Fox News anchor Bret Baier confronted Senator Jim Risch, an Idaho Republican, on Sunday over his vote in opposition to further army help to Ukraine, asking him to “defend that vote.”
In whole, 31 GOP senators voted in opposition to the help, which was handed as a part of an omnibus $1.5 trillion appropriations package deal. While most of the Republicans stated they supported sending further help, they criticized the shortage of time they got to evaluate the huge invoice that supplied funding for a variety of various authorities priorities, and would have supported a focused Ukraine invoice as an alternative.
During an interview with Fox News Sunday, Risch contended that the U.S. needs to be sending surface-to-air missiles to Ukraine to assist them set-up their very own no-fly zone. Baier then identified that Risch had simply voted in opposition to sending army help to the Eastern European nation as Russian President Vladimir Putin continues to press his internationally condemned invasion of the neighboring nation.
Fox News Sunday/screenshot
“Senator, you voted against the omnibus and in there is aid for Ukraine. So you’re talking about aid going into Ukraine, but you voted against that,” the host stated. “Defend that vote.”
“If it was just that straight up vote this would have been absolute no-brainer for me,” Risch responded. “I support that 100 percent,” the Idaho Republican continued, noting that he was in opposition to the “other pork” included within the general package deal.
“Whenever we have these doggone big bills you’re damned if you do and damned if you don’t when you vote yes or no,” he stated. “I hope that no one would take this as not being in support of the Ukrainian people.”
In addition to Risch, a number of the GOP senators who voted in opposition to the invoice included: Ted Cruz of Texas, Steve Daines of Montana, Josh Hawley of Missouri, Rand Paul of Kentucky, Mitt Romney of Utah, Marco Rubio of Florida, Ben Sasse of Nebraska, Rick Scott of Florida, Thom Tillis of North Carolina and Pat Toomey of Pennsylvania.
“Forcing us to swallow the bad to get the good is concerning, unsustainable, and no way to govern over the long-term. While I strongly support providing Ukrainians desperately needed aid, I ultimately could not support the rest of this bloated spending bill for the aforementioned reasons,” Romney stated in an announcement about his vote.
Rubio shared comparable ideas about his opposition to the omnibus package deal on Twitter.
“We should have passed funding for Ukraine two weeks ago,” he tweeted. “But instead, Democrats held it hostage so it could ram through thousands of earmarks, green new deal programs, the hiring of 10,000 IRS agents & other woke priorities buried in thousands of pages. This is a ridiculous process.”
Of the $13.6 billion finally accredited for Ukraine, over $6.5 billion will go to the Pentagon to be dispersed. Another $3.9 billion will go to the State Department to offer humanitarian help to Ukrainians, and an additional $2.8 billion will go to the U.S. Agency for International Development because it offers help as effectively.