Speaker Johnson did not call former president Trump a traitor who sold America and Europe out to Putin and Russia, but that’s the implication of what he said to C-Span at the Capitol yesterday before today’s vote to fund Ukraine’s resistance to the Russian invasion. And today, funding for Ukraine passed overwhelmingly. The House passed the Ukraine foreign aid bill by a vote of 311-112-1.
This vote rebukes former president Trump’s pro Putin position on Ukraine and strongly supports President Biden. What caused Speaker Johnson to change his position? Why did Mike Johnson do this? As Speaker of the House, he received high level intelligence briefings.
Speaker Johnson changed his position on Ukraine because he believed the intelligence briefings.
Speaking from the Capitol on Thursday, Johnson made no apologies for antagonising them, telling C-SPAN that providing aid to Ukraine was “critically important” and “the right thing” despite the potential power of his opponents to bring him down in yet another internal party coup.
“I really believe the intel and the briefings that we’ve gotten,” Johnson said. “I believe that Xi and Vladimir Putin and Iran really are an axis of evil. I think they are in coordination on this. I think that Vladimir Putin would continue to march through Europe.
“I am going to allow an opportunity for every single member of the House to vote their conscience and their will,” he said, adding: “I’m willing to take a personal risk for that, because we have to do the right thing. And history will judge us.”
The implication of this statement is that former President Trump and his allies have sold out America and Europe to Vladimir Putin and his axis of evil. President Zelenskyy and the Ukrainian people are heroes, blocking Putin and Russia from invading Europe. President Biden has shown leadership in supporting Ukraine. Speaker Johnson has is supporting President Biden while rebuking Donald Trump because he believes Trump and his allies have aligned themselves with the axis of evil. And he won the day by a large margin.
Donald Trump suffered a crushing defeat today and Mike Johnson is not afraid of him. This creates a mid Atlantic sized rift in the GOP. If powerful GOP figures stop fearing Trump his political future is nil.