Posted on 07/16/2022 1:29:28 AM PDT by Ultra Sonic 007
Victoria Spartz took the GOP mantle on aiding Kyiv back in the spring. Now, her fellow lawmakers worry she's undermining the effort.
House Republicans gave Ukraine-born Rep. Victoria Spartz a coveted platform to speak out against Russia’s war. They’re coming to regret that.
Spartz (R-Ind.), who has traveled to Ukraine a half-dozen times since the war began and spoken passionately about the conflict, shocked lawmakers in both parties recently with her intense criticisms of the country’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, and his confidants. She drew a rare rebuke last weekend from the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry, which accused her of “trying to earn extra political capital on baseless speculation.”
Inside the House GOP Conference, there’s a widespread fear that her posture is damaging U.S.-Ukraine relations at the worst possible time — and that she’s being played by forces that aim to weaken the Western alliance. GOP national-security hawks also worry that the MAGA wing of their party, where there’s already resistance to supporting Ukraine, will point to Spartz’s comments as justification.
They’re concerned that Spartz’s public break from Zelenskyy — and her corruption accusations about his closest aides — could portend future cracks in U.S. support for Ukraine, especially as the midterm elections approach.
“Her naiveness is hurting our own people,” said a GOP lawmaker who serves on the House Foreign Affairs Committee, granted anonymity to speak candidly about a colleague. “It is not helpful to what we’re trying to do and I’m not sure her facts are accurate … We have vetted these guys.” The Republican warned that Spartz’s comments could “hurt” the war effort.
Asked for comment on Spartz’s remarks, one senior House Republican who was granted anonymity for the same reason offered a blunt reply: “What the fuck.”
A third House Republican granted anonymity to speak candidly about Spartz said she has a reputation for elbowing her way into briefings and meetings for committees she doesn’t belong to, like the Foreign Affairs panel, where multiple members have tried to address her comments behind closed doors.
The Biden administration is even getting involved — another sign of growing worries that Spartz’s comments may damage cohesion among the Western coalition in defense of Kyiv. A Foreign Affairs Committee aide, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the U.S. intelligence community is planning to brief Spartz about her claims in a classified setting Friday morning.
While Zelenskyy’s political opponents have openly cheered Spartz, domestic political squabbles are largely getting sidelined while the country fights for its survival. Western nations’ longstanding concerns about corruption in Ukraine, an element of former President Donald Trump’s first impeachment, have also been shelved in the interest of fostering both domestic and international unity against Russia’s invasion.
Spartz is dredging up old dirt on Zelenskyy and his advisers at a time when Ukraine’s future as an independent nation may depend on allying with him, her detractors say.
“I don’t share her criticisms,” said Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), who has worked with Spartz on Ukraine-related legislation. “I believe that the Zelenskyy government and the Ukrainian people have risen to the moment. It is in our national security interest to stand with the Ukrainian people and their elected leadership.”
In statements and interviews, Spartz has pushed for better oversight of the U.S. weaponry flowing into Ukraine — an issue that has attracted bipartisan scrutiny.
But she has also accused Zelenskyy of “playing politics” and not “understanding” the seriousness of the conflict. And she has launched a crusade against his chief of staff, Andriy Yermak, accusing the president’s top aide of being in the pocket of Russia.
In the process of speaking out, she’s raised years-old allegations, many of which Zelenskyy’s political foes have lobbed in the past without factual basis. She has said publicly that she believes Yermak should be fired for inhibiting the war effort — even as others say Spartz’s own actions are undeniably impeding it.
Spartz declined to answer questions on the record for this story, but her office provided a written statement to POLITICO that defends her criticisms of the Zelenskyy government. (She has previously put the onus on Yermak and others to prove her wrong.)
And she’s showing no sign of regret.
“Growing up in Ukraine and visiting six times since the war started, I have a comprehensive understanding of the situation on the ground,” Spartz said. “The stakes are too high to be reactive without deliberation — as intended for our institution.”
As she goes after Zelenskyy’s top aides, the first-term Republican has previously generated headlines for her poor staff retention rate. Current and former aides described to POLITICO a hostile work environment in which Spartz repeatedly berates her staffers.
The 43-year-old’s Zelenskyy-gadfly persona this summer marks a sharp turnaround from her message on March 1, when she made an impassioned and tearful plea for the Biden administration to respond more forcefully to the crisis unfolding in her motherland. As Spartz described the struggle of some family members to survive bloody Russian assaults, House GOP leaders and dozens of rank-and-file members stood behind her, dressed in blue and yellow to match Ukraine’s flag, nodding in agreement.
Four-plus months later, there are far fewer signals in the conference that she is an authoritative voice on the matter. Spartz’s latest posture is privately befuddling many of her colleagues, though none of them want to publicly rebuke a colleague over Ukraine — particularly given her personal ties to the situation — as the Russian attack itself becomes more politically thorny within the GOP.
Spartz has some defenders among House Republicans, but many of them sidestepped her remarks to argue generally that she is well-intentioned and passionate about the issue.
“Victoria has been a strong advocate of getting the people of Ukraine the tools they need to push back against Putin,” House Minority Whip Steve Scalise (R-La.) said during a press conference this week. “She’s very passionate about this. And at the end of the day, I know from all the conversations I’ve had with her that her heart and soul is tied to helping the people of Ukraine push back Putin’s military assault on that country.”
Spartz has refused to name the sources for her claims of improper behavior by Yermak and Zelenskyy’s government. Meanwhile, they continue to prompt significant pushback not only from Ukrainian officials, but from Americans like former U.S. Ambassador to Russia Michael McFaul, who is working directly with Yermak on sanctions policy.
