White House criticizes Speaker Johnson for blocking aid to Ukraine
Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives, Mike Johnson (Getty Images)
The White House criticized the Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives, Mike Johnson, for blocking aid to Ukraine, according to White House spokesperson Andrew Bates.
Bates' official memo, seen by the media, criticized Johnson for sending the House into recess "instead of ending the harm he’s doing to our national security."
“Every day that Speaker Johnson causes our national security to deteriorate, America loses. And every day that he puts off a clean vote, congressional Republicans’ standing with the American people plunges,” Bates said.
The spokesperson adds that Americans are "outraged at the damage Speaker Johnson is causing to America’s national security in the name of politics, as voters in New York proved."
Background
On February 13, the U.S. Senate approved a bill providing aid to Ukraine, Israel, and Taiwan worth $95 billion. Over $60 billion is allocated for Ukraine.
For the bill to become law, it still needs approval from the U.S. House of Representatives and the signature of President Joe Biden.
Speaker of the House Mike Johnson opposed this initiative and may choose not to bring the bill to the floor of the lower chamber of Congress. President Joe Biden, in turn, urged the House of Representatives to urgently approve the bill.
However, the U.S. House of Representatives went into recess until February 28, thus delaying the consideration of aid to Ukraine.
