Help for Ukraine: Michael McCall says some members don’t understand what’s at stake in Ukraine

Washington
CNN
–

The Republican chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee on Sunday sought to dampen speculation that the new GOP majority would be less likely to fund aid to the United States. Ukraine in its war against Russiathough he noted that some members of his own party may need convincing of the need for continued US support.

“I think there’s enough support on both sides of the aisle. Majority in the Democratic Party, majority in the Republican Party,” Texas Rep. Michael McCaul told CNN’s Dana Bash on the “State of the Union,” referring to the aid to Ukraine. But he added, “We have to educate our members. I don’t think they fully understand what is at stake.”

If Ukraine falls, President Xi of China will invade Taiwan. It’s Russia and China. Iran is placing drones in Crimea, and North Korea is sending its artillery shells to Russia. They have to understand the issue. And speaking of boundaries, they are not mutually exclusive. We can do both. We are a great country. “We can walk and chew gum at the same time,” McCall said.

Before grabbing the Speaker of the House, Rep. Kevin McCarthy He said in October That Republicans may withdraw their funding to Ukraine if they gain a majority in the House of Representatives. But after making those comments, the GOP leader I worked behind the scenes to reassure national security leaders at his conference that he had no plans to give up aid to Ukraine and was merely advocating greater oversight of any federal dollars.

But McCarthy runs with an incredibly slim majority, and senior Republican members of Congress who staunchly support Ukraine’s funding are watching warily while more isolationist-minded colleagues have increasingly spoken in recent weeks that they would scrutinize strongly if not outright oppose US money to Ukraine.

Meanwhile, Russia invades Ukraine I reached a critical moment. Time is running out for the United States and its allies to send more powerful weapons and train Ukrainian soldiers how to use them before the second, and perhaps decisive, year of the war, which could see Russia launch a new fierce offensive.

In recent days, so has the Biden administration Engaged in confrontation with Germany About sending tanks to Ukraine.

German officials have indicated that they will not send their Leopard tanks to Ukraine, nor will they allow any other country with German-made tanks in their inventory to do so, unless the United States also agrees to send M1 Abrams tanks to Kyiv — something the Pentagon said for months did. He has no intention of doing so given the logistical costs of maintaining it.

McCaul suggested on Sunday that the United States should send M1 Abrams tank To Ukraine, calling it a “game changer”.

Germany, he said, “won’t put one tank in until we give them the assurances, we’ll put our Abrams in. If we do it publicly, it’s going to cause a lot of Leopards to be released, because there are 10 other countries looking for Germany to sign over the tanks they’ve given them.”