they doing?” Biden said Friday.
The more aggressive use of the bully pulpit against Trump and the House Republican Party comes as polls show Biden in a neck-and-neck race with the former president. The polls, some of which give Trump a lead, have added to Democrats’ nerves about remaining in the White House in November.
The Biden campaign, mirroring the White House’s more aggressive attacks, released an ad Friday attacking Trump over his comments on NATO, arguing that he wanted to withdraw from NATO.
The ad will run through Super Tuesday next month and target voters in the battleground states of Michigan, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania, which the campaign says are home to more than 2.5 million Americans. identifying as Polish, Finnish, Norwegian, Lithuanian, Latvian or Estonian. — all NATO countries bordering Russia.
Democrats see the effort as an attempt to put more pressure on the Republican Party over Ukraine, but also to gain points in the fall.
“I think what the Democratic Party as a whole and Joe Biden’s campaign…are going to do is make the case directly to voters that by letting Vladimir Putin ‘do whatever he wants,’ we are less safe at home and undermine our national policy. and global security,” a national Democrat told The Hill.
Biden’s handling of the war in Ukraine was a rare positive point for him in the polls.
A Quinnipiac University poll released Jan. 31 found that 47% of voters approve of Biden’s response to the Russian invasion, compared to 46% who disapprove. Those numbers helped boost his overall approval of foreign policy, which stood at 37 percent.
Johnson, who is running by an extremely narrow margin in the House, initially opposed a bipartisan proposal on border security, aligning himself with Trump, who said it was a political loser for Republicans.
The President has since rejected the national security supplement bill overwhelmingly passed in the Senate because he said it did not include strict border provisions.
The White House has criticized Johnson for his shifting approach on the issue and for his refusal to put aid to Ukraine to a vote, which officials said would pass on a bipartisan basis. Biden signaled Monday that he might be open to meeting with Johnson as the White House views the situation as increasingly urgent.
“Of course, I would be happy to meet with him if he has anything to say,” Biden said.
Raj Shah, Johnson’s spokesman, said the president’s response was long overdue.
“We welcome the President’s change of heart and his openness to meeting with President Johnson on the best path forward to secure the nation. This should have been done a long time ago. We look forward to hearing from the White House when he is available for a one-on-one meeting that the President has requested for weeks,” Shah said.
Democratic strategist Michael Starr Hopkins said “actions speak louder than words” and that House Republicans have failed to stand strong against Russian aggression.
“Navalny’s death should have been a call to action, a grim reminder of the stakes at stake, but it seems the only call being answered is that of leisure. “It is a blatant demonstration of putting politics before principles, a move so brazenly detached from the urgency of global leadership that it would be comical, if it were not so tragically inept,” he said. he declares.
Added to Ukraine’s urgent needs is the looming government shutdown deadline that lawmakers must address. In January, lawmakers reached an agreement to set a March 1 deadline for four appropriations bills and March 8 for eight others.
“We have two government shutdowns looming on March 1, and I think March 8, and the president is right to call Republicans back to work and say, ‘Let’s finish the job,'” the longtime Democratic strategist said Sunday Donna Brazile on “This Week.” .”
Michael Ricci, former communications aide to Speakers John Boehner (R-Ohio) and Paul Ryan (R-Wis.), said the House GOP’s failure to embrace aid to Ukraine before the holiday is not surprising and has called the caucus a campaign arm for Trump.
“As shocking as Navalny’s death was, this is the same Congress that could not pass a simple aid plan for Israel after Israel’s attack. Events can take precedence over many things, but the unrest among House Republicans is so institutionally crippling that recess is essentially a reprieve at this point,” he said.
To combat attacks from the White House during the holidays, House leaders could hold conference calls and send letters to their beloved colleagues. But, according to Ricci, the chaos could continue.
“To do that, of course, they need some sort of message and direction, and I hope this break helps them achieve that,” said Ricci, a partner at Seven Letter. “The reality is that House Republicans are increasingly becoming a campaign arm for Trump – who wants chaos and inaction – and this will only increase in the weeks to come. »
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