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.
Border concessions are not going to happen until after Trump is sworn in. In fact, Trump doesn’t want border concessions to pass on Biden’s watch. Biden won’t make any meaningful concessions anyway, but if he did, Trump would pan them.
as do I.
projection is your ilks go to, so its more a logical conclusion than paranoia.
Republicans should pass nothing, absolutely nothing, until they pass the most important issue, NATIONAL SECURITY. Any yes, that includes letting the government shut down (if need be) by not passing ANY spending bills! NONE.
Let the democrats explain to their constituency why they feel national security is not the most important issue facing our country today.
Just what I thought. He has been had.
“They even cover the DC metro stops.”
1. As I said their ads are not on TV.
2. How many Congress or DOD officials tke the D.C. metro as opposed to private cars, whether personal, cabs/car servics and Uber. My bet is it is mostly the latter.
3. If you were in Congress would those ads influence you, or me? But you assume they influence everyone else.
Great post, you nailed it!
If the information that Johnson received was so very very bad, than we WE THE PEOPLE need to know about it! NO MORE GAMES!
This is our country-they have no ownership over us. We are footing the bills and they keep making them, and they tell US to just SHUT UP about it.
It’s truly a sad day.
You and may others here are gullible. Dems will promise anything and renege. If Mayokas got money for "border security" he would spend it on getting more illegals into the country faster. If only Dems wanted Ukraine funding it would never pass.
Johnson is also gullible. He apparently believes that Russia is going to invade NATO countries. Putin is not that stupid.
Does such a bill even exist? Or are you talking about HR2, which Schumer blocked? The GOP apparently is not interested in making HR2 into law. But if the senate approved it, Biden could veto it.
Elected officials should be on a 6 month probation period once a year.
I think you need to be honest with yourself. Did you have a meltdown like this every time the GOP House passed a bill since the border bill was passed and then blocked last May? If not then it’s really about Ukraine for you and not about the border. A majority of Americans believe that supporting Ukraine in this war IS in the American best interest. More specifically, JOHNSON believes that. So it’s not about caving. In fact, it’s about having the balls to push it thru despite the threats to terminate his position as speaker.
I actually am quite impressed with Johnson. I saw him speak on TV a few minutes ago about the anti-Semitic rallies in NYC. He has leadership qualities, unlike his many detractors. I would go so far as to suggest that he might make a good national ticket candidate down the road.
Add in drugs like fentynal, drug dealers, child traffickers, rapists, and other criminals and illegals that hate out country..
The open borders policy of the Biden Administration is clearly a national security threat. The border must be secured, perios.
Johnson then caved and abandoned placing border security as his top priority? Maybe you call that leadership, but I don’t!
most likely JUDAS Johnson was already on the globalist payroll and came off convincingly with tough border talk. He was lying the whole time.
I agree, but we don’t have the votes in the senate to pass any real border security bill. If we did Biden would veto it. Meanwhile Dems and RINOs want to take/keep the House, keep the senate, and put Trump in prison, to keep the border open.
This guy HAS TO GO, I will PRAY every damn day that he loses his seat I don’t give a damn if the Dem gets the seat!! This BASTARD ball faced LIED to everyone over and over again at least we KNOW the Dem!! It is way past time to STOP voting because there is an R next to the name!! I pray his constituents will NEVER FORGIVE this blatant betrayal!! FORGET the damn R it means nothing, take a long hard look at your country THIS is what voting the so called lesser of two evil has produced!! Get this Judas out and in 2 years we will go after the Dem!!
RINO’s are more dangerous than democrats, because RINO’s BLUR ThE DISTINCTION between liberalism and conservatism,
making liberalism more acceptable!
I couldn’t agree with you more.
If Trump gets more EVs and Kamala doesn’t accept them, congress votes. If the dems win that vote, Biden+Kamala are not going to fix the FBI, and Thomas and Alito will eventually have to retire.
I'd suggest you are a tool and a seditious traitor, a coward or both. How much is going to American people? Our own border?
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.