Posted on 04/24/2024 9:35:57 AM PDT by Kazan
He caved because he’s weak and unprincipled and, like the rest of the GOP establishment, doesn’t care what Republican voters think.
Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson is now being feted by the likes of Politico and The New York Times for selling out Republican voters and working with Democrats to pass a foreign aid package last week that will send tens of billions more taxpayer dollars to Ukraine.
If you recall, this is something Johnson repeatedly vowed he would not do until Democrats agreed to secure the southern border. He said this over and over, both before and after he became speaker.
So what explains Johnson’s about-face? According to a fawning piece in Politico, it was “sobering briefings” he received after becoming speaker. “It was the intelligence, it was the Europe generals who are in charge of the freedom of the world and of course it was the developments as well, everything has escalated,” he told the outlet.
Johnson gave a similar line to the Times: “I really do believe the intel. I think that Vladimir Putin would continue to march through Europe if he were allowed. I think he might go to the Baltics next. I think he might have a showdown with Poland or one of our NATO allies.” He said the same thing to CNN’s Jake Tapper last week, that he wants to make sure Putin “doesn’t march through Europe.” (Notice now that Johnson has helped pass the Democrats’ agenda, he’s become a darling of the corporate press, complete with an in-depth puff profile just published in The Atlantic.)
Never mind that the Putin-will-march-through-Europe line was hard to believe when it was trotted out over two years ago. Today it’s preposterous and indefensible — and no one really believes it. Events on the ground have demonstrated pretty conclusively that Moscow cannot even secure all the territory it claims to have annexed in eastern Ukraine, let alone march on Poland or other NATO members.
So what exactly did Johnson find out in these classified briefings? How did he go into a SCIF (a secure facility used for classified briefings) with one set of priorities and come out with a completely different one? Did he learn that Ukraine was running out of weapons? We’ve all known that for some time now (the Pentagon said exactly that in January). Did he learn that military recruitment in Ukraine was collapsing? That’s been widely reported for months. You don’t need a SCIF or a sit-down with the CIA to know any of that. You just need to follow the news.
Maybe, then, it was something worse, that Moscow is planning to use a nuclear weapon of some kind. If, as Politico put it, “It only took a higher level of intelligence briefings, granted to congressional leaders, for him to pick up that old Cold War hymnal,” then Johnson should come out and explain as much to the American people. We’re all adults, we can handle it, and we deserve to know where our billions are going and why.
That’s the crux of it. If what Johnson learned in his intelligence briefings was so dire, so terrifying, that he went from opposing $300 million for Ukraine in September to happily giving $61 billion for the country last week, then he needs to come out and explain himself. Because that’s a hell of a 180 to pull on an issue that has deeply divided the Republican Party (a majority of Johnson’s own conference voted against his foreign aid package).
But suppose Johnson did find out something in the SCIF, some new intelligence about an apocalyptic threat that changed his entire perspective on the war and inspired him to repudiate his past views on America’s role. The proper response in that case would have been to immediately fix the border so Congress could address this new threat, just as he had promised his constituents he would.
Yet Johnson did nothing about the border. He just pretended he had never made those promises and pushed ahead for Ukraine funding, throwing away whatever leverage he had with Democrats to help secure the border.
It’s actually worse than that. He didn’t just fail to deliver on his repeated promises to secure the border before sending more aid to Ukraine, but his foreign aid package will make the border crisis worse. Included in the bill was roughly $4 billion for “migration and refugee assistance,” which is doled out to NGOs operating along the border and tasked with giving funds and travel assistance to illegal immigrants who have been released from federal custody. In other words, Johnson isn’t just neglecting the border crisis, he’s actively funding it.
By doing so, Johnson has managed to give Democrats exactly what they wanted on Ukraine and the border, while giving Republican voters nothing except a proverbial middle finger, especially since Johnson refuses even to acknowledge that he’s changed his tune and gone back on his word.
It’s much more likely that this narrative about classified intel briefings swaying Johnson’s view is just that: a ridiculous story cooked up by the permanent bureaucracy in D.C. and dutifully trotted out by the regime press to explain away Johnson’s duplicity and make him look like a serious statesman.
The simplest explanation for Johnson’s duplicity, however, is not some secret briefing that’s so terrifying no one can know about it, but that Johnson is a feckless, easily manipulated creature of Washington who was wholly unprepared, as speaker, to fight for Republican voters and serve their interests.
Because he is frightened that Dems will throw him off the ballot even though they would only have a one seat majority.
