Kevin McCarthy has a weak excuse for rejecting an invitation to Ukraine
Tom Rogan
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House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) has repeatedly said he doesn’t want to give Ukraine a “blank check.”
He’s right to take that line. Although Ukraine requires and deserves U.S. support, tens of billions of taxpayer dollars have been committed to a nation with a deep corruption problem. Americans also deserve the Biden administration’s articulation of U.S. strategic objectives in this war. Still, McCarthy’s excuse for rejecting President Volodymyr Zelensky’s invitation to visit Kyiv is very weak.
McCarthy told CNN, “I don’t have to go to Ukraine to understand where there’s a blank check or not, I will continue to get my briefings and others, but I don’t have to go to Ukraine or Kyiv to see it.”
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First off, McCarthy is skirting the symbolism factor that he knows would be central to any such visit. The most powerful member of Congress, most senior elected Republican, and the second-in-line to the presidency, McCarthy has good reason to visit a nation currently resisting a war of annihilation. That trip would show America’s united support for a free people struggling to defend its sovereign existence. Russia isn’t playing games in Ukraine. Vladimir Putin has long made it explicitly clear that he seeks to eliminate Ukraine’s democratic sovereignty and absorb its citizenry under a greater Russian imperium.
In rejecting Zelensky’s invitation, McCarthy risks presenting his legitimate interest in financial prudence as a cover only for a lack of interest in supporting Ukraine. Because of the office he holds, McCarthy’s stance risks fueling a perception that the Republican Party cares little for Ukraine’s democratic survival. But the significant majority of Republicans do support Ukraine’s defensive war. Evinced by their pre-war push to supply Ukraine with more weapons more quickly, some in the GOP are more supportive of Ukraine than even the Biden administration.
McCarthy’s broader risk is that he will weaken Republicans’ credibility on China.
The central rationale for McCarthy’s and Republicans’ support for Taiwan, for example, is that America must stand with a friendly democracy that faces the threat of annihilation by a larger, more powerful neighbor. As long as McCarthy shows apparent ambivalence over standing with Ukraine, he presents himself as an unreliable advocate of freedom in either case. China may now look at McCarthy’s latest comments and think that by simply making it too expensive to support Taiwan, it can make McCarthy waver.
Yes, McCarthy is right to ask questions about where U.S. taxpayer support for Ukraine is going. He is right to ask how and where America intends to see this war end. But he is wrong to equivocate in taking a stand for human freedom.