President Joe Biden challenged House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) and other Republican lawmakers Friday to support his supplemental funding bill in a statement commemorating the two-year anniversary of Russia’s war on Ukraine.
Biden’s statement accompanied the announcement of a new sanctions package targeting 500 Russian persons and entities over both their role in the war and their connections to the death of former Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny, whom Biden called a “courageous anti-corruption activist.”
“This bill provides urgent funding for Ukraine. It also invests in America’s own defense industrial base. It passed overwhelmingly in the Senate, and there is no question that, if the Speaker called a vote, it would pass quickly in the House,” the president wrote in a statement. “Congress knows that by supporting this bill, we can strengthen security in Europe, strengthen our security at home, and stand up to Putin. Opposing this bill only plays into his hands.”
“History is watching. The failure to support Ukraine at this critical moment will not be forgotten,” Biden said. “Now is the time for us to stand strong with Ukraine and stand united with our Allies and partners. Now is the time to prove that the United States stands up for freedom and bows down to no one.”
The president has spent recent days levying attacks against not only Johnson, but also Russian President Vladimir Putin himself.
“He believed that he could easily bend the will and break the resolve of a free people. That he could roll into a sovereign nation, and the world would roll over. That he could shake the foundations of security in Europe and beyond,” Biden wrote Friday. “Two years later, we see even more vividly what we’ve known since day one: Putin miscalculated badly.”
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The president gave an alternative take on Putin while campaigning in California earlier this week, calling the Russian leader a “crazy SOB” at a campaign fundraiser.