House Speaker Mike Johnson fears he’ll be ousted if he moves on Ukraine aid, Biden claims
WASHINGTON — House Speaker Mike Johnson knows he has to pass a pending Ukraine aid package but is “worried” that he’d lose his job due to the “death grip” Donald Trump has on Republicans, President Biden claimed in an interview that aired Tuesday night.
“I’m hoping that the speaker of the House begins to use, has the courage to do what he — I’m confident — he knows what has to be done,” Biden, 81, told Univision News.
“But I think he’s worried about losing the speakership because of a strange Republican House.”
The president on Wednesday tried to increase the pressure on Johnson further by claiming during a Rose Garden press conference that “the war in Ukraine comes to an end by the House leader allowing a vote” on additional aid.
Biden maintained during the Univision interview, which he taped last Wednesday, that Congress would have to approve additional support for Kyiv’s fight against Moscow because he’s “run out of runway” to provide more aid through executive action.
“If we had a vote tomorrow, if the new speaker of the House of Representatives had the guts to call for a vote and on Ukraine, it would pass overwhelmingly and the majority of Republicans in both House and Senate would vote for it,” he said.
The Senate approved a $95.3 billion foreign aid bill in February to assist Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan. But Johnson (R-La.) warned that the House would not take up the measure for a vote as Trump urged opposition to it.
“WE SHOULD NEVER GIVE MONEY ANYMORE WITHOUT THE HOPE OF A PAYBACK, OR WITHOUT ‘STRINGS’ ATTACHED. THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA SHOULD BE ‘STUPID’ NO LONGER!” Trump posted on Truth Social at the time.
Johnson has indicated he may revisit the issue this week, as the House comes back from its Easter recess, but the speaker has been threatened with a vote on his removal by Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) if he advances the funding.
“I’m not saying I have a red line or a trigger, and I’m not saying I don’t have a red line or trigger,” Taylor Greene told CNN last week. “But I’m going to tell you right now — funding Ukraine is probably one of the most egregious things that he can do.”
On Tuesday, the Georgia lawmaker renewed her efforts to forge an anti-Johnson coalition by sending a letter to her fellow Republicans.
“Mike Johnson is publicly saying funding Ukraine is now his top priority when less than 7 months ago he was against it,” Greene wrote in the letter. “The American people disagree — they believe our border is the only border worth fighting a war over, and I agree with them.”
(R-Ga.) before President Biden’s State of the Union address. REUTERS
Johnson, who assumed speakership in October, previously told The Post he had stalled Ukraine aid because he wanted to first pass funding for the federal government through Sept. 30 — and blamed the Biden administration for not answering “key questions” about its response to the conflict.
“That process has been dragged out, not because of the House, but because in my view — because of the White House being unwilling or unable to provide the necessary answers for us to process that sooner,” Johnson said at the time.
The speaker also said he would want any additional supplemental to be paired with US-Mexico border funding, despite his support for Ukraine.
“No one wants Vladimir Putin to prevail. I’m of the opinion that he wouldn’t stop in Ukraine. If he was allowed, he’d go through all the way through Europe,” Johnson told The Post last month.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has pleaded with congressional Republicans to pass the funding amid Ukraine’s ongoing war with Russia.
With no additional aid from Congress, Zelensky warned in an interview Sunday, Ukraine would “lose the war.”
Johnson’s office did not immediately respond to an inquiry from The Post on Biden’s remarks.
