Donald Trump, who is not the president, is using a minority of Republicans to block aid to Ukraine, to undermine the actual president’s foreign policy, and to weaken American power and credibility.

    • silence7@slrpnk.netOP
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      9 months ago

      Republicans control a majority of the House of Representatives, giving them the power to block spending. They do what he says.

      • snooggums@midwest.social
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        9 months ago

        Why does the article focus on the small minority of Republicans when the rest of the Republicans are complicit in blocking the aid too? Only a few Republicans need to vote in favor of the aid to pass.

      • chonglibloodsport@lemmy.world
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        9 months ago

        That’s the proximate cause. The ultimate cause is that the Republicans stand no chance if they alienate Trump’s base. Many of them would prefer it if he went away but they can’t make it happen.

      • Buffalox@lemmy.world
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        9 months ago

        AFAIK Democrats had the option to elect a moderate Republican as speaker, but instead they allowed Johnson to be elected. So Democrats could as I see it, have prevented the shitshow the House is now.
        It’s allowed because Democrats failed to prevent it. And instead allowed the MAGA crowd to control the House with their majority among Republicans.

        • silence7@slrpnk.netOP
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          9 months ago

          I don’t believe there was some moderate Republican who would have gone along with this

          • Buffalox@lemmy.world
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            9 months ago

            OK, maybe I misunderstood, but I’m pretty sure there were Republicans who aired the idea, and Democrats shot it down immediately.
            But maybe it was just media talk IDK?

            • silence7@slrpnk.netOP
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              9 months ago

              It was pretty much media talk. The Republican Party purged their moderates during the 2022 primary

        • dhork@lemmy.world
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          9 months ago

          There was an interesting news conference with Hakeem Jeffries yesterday where he said that its possible that Democrats might vote to save Johnson if there is a vote to vacate the chair due to putting the Ukraine bill on the floor. Jeffries said specifically its because Johnson hasn’t reneged on any promises yet. It’s clear that Democrats didn’t trust Kevin as far as they could throw him. But they are signaling to Johnson that he might be protected if he did what they wanted.

          To be fair, I think a majority of Republicans also want the Ukraine/Israel deal, too. It’s just the lunatic fringe of the party willing to abandon Ukraine. (I think we know why.)

          Edit: found it

          https://thehill.com/homenews/house/4498643-jeffries-declines-to-take-position-on-saving-speaker-from-conservative-coup/

          The headline says “declines to take a position”, but since his position on McCarthy was “Hell No”, this is still better for Johnson.

          Also:

          Jeffries Suggests Democrats Would Save Johnson From Removal Over Ukraine Aid https://www.nytimes.com/2024/02/28/us/politics/hakeem-jeffries-mike-johnson.html

          That one has more of the quotes about Not Trusting Kevin

        • norbert@kbin.social
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          9 months ago

          Doing anything to place blame on Democrats instead of the people who actually elected the shitgibbon I see.

    • UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world
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      9 months ago

      Because the Republican House Reps listen to him and want to appeal to his political base. And because right-wing news media pushes a ton of Trump-friendly media advocating against further funding of the Ukraine War.

      If you really get under the hood of this thing, the Republican positions is that Americans should be allied with Russia and at war with Ukraine because Ukrainians are gay woke liberal pedophile soyboys, while Russians are Based Western TradCath Chads. What gets even nuttier is that Republicans still despise China, and believe they need to ally with Russia against China in a war over the South Pacific.

      Trump’s not even really leading on this issue so much as echoing what the right-wing press regularly puts out. The real hand behind the throne is a cartel of industrialist billionaire hold-overs from the John Bircher movement of the 1960s, plus their larger network of talk radio, TV, newspaper, and social media talking heads parroting their message.