JD Vance says it’s ‘shameful’ politicians focus on Ukraine rather than the border  

Sen. JD Vance (R-Ohio) on Sunday ripped into congressional colleagues, who he argued are “obsessed” with funding for Ukraine, rather than the situation at the U.S. southern border.

“Well, I think it’s so shameful … that you have all of these people whose job it is to look after American people and to lead this country, but they’re obsessed with Eastern Europe and with Ukraine,” Vance said on Fox News’s “Sunday Morning Futures.” “Look, we have terrible problems because of our border. We have the fentanyl problem, the sex-trafficking problem.”

Vance was responding to Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer’s (D-N.Y.) remarks after last week’s meeting between congressional leaders — including House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) — and President Biden and Vice President Harris.

“The meeting on Ukraine was one of the most intense I have ever encountered in my many meetings in the Oval Office. The overwhelming sentiment in that meeting is, ‘We have got to do Ukraine now.’ There are other issues, including [the] border, which we should address, but not now,” Schumer said last week.

Schumer and other congressional leaders have mounted pressure on Johnson to bring the Senate’s $95 billion foreign aid package, which includes $60 billion for Ukraine, onto the House floor. Johnson has indicated he will not bring the bill to the floor, however, as it lacks the border security provisions many House GOP members have demanded in recent months.

“This is disgraceful. And if you are a leader of this country, of the United States of America, you should be getting fired up about that. You can believe that we should support Ukraine or not Ukraine, but if you are not most focused on the problems of this country, what are you doing in Senate leadership?” Vance said.

“I just think it’s so disgraceful. And, by the way … credit to Mike Johnson for being the one person in that meeting who’s standing there saying, ‘We have got to put the interest of our own citizens first.'”

Vance has been a vocal critic of additional funding for Ukraine before passing border security provisions.

In December, the Ohio Republican claimed lawmakers were trying to cut Social Security benefits in favor of more Ukraine aid, which he argued would be used by one of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky’s ministers to “buy a bigger yacht.”

Vance has also argued the United States needs to accept that Ukraine will likely need to “cede some territory” to Russia to end the fighting between the two countries.

Funding for the Eastern European nation has remained in limbo for nearly a year due to divisions among lawmakers. Congress has not passed a bill with funding for Ukraine since the end of 2022, and the Biden administration and defense officials have repeatedly warned that the U.S. is out of funding for the embattled country.