When Repubs have a one seat majority, it becomes the excuse that they can’t do anything.
When Dems have a one seat majority they are ten feet tall, and can do extreme measures like Maduro, and throw Trump off the ballot.
It’s nonsense.
Trump has two big weaknesses:
1. making bad personnel choices because those people flatter him
2. caving to the Swamp over impeachment threats or excluded from ballot
If his second term is going to amount to anything, he is going to have to call their bluff, not endlessly cave.
Wake up and smell the coffee, dude. Why do you think useless runts like Lindsey Graham get a regular spot on Fox News? It’s because the dog handlers at Boeing buy ad time to get their paid b!tches on TV to promote this stupid corporate/globalist welfare.
it is now a four seat majority thanks to all the folks quitting. That is with Republicans (notice I did not say conservatives) occupying the lead.
I am one of the conservative masses and I do not feel betrayed, nor do the majority of those who call themselves conservative. When has abandoning a country to Russian aggression become a conservative principle?
No, he didn’t cave because of that. It’s fairly well understood that if $60B is sent to Ukraine, at least 1/4 of it finds its way back here and into the ‘Rat Party coffers. In this case that would amount to ~$15 Billion; or in plain figgers, $15 thousand million! So they wave a paltry 4 or 5 million$ under yer speakership’s nose and say, “If ya’ play ball with us. If ya’ don’t...Stay away from Ft. Marcey Park. And the beat goes on. JMHPO.
Live boy or dead girl?
Well, for one Johnson cannot fix the border. I think he’s smart enough to realize that. All he can do is throw money at the problem. The money then goes to all the executive branch fascists that will only use it to process more illegals and all the congressional oversight committee song and dance won’t change a single thing. Makes for good video clips though. (See Mayorkas impeachment)
If he admits to that publicly, then it’s game over for his authority, unless and until we can win the presidency and keep the house, plus root out the fascists deep state. Otherwise defunding Biden’s fascist bureaucracy or not giving them more funds is the best outcome presently.
A very tall order no matter how you look at it.
The author of this article is more interested in splitting the republican base, and/or not a very deep thinker, IMO.
“Events on the ground have demonstrated pretty conclusively that Moscow cannot even secure all the territory it claims to have annexed in eastern Ukraine”
‘nuff said?
The author may be a FReeper.
“It’s because the dog handlers at Boeing buy ad time to get their paid b!tches on TV to promote this stupid corporate/globalist welfare.”
More B.S. Never ever seen any ads for Boeing or other defense contractors on Fox or anywhere else. You keep spouting Leftist myths and not facts. That’s the Left’s pitch - we only go to war to fund defense contractors.
Because the next guy may be sympathetic enough with the Dems to convict him in the House of insurrection.
Some people (many on this website) actually want to be in the minority because then all they have to do is sit back and bitch about everything.
\%
so...is that todays
narrative control cubicle’s
talking point line
to parrot
to earn that doughnut ?
.your dogs dont hunt anymore
It is not nonsense.
They’ve been holding the second term over his head at least dating back to promise of pardons that were never issued.
One doesn’t call bluffs of maniacs with nothing.
One waits until they have a decent hand and then one takes all the chips.
\/
another narrative control cubicle
b.s. spin ?.
he could have not brought it to the floor for a vote
he could have singlehandedly stopped the border crisis. / spit quit trying to rewrite history and go glutton on your narrative control cubicle pavlov reward doughnuts. seems to me its your ilk splitting the base rinos,,. spit.
Once he was made aware that money is free and we can just make more of it, why not give some to other countries that really need it?
Seriously, would you trust any of these people to manage your small business or family budget?
I listened to interviews with a number of Johnson’s district constituents last night. They don’t seem particularly bothered about his shift.
One waits until they have a decent hand and then one takes all the chips.
\/
. he had the power of the purse
from day 1 of his new job
the trump hand
and he folded
so peddle your crap somewhere else it can be lappedup by rinos
.
How come Repubs can’t do any thing with a one vote majority ?
But Dems can act like Maduro and throw the opposition candidate off the ballot with a one vote majority ?
Ignoring that the rino class is being exited at record pace
Leftists are collectivists, communists, cultists etc....innately.
My reply was in reply to a post of why Trump endorsed Johnson yesterday.
My analogy involves Trump calling their bluff and admonishing Johnson, leading to a new SOTH.
so figure out what is going on and I’d be welcome to any advice.
The relentless attacks on Johnson over this are beginning to take on characteristics of paranoid schizophrenia.
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