On Monday’s broadcast of Newsmax TV’s “The Balance,” House Speaker Rep. Mike Johnson (R-LA) stated that “What we’ve been talking about with Ukraine and in the national security supplemental, which also includes Israel and the Indo-Pacific region, is some of the new concepts that you’ve been hearing about,” like seizing the assets of Russian oligarchs to fund lethal aid to Ukraine, structuring foreign aid as a loan, and “additional sanctions on Russia and energy exports from the U.S., because that takes the fuel out of Vladimir Putin’s war machine.” Johnson also stated that border provisions will be attached.
Johnson said, “The number one issue in America morally, constitutionally, legally, we have to get the border secured. That’s what House Republicans are committed to, and that’s always been the top priority. So, it’s front of mind. It’s front of the conversation. What we’ve been talking about with Ukraine and in the national security supplemental, which also includes Israel and the Indo-Pacific region, is some of the new concepts that you’ve been hearing about, the REPO Act with regard to lethal aid to Ukraine, if you could use the seized assets of Russian oligarchs to fund that, that’s a no-brainer. That’s not taxpayer dollars to do that. We talked about the loan concept. President Trump has talked a lot about this in recent days, where, if we’re going to do foreign aid, we do it in terms of a loan instead of just a gift. We’re talking about additional sanctions on Russia and energy exports from the U.S., because that takes the fuel out of Vladimir Putin’s war machine. So, there [are] a lot of things that are very conservative in our approach, and that’s what we’re talking about and we’re putting that package together, trying to figure out what the contours of it are.”
Host Eric Bolling then asked, “Is it feasible that this other bill or bills that you’re going to put forward regarding foreign funding, foreign aid, will [precede] border funding?”
Johnson responded, “No, look, we passed H.R. 2, our comprehensive border security measure –.”
Bolling then cut in to say that H.R. 2 isn’t going anywhere and he’s wondering if any new legislation wouldn’t include the border.
Johnson responded, “No, well, we’re trying to keep that all together, and that’s been the stipulation from the very beginning.”
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