Sen. Vance expresses concern about Speaker’s viewpoint on Ukraine funding

House Speaker Mike Johnson’s recent comments on Ukraine funding are “concerning,” says Sen. JD Vance, R-Ohio.

“To his great credit, the new speaker has been a stalwart on the Ukraine issue — voting consistently against an endless conflict with no plan from the Biden administration,” Vance said on the social media platform X, formerly known as Twitter. “It’s concerning to see him change his tune so quickly after being elevated to this role.”

President Joe Biden met with new House speaker and Democrat leader Hakeem Jeffries at the White House on Thursday to discuss his request for nearly $106 billion for Israel, Ukraine and other national security needs.

Johnson, a staunch conservative allied with Donald Trump, has shown little interest in providing additional money from Congress to support Ukraine in its war against Russia.

Later, the new Republican speaker insisted Congress is “not going to abandon” Ukraine.

Instead, Johnson said House Republicans would first bring a separate bill to provide $14.5 billion in aid to Israel, but they need more information about the Biden administration’s Ukraine strategy.

“[W]e can’t allow Vladimir Putin to prevail in Ukraine because I don’t believe it would stop there, and it would probably encourage and empower China to perhaps make a move on Taiwan. We have these concerns,” Johnson said.

But he said, “We must stand with our important ally in the Middle East and that’s Israel.”

Vance is skeptical of aid to Ukraine, but fully supports Israel’s war against Islamic militant group Hamas.

“Israel has a clear plan, and we have a clear means of helping them to fulfill that plan — by providing very specific munitions to enable Israel to conduct a limited operation with a view to neutralizing the threat Hamas poses to Israel. We have no such plan for the Russia-Ukraine War,” Vance wrote in a memo he circulated earlier this week among senators.