By: C. William Hanson Jr.

Let us fast forward in this issue to springtime, 2024, with impressions drawn from my visit last week to Washington, D.C.  We hear almost every day now, at least in broadcasts by responsible news organizations such as NPR and the BBC which provide responsible coverage, a heart wrenching dissonance of increasing chaos.  Along the same lines, The Financial Times recently reported , “Ukraine faces a critical gap in western  ammunition needed to withstand Russian attacks, officials have warned, as US assistance runs out and Europe fails to hit its own targets for increased arms production;” and a leading NATO official adds, “It is a desperate situation on the front lines for the Ukrainians, far worse than they are letting on” (Ukraine Faces “gap in the Hose” as Western Ammunition Dries Up, http://www.ft.com/content/6594e548-8b2e-4c95-a589-7d9e358062d2. Accessed 26 Mar. 2024).

Yet one week ago CBS News reported, “Congress’ two-week recess kicked off Monday …..the fate of U.S. aid to Ukraine, which is running low on ammunition in its war with Russia, remains unsettled”

At issue has been the bipartisan $95.3 billion foreign aid package which would provide  assistance for Ukraine and Israel and Gaza, legislation which in mid February was passed by the Senate.  The crisis grew when House Speaker Mike Johnson announced  that he does not plan to bring the matter  to the House floor. In his announcement the Speaker was embracing the position which Trump is advocating, according to CNN, which reports that “Trump Won’t Say If He Wants Russia or Ukraine to Win” (“Trump Won’t Say If He Wants Russia or Ukraine to Win the War. See Zelensky’s Reaction.” CNN, Cable News Network, 26 Feb. 2024, www.cnn.com/videos/world/2024/02/26/zelensky-sot-donald-trump-ukraine-russia-war-collins-vpx.cnn). The foreign aid package includes billions of dollars to support Ukraine in addition to security assistance for Israel, as well as humanitarian assistance for civilians in Gaza, the West Bank and Ukraine, among other priorities.  A dysfunction of the House Republican majority has burgeoned with a series Republican resignations, most recently the resignation effective April 19 by Representative Gallagher from Wisconsin, which cuts the Republican majority to one spare vote.  Following rumors Speaker Johnson might proceed to allow a vote on  funding for Ukraine, Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene on March 22nd filed a motion for his ouster.  Greene, who represents Georgia’s fourteenth congressional district following her election in 2020 and re-election in 2022, has promoted antisemitic, white supremacist, and far-right conspiracy theories.

In the past she has called for the execution of prominent Democratic Party politicians, including Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama (Steck, Em; Kaczynski, Andrew, January 26, 2021. “Marjorie Taylor Greene indicated support for executing prominent Democrats in 2018 and 2019 before running for Congress”. CNN. Archived from the original on March 3, 2021).   Greene’s election campaigns received support from Trump, Trump’s former chief of staff Mark Meadows, Barb Van Andel-Gaby,  who is the current chair of the board of The Heritage Foundation, and other MAGA Republicans. In different times and circumstances Greene might more readily be dismissed as a laughing stock.  For example, on February 9, 2022, while discussing the police guarding the Capitol building, Greene called them “gazpacho police”, confusing the cold Spanish soup with the Gestapo (Steck, Em, and Andrew Kaczynski. “Marjorie Taylor Greene Indicated Support for Executing Prominent Democrats in 2018 and 2019 before Running for Congress | CNN Politics.” CNN, Cable News Network, 27 Jan. 2021, www.cnn.com/2021/01/26/politics/marjorie-taylor-greene-democrats-violence/index.html).

But my friends in metro D.C., whom I consider to be in the know, find the current political situation to be no laughing matter.  Their mood is  apprehensive about the possible election of Donald Trump, though they do not consider it likely.  And just what is the Heritage Foundation from which MAGA Republicans obtain support?  I had heard the foundation’s name, but a friend who lives on Capitol Hill pointed out within a few minutes walk of the Capitol Building an enormous and growing complex of buildings which houses this foundation, an organization which has annual revenue exceeding one hundred million dollars.  It was  formerly a more mainstream conservative think tank which in the past four years has increasingly embraced extremist  claims and positions.  Currently the foundation opposes aid to Ukraine, has promoted false claims of voter fraud in the 2020 Presidential election, advocates the adoption of more hurdles to voting, and rejects the scientific consensus on climate change.  The foundation’s capture by the Trump’s  “alternative reality” allies in recent years has led to the exodus of mainstream Republicans.  These have included, for example, former Vice President Mike Pence,  Thomas Spoehr LTG (ret.), and the  Afro-American Kay Coles James, who served the director for the United States Office of Personnel Management under President George W. Bush and later as president of the Heritage Foundation until 2021.

The replacement of mainstream Republican leaders at the Heritage Foundation mirrors a similar Congressional change, wherein the more traditional neoconservative leaders have been departing, either following their defeat in primary elections as in the case of Liz Cheney, who previously held the third highest ranking position in House Republican leadership, or by voluntary retirement, as in the case of current Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, who has announced his retirement effective November of this year.  His historic speech on the floor of the Senate on February 13, 2021, reflects the views of traditional Republicans generally:

Actually in the short term,  prospects appear somewhat brighter than they did one month ago passage in the House of the Senate bill which includes aid for Ukraine.  Journalist Bryan Metzger writes that Greene’s motion to oust Speaker Johnson may be precipitating the already  long delayed House vote;  this could result from a deal providing that Democrats will join a vote to defeat Greene’s  motion in exchange for the Speaker’s agreeing to bring up the Ukraine aid  bill.   Along these lines, Republican Rep. Mike McCaul, the chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee and a supporter of Ukraine aid, said on CBS on Sunday that Johnson has committed to holding a vote on Ukraine aid “after Easter”

(Metzger, Bryan. “Marjorie Taylor Greene’s Threat to Oust Mike Johnson Could Backfire and Allow Congress to Pass More Ukraine Aid.” Business Insider, Business Insider, http://www.businessinsider.com/mtg-threat-oust-mike-johnson-backfire-ukraine-aid-2024-3. Accessed 30 Mar. 2024).  

A House vote to authorize the aid to Ukraine can provide a temporary respite from the dangerous and insane policies advocated by Trump. Nevertheless we must also hope to be spared the nightmare of a second Trump Presidency. Caleb Ecarma, writing in Vanity Fair, reports that the new Trump White House staff and cabinet will not embrace individuals like the military officers and mostly seasoned professionals who often filled these positions in his previous administration, but instead “a cadre of proven loyalists” such as Steve Bannon, Tucker Carlson, and Marjorie Taylor Greene, selected primarily “to help make his revenge fantasies a reality” (Ecarma, Caleb. “What a Trump Cabinet Might Look like If He’s Reelected.” Vanity Fair, Vanity Fair, 7 Dec. 2023, www.vanityfair.com/news/what-trump-cabinet-might-look-like-if-reelected).

Now to look ahead to our issue which will be published on May 1st, you will receive reports from the Ukraine Action Summit which I shall be attending this month in Washington, D.C.  For a glimpse  of what the meeting will likely provide, please see a short film (90 seconds in duration) of the previous such a summit,  held on October 22 last fall:

Then in June I shall again be reporting from Ukraine.