Mark Warner on Ukraine aid: ‘I urge the House to act swiftly to get this done’

A package of bills backed by embattled House Speaker Mike Johnson that includes $61 billion in long-awaited military and economic aid to Ukraine should get up-or-down votes this weekend.

Sixth District Congressman Ben Cline is too busy whining to conservative media about the pretend impeachment of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas to weigh in on this relatively insignificant matter, involving an invasion of a neighbor by a dictator who has thousands of nuclear missiles pointed at us.

Fifth District Congressman Bob Good can apparently walk and chew gum at the same time.

“All Republicans should vote NO on the rule for the unpaid foreign aid package. We should not borrow $60 billion for Ukraine while doing nothing to secure our OWN borders,” Good tweeted.

Good, it should be noted, joined the chorus of House Republicans who balked at the bipartisan Senate package that would have directed billions of dollars toward border security, on orders from disgraced ex-president Donald Trump, who wants inaction on border stuff because he’d like to be able to kvetch about the issue on the presidential campaign trail.

Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va., who as the chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee is one of the few adults in the room, is all but shouting at the clouds to try to get House Republicans to get over their obeisance to Vladimir Putin and pass the damn Ukraine aid bill already.

“Over the past two years, the U.S. has spent only a tiny fraction of its defense budget to help Ukraine inflict enormous losses on Russia’s military, hold the line in the fight for democracy over autocracy, and thwart Putin’s ambitions to take over Ukraine. Despite the clear security interests in continuing this support, and the commitments we’ve made to both the Ukrainian people and our NATO allies, House Republicans have spent months delaying the renewal of this critical aid,” Warner said, by way of blistering, in a statement released by his Senate office on Thursday.

“The best time to do this would have been months ago. The second best time is right now,” Warner said. “I urge the House to act swiftly to get this done and end this painful and embarrassing delay. Failing to do so would be a mistake of historic proportions.”