Joe Biden Criticizes House Republicans Over Ukraine Aid

President Joe Biden criticized House republicans on Monday over opposition to additional aid to Ukraine.

As the second anniversary of Russia launching its full-scale invasion of Ukraine approaches this month, U.S. support for additional Ukrainian aid is dwindling among Republicans in Congress.

The Senate passed a $95.34-billion foreign aid package last week which includes $61 billion for Ukraine in its war with Russia, $14 billion for Israel as it fights Hamas in Gaza, and $4.83 billion to help America's allies in the Indo-Pacific region. The package will also give $9.15 billion in humanitarian aid to conflict zones such as Gaza, the West Bank and Ukraine.

The vote was 70 to 29 with 22 Republicans voting for the additional funding. However, despite the support of the bill in the Senate, Speaker Mike Johnson, a Louisiana Republican, signaled that the aid package won't even make it onto the House floor.

"[In] the absence of having received any single border policy change from the Senate, the House will have to continue to work its own will on these important matters," Johnson said in a statement last week. "America deserves better than the Senate's status quo."

On Monday while talking to reporters outside the White House, Biden was asked by a reporter if he would go so far as to say House Republicans had Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny 's "blood on their hands" amid their opposition to Ukraine aid.

In response Biden said, "No, I wouldn't use that term. They're making a big mistake not responding. The way they're walking away from the threat of Russia, the way they're walking away from NATO, the way they're walking away from meeting our obligations, I've never seen anything like it."

Newsweek has reached out to the White House and Johnson's office via email for comment.

Navalny, who was possibly the most-prominent figure of the Russian political opposition to Russian President Vladimir Putin's rule, was reported dead by Russia's Federal Penitentiary Service on Friday after allegedly fainting following a walk. At the time of his death, he was serving a cumulative 3-decade sentence for fraud, inciting and financing extremism, and other charges that were widely considered politically motivated.

Biden's comments come after he urged Johnson during a White House speech last week to take up the foreign-aid package after the Senate passed the bill .

"I call on the speaker to let the full House speak its mind and not allow a minority of the most extreme voices in the House to block this bill even from being voted on," the president said.

"This bipartisan bill sends a clear message to Ukrainians and to our partners and to our allies around the world — America can be trusted, America can be relied upon and America stands up for freedom," Biden continued. "We stand strong for our allies, we never bow down to anyone, and certainly not to Vladimir Putin."

Concerns over the aid package has grown as White House National Security Council spokesman John Kirby previously warned that American troops may be killed without U.S. military aid to Ukraine.

Appearing on CNN This Morning last week, Kirby said to host Phil Mattingly, "Anybody that thinks that Putin's not serious about those threats needs to look a little closer at what he's been saying...he absolutely bristles at NATO on his border, he absolutely bristles at the idea that NATO could be stronger and more relevant, which it is right now. And he has threatened some of our NATO allies.

"We got to take this seriously, because I'll tell you if you think it costs a lot right now to support Ukraine, think about the cost to American blood and treasure if, in fact, he goes after our NATO ally and then you got American troops on the ground involved in combat," Kirby said.

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