“Yermak most certainly does not strike me as being pro-Russian. He is stridently anti-Putin and his barbaric regime,” McFaul said in an interview. “If so, why would he be encouraging our group to think of new and creative ways to sanction Russians? And why then would the Russian government sanction many members of our working group, including even my research assistant?”
Christopher Miller contributed to this report.
Its interesting that Spartz is a CPA who got her political career started in 2010 with the Tea Party, which fits well with her demands that there be more Congressional oversight and accounting on the Ukraine spending.
She’s calling out Zelenski and Yermak for their corruption, and demanding they account for where the money and materiel being sent from the US is going.
The fact she’s Ukrainian born means she can talk directly to people there and doesn’t have to rely on the BS coming from the regime in Kiev...obviously she’s on to the money laundering taking place and isn’t happy about it.
She is probably in real trouble because she thinks this Yernak guy, close to Zelensky and is rumored to be a homo lover of Z is a Russian spy?
You can see why those homos in DC are not happy with her. You have to be on board 100% with their foreign interventions. Particularly gay ones.
There was some article posted here a few days ago that was revealing. I can’t find it now.
“ Inside the House GOP Conference, there’s a widespread fear that her posture is damaging U.S.-Ukraine relations at the worst possible time”
What possible interest can the House GOP Conference have in “US-Ukraine relations”?
I mean, other than the recycled $$ coming back from Zelensky to their bank accounts?
That won't go over well inside the Swamp.
Actually she is a rabid anti commie and my rep. She goes because she was born there. She is doing a million times more representing the on the ground view here in Indiana. I am happy to see her toss over the apple cart. Ukraine is corrupt and you are dumb as a stump in not understanding that. She started all pro Ukraine at first as a knee jerk reaction but she is not a dumb woman. She quickly understood the political cesspool and money laundering op it is. She is not the problem. The problem is idiots like you.
Her naiveness? She was born and raised in Ukraine, lived there half her life, and visits frequently.
Victoria is a sharp cookie. She speaks with the Ukrainian people who bear the brunt of this war. They want an end to it. Zelensky and his gang are too busy counting their new found corrupt money to get back to the negotiation table and end it.
Find a politician on earth that is not greedy and corrupt why don’t you.
Tanga Filapinix says what? It has been a while crocodile. Are you back to trash America from your loft position of being a “scholar?”
That's the last thing the State Department wants.
It has seemed from the beginning like the war is a MUCH BIGGER THING to the people in charge than it is to actual, you know, Americans - and the attacks on this woman reveal a bit more of the picture than I could see clearly before.
Part of the US government - the State Department, the Uniparty, the NGO sector - what Yarvin calls the "blue empire" - has been seized by enemy forces who have subverted Americans' normal, healthy patriotic instincts to fight wars that are not about us or our interests, but rather are about preserving what they call the "liberal world order".
At first (Gulf War 1), the pretext was arguably related to our interests (although I would have let Saddam go to Riyadh), then it took a 9/11 to send us out after Iraq, they tried and tried to get Trump into Syria and took him out when he refused - but now, they have dragged us into something that has nothing at all to do with us on the flimsiest of pretexts, risking destruction, JUST BECAUSE THEY CAN.
So why does the USA, or rather the blue empire part (better called the rainbow empire, now) make their puppet Zelensky keep fighting?
It's because when Ukraine is lost, and they are exposed, they are at risk of losing their conquest of America, with all that implies.
Spartz needs to get with the program...
I worked in the campaigns of three men who were not greedy nor corrupt: Congressman Larry McDonald, Senator Jesse Helms, and President Ronald Reagan. But even among the greediest politicians of the world, Putin stands out as very evil. My wife is a Russian speaker from the Donbas and hates Putin and his 2014 invasion with a passion.
” first-term Republican has previously generated headlines for her poor staff retention rate.”
Could this be her attempts to rid her staff of deep staters ?
All the US billions will go a long way to promote the LGBT agenda in Ukraine. That’s full steam ahead.
Go Putin.
“Congresswoman Spartz has stood up against the pro-abortion agenda of the Biden-Harris administration and Pelosi Democrats who are actively working to expand ...”
https://sbaprolife.org/representative/victoria-spartz
In the end it always boils down to satan and evil.
Seems that way to me too.
Zelensky is indeed a bad actor. I tend to believe Victoria on this but it could just be bias re enforcement from all the reports I’ve read. We need the truth.
They’re sending 200,000 of our soldiers over there to fight the depleting our national oil reserves they’re sending our oil to Europe societies are sending their oil to China it’s not coming here they just sent home 60,000 soldiers Biden says he’s gonna cut out 260,000 more if they don’t get the booster shot turns out the Chinese have been manufacturing the Pfizer vaccine here in the United States and distributing it turns out the Pfizer vaccine has at least 20 different lights which are completely different from each other the Chinese can feel the hundred million and arm them ... The Ukraine mess is depleting our own armies resources turdo sold the Chinese a Deepwater port the Chinese military has been training with the Canadian military I don’t like to put stuff together like this but it sure looks like somebody is weakening our country on purpose and the Chinese are making moves
Russia is and was always going to win this war. A President looking out of the best interests of his people would have said Ukraine would not join NATO and allow the Minsk Accords to be implemented. If he cared about Ukraine and Ukrainians now, he'd be unconditionally surrendering and trying to save Odessa, access to the Black Seas and to spare the western half of his country.
But, his puppet masters want him to fight to the last Ukrainian in a futile attempt to "harm" Russia.
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