According to those in political circles who are instructed by the intelligence community, funding for Ukraine is the highest national priority. As an outcome we see all the DC politicians and beltway pundits pushing the same story, funding for Ukraine is the highest priority.
The key politicians within the dynamic exist inside information silos, essentially control mechanisms, where the intelligence community (IC) constructs reality by briefing the politicians about what is going on in the world. The IC tells the politicians what is happening, defines the importance and instructs the politicians on the priorities. The IC is never challenged because ultimately the IC has “seven ways to Sunday” to target the politicians if any non-compliance is identified.
Speaker Mike Johnson is one of the “gang-of-eight” members within the legislative branch. The Go8 are briefed and controlled by the IC, using the exact same intelligence given to the President. Speaker Johnson has the funding of Ukraine as his top priority, because the IC officials who set priorities have told him it must be. WATCH (prompted):
(Via Fox News) – […] “When we return after this period, we’ll be moving a product. But it’s going to, I think, have some important innovations,” Johnson told Fox News’ “Sunday Night in America with Trey Gowdy.”
Both the House and Senate are currently on the second week of a two-week recess, when lawmakers are working in their home districts. The House is back on Tuesday, April 9.
Johnson said he has been “working to build consensus” on a supplemental national security and foreign aid package, though he signaled it would look different from prior attempts. He said the House would “be moving it right after the district work period.”
It comes after Republicans killed a $118 billion package with aid for Ukraine, Taiwan, Israel and the U.S. border earlier this year, arguing it did not go far enough to tackle the ongoing border crisis. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., and President Biden have been pressuring Johnson to take up a slimmer $95 billion package without border measures.
“We’ve been trying to use that as the only leverage we have to force change on the border. We’re still trying to force the president to use his executive authority, and most of the American people know that he has that authority. He’s not using it,” Johnson argued.
On Ukraine specifically, he said, “There’s a lot of things that we should do that make more sense and I think we’ll have consensus around.”
Johnson highlighted three details specifically – the first being the REPO Act introduced in the House last year by Foreign Affairs Chairman Michael McCaul, R-Texas, and Rep. Marcy Kaptur, D-Ohio, which would liquidate seized Russian assets and send that as assistance to Ukraine.
The speaker also pointed out that former President Trump recently floated the idea of aid to Ukraine in the form of a loan, though he did not mention specific terms save for Kyiv paying Washington back if they win the war against Russia.
[…] Johnson described the third proposal, “And then, you know, we want to unleash American energy. We want to have natural gas exports that will help unfund Vladimir Putin’s war effort there.” (read more)
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Latest US POLLING – […] “poll shows that two years after Russia’s initial invasion, the Ukraine war has become a partisan dividing line: Majorities of Democrats think it’s extremely or very important to prevent Russia from seizing more Ukrainian territory, to negotiate a permanent ceasefire between the two countries, help Ukraine regain its land and provide general aid to its military, while less than half of Republicans and Independents agree.” (read more)