Media

George Will: House Republicans voted to endanger ‘civilization’ with Ukraine aid opposition

George Will, a conservative columnist for The Washington Post, went after House Republicans who recently voted against more aid to Ukraine in a Wednesday opinion piece in the Post.

In the opinion, highlighted by Mediaite, Will said the 112 Republicans House Republicans who voted against Ukraine aid “voted last Saturday to endanger civilization,” calling them “ignoble.”

“Hoping to enhance their political security in their mostly safe seats, and for the infantile satisfaction of populist naughtiness (insulting a mostly fictitious ‘establishment’), they voted to assure [Russian President Vladimir Putin’s] attempt to erase a European nation,” Will wrote in his column.

Opponents of more aid to Ukraine included far-right hard-liners such as Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.), who went after House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) for his support of the bill, calling him a “traitor” after the lower chamber passed it.

“Johnson once again passed a bill with the help of Democrats while the majority of the Republican majority voted against it,” Greene said in a post on the social platform X. “Not only is Mike Johnson a traitor to our conference, he’s a traitor to our country.”

Will also questioned “how many” of the House Republicans who voted against Ukraine aid “know or care that more than half the $61 billion will fund restocking U.S. munitions inventories, as well as Ukraine’s purchases of U.S. weapons?”

President Biden signed a $95 billion emergency foreign aid package Wednesday that included aid for Ukraine and Israel in their ongoing wars. The president also took a swing at “MAGA Republicans” for the rocky path it has taken to send aid to Ukraine.

“To my desk, it was a difficult path. It should have been easier, and it should have gotten there sooner. But in the end, we did what America always does; we rose to the moment, came together, and we got it done,” Biden said after signing the legislation.

“For months, while MAGA Republicans were blocking aid, Ukraine’s been running out of artillery shells and ammunition. Meanwhile, Putin’s friends are keeping him well supplied,” he added, calling out Iran, North Korea and China for helping Russia ramp up airstrikes.