See below for video and a transcript of Rep. Abigail Spanberger (D-VA07) speaking with her constituents and explaining VERY well why U.S. aid to Ukraine is so crucial. There’s so much disinformation out there, in part put out by the Russians and in part by their “useful idiots” in the West, so it’s crucial for pro-democracy leaders to speak out clearly and strongly FOR defending Ukraine against Putin’s barbaric, 100% unprovoked aggression.
“Very serious question…related to funding for Ukraine…You mentioned it in your question, but I’m going to restate it: the United States supporting Ukraine is…us taking…actions that are wholly consistent with democratic values of preserving and protecting freedom. It is also in our best national security interest to support Ukrainian efforts to defeat the Russian army. Russia invaded Ukraine, a sovereign nation, and our efforts to support them – providing them with communications aid…intelligence support…weapons system and lethal aid that they need, their soldiers need on the ground to wage that war, is vitally important to their ability to defeat Putin’s Army and end this war. It is also vitally important to our own national security interest. The minute if it were to occur that Russia were to defeat Ukraine and to continue on into Poland or to…decide to head northward into Finland, take those sorts of aggressive actions, at that point in time it becomes a NATO challenge. At that point in time, it is the United States’s military engagement. And so I just cannot state strongly enough that this is not a question of us getting involved in other people’s battles, this is us supporting another country’s fight for democracy, in doing so ensuring that we don’t have to fight battles. The readout from the meeting with the president does not appear that it was particularly successful…This is a bipartisan issue that garners bipartisan support; Senator Mitch McConnell…Senator Schumer; certainly on the House side, broad broad support…Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries…a broad number of Republicans in the House of Representatives support continued support to Ukraine, particularly those like the chair of the intelligence committee, which is a committee I serve on…[they] understand how vitally important the provision of US aid is. And I know that I have spent a lot of time essentially agreeing with the the frame of your question, but for anyone listening, it is so incredibly important that people recognize that it’s in our US national security interests to support Ukraine and it has broad bipartisan support. And the thing standing in our way at this moment is a Speaker of the House who is beholden to a small group…a small faction within the Republican Party that is threatening essentially the Speaker of the House. And so it is for that reason that we have not yet seen an aid bill come forward, either standalone for Ukraine or…paired with…aid for Israel or humanitarian aid or aid for Taiwan or even financial support to the southern border, as we know is necessary. So I will continue to advocate… to vote for support to Ukraine…but the primary crux of the challenge right now is that we have a Speaker of the House who will not bring it. And I’ve been working with and frankly relying on my Republican counterparts to make clear to him why this is so incredibly important. The votes are there to pass it without question, it’s really just an issue of if and when he will bring it.”
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