Navalny was willing to take on Vladimir Putin and risk his life. Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson is so afraid of losing his speakership that he caves to Marjorie Taylor Greene

Upon the news of Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny’s death, House Speaker Mike Johnson denounced Vladimir Putin.

“As Congress debates the best path forward to support Ukraine, the United States and our partners must be using every means available to cut off Putin’s ability to fund his unprovoked war in Ukraine and aggression against the Baltic states,” he said in a statement.

Of course, Johnson’s words would hold much more weight if he had actually put through the aid package for Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan that the Senate passed on the floor of the House of Representatives. Indeed, as the Senate labored late into the night on Monday and into the wee hours of Tuesday to pass that aid bill, Johnson summarily killed the bill because it did not address immigration at the US-Mexico border.

This came after Johnson and the rest of House Republican leadership blew up a bipartisan agreement that would have included aggressive restrictions to immigration in exchange for aid to Israel and Ukraine. Johnson, like most of the Republican Party, did so in the service of Donald Trump after he came out in opposition to the deal — despite the fact it would give him sweeping authority to deport migrants if he became president again.

  • RubberDuck@lemmy.world
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    9 months ago

    Does it matter? But in this case he wants to campaign on the border. Thus passing a border bill would hurt him and help Biden.

    He’s such a narcissist that even if people are whispering in his ear, he will believe he thought of it himself and do it. The effect is the same.

    I’m not saying he is some mastermind… (although bankrupting a casino does take skill.) But he will endorse the opponent of any Republican that opposes him in an election. Notany lower politicians fear the other party, they fear their own party endorsing their replacement because many elections are not even close but safely D or R.