WASHINGTON – Tuesday’s ouster of former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy has thrown future US funding for Ukraine into doubt, as the two lawmakers vying to replace him hold starkly different views on supporting the war-torn European nation’s defense.
During his speakership, McCarthy advocated for Ukraine, calling the Russian invasion a national security issue and working with the Biden administration to ensure funding could continue.
But with the future leadership of the House now unclear at best, defense officials tell The Post that there are internal concerns over what a new speaker could mean for continuing aid – while Biden himself admitted Wednesday the loss of McCarthy could jeopardize future bills.
“It does worry me,” Biden told reporters.
“But I know there are a majority of members of the House and Senate, in both parties, who have said that they support funding Ukraine.”
While House Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-La.) has a solid record of voting in favor of sending Kyiv vital military aid they need to push out Russian invaders, his opponent, Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio), has been outspoken about his distaste for such spending.
Jordan has voted against nearly all Ukraine support bills, though he OK’d an early 2022 lend-lease act to allow the Biden administration more flexibility to provide Kyiv security assistance – so long as Ukraine returned the equipment or paid to lease it.
On Tuesday, Jordan told reporters flat-out that he would not support continued aid for Ukraine should he win the speaker’s gavel.
“The most pressing issue on Americans’ minds is not Ukraine,” he said while leaving a Texas GOP delegation luncheon where he asked for their votes. “It’s the border situation and it’s crime on the streets and everybody knows that,”
Scalise, however, has routinely voted for sending additional security assistance without strings, even as recently as last week when the House passed another bill approving $300 million in aid – though roughly half of his fellow Republicans voted “nay”.
Despite Scalise’s voting record, however, the conservative group “Defending Democracy Together” only gave the majority leader a “B” on its “Republicans for Ukraine” report card, citing his “neutral or ambiguous statements” on continuing US support.
But that’s far better than the “F” or “very poor” rating the group gave Jordan on supporting Kyiv, adding that he has made “anti-Ukraine comments.”
While Scalise and Jordan remain the only two congressmen to formally announce they are seeking the gavel, Rep. Kevin Hern (R-Okla.) has also been floated as a potential compromise candidate.
On Tuesday, he joined the two declared candidates at the Texas Republican luncheon as he made the rounds offering himself as an alternative.
“We’re doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results, where leadership just keeps ascending through the ranks,” he told reporters.
“People have asked me about looking at [being an] alternate choice, and so I’m going around talking about this issue with other groups of people and see if their votes are there.”
Like Jordan, Hern also received an “F” on the Republicans for Ukraine report card thanks to their identical voting records on Ukraine funding, but seemed open to discussing the need for continued support with Biden should he be made speaker.
“I think the commander-in-chief ought to sit down in a classified setting and tell those of us who have not supported [aid] for the same reason time and time again, we want to know where the America taxpayer dollars are going, and what is the end game?” he said.
“There’s no reason why the president of the United States … can’t sit down in a classified setting and tell all members what his strategy is,” he added.
With the next speaker uncertain, members of Congress are left questioning what will become of Biden’s August ask that they approve an additional $20.6 billion to support Ukraine in its war against Russia, which Kyiv-supporters in both political parties hoped could become law as part of next year’s spending bill.
Meanwhile, public support for continuing US efforts to support Ukraine has waned slightly from last year, according to a recent survey and report by the non-partisan Chicago Council on Global Affairs think tank.
The majority of Americans do favor backing Ukraine, with 63% of respondents indicating they supported providing additional arms and military supplies to the country’s forces – down from 65% last year.
The figures were similar to a June Reagan Institute survey on national security issues that found 59% of Americans believed Washington should continue to provide weapons and additional support.
While the leadership shakeup has Ukraine advocates on edge, McCarthy was far from a sure bet to continue the aid.
Last month, he denied Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky’s request to speak at a joint meeting of Congress while in Washington to drum up more support for continued American support.
McCarthy also failed to secure Ukraine aid funding in Saturday’s continuing resolution to avert a partial federal shutdown, as he feared there would not be enough votes to keep the government’s lights on without dropping it from the measure.
To pass the CR, which will keep government funding levels where they are until Nov. 17, he agreed to strip $6 billion in Ukraine aid from the bill to get it passed.
In the lead-up to McCarthy’s ouster, Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.) used a confusing remark by Biden over the weekend to crucify the Californian for allegedly making a “secret deal” with the Democratic president to keep American dollars flowing to Ukraine.
“Just because Gaetz said something, don’t believe it’s true,” the now-former speaker raged after his removal Tuesday night.
“I haven’t heard him say one true thing yet.”
After signing the continuing resolution to keep the government funded, Biden on Sunday told reporters that he had “just made [a deal] on Ukraine” with McCarthy, which was misconstrued as a separate agreement from the CR presented for Biden’s signature.
While the White House stoked speculation about a supposed deal after both press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre and Biden himself declined to clarify what he’d meant, McCarthy denied that such an agreement was made.
“When we were doing the stopgap measure, there was a concern of [whether it had] transferability on money [to divert funds for weapons for Ukraine]. I believed it did, my staff believed that it did,” he explained.
“What I did say to the White House is, ‘If you think it does not, I will fix it.'”
Before leaving the lectern, McCarthy warned that “what we do here [with Ukraine] is very important,” saying he believed Russian President Vladimir Putin invaded after watching the Biden administration give up on Afghanistan.
“I support arming Ukraine,” the former speaker said.
“That doesn’t mean sending them cash, but arming them … I think the president is failing here, because he’s not telling the American public what is the mission. We a lot of members who were Navy SEALs, who have been F-18 pilots, and they are frustrated.”
“They want to support [Ukraine], but they don’t want to support a never-ending war.”