During an interview with former Fox News host Tucker Carlson published on December 6, Kentucky Representative Thomas Massie, a Republican opposed to sending any more money to Ukraine, accused the U.S. Congress of continuing to vote to send billions of dollars to Ukraine as a huge portion of that money eventually is laundered back into the U.S. military-industrial complex.
When questioned about why Washington continued to push for more funding for Ukraine despite the reality that Kyiv’s forces “cannot win,” Massie, who has repeatedly opposed funding Kyiv’s military operations, alleged that a huge amount of the funds that are deployed to Ukraine end up “enriching” people within particular U.S. districts and “stockholders, some of whom are congressmen.”
“You know, people are getting rich, so let’s do it. It’s an immoral argument, but it is one. But that’s not the argument they’re making in public,” he declared, noting that those backing the funding of Ukraine with U.S. tax dollars have been contending that it is a “moral obligation” to do so.
“You’re a bad person if you’re against this,” he complained, alluding to a statement recently made by U.S. National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan, who indicated that failing to support “the fight for freedom in Ukraine” meant letting Russian President Vladimir Putin “prevail.”
“But no one mentions that we have abetted the killing of an entire generation of Ukrainian men that will not be replaced. To fight a war that they cannot win,” Massie declared.
In order to support the U.S. government’s proposals on Ukraine aid, the congressman claimed, a person has to be “economically illiterate and morally deficient.”
“How could Washington possibly send tens of billions more to sleazy oligarchs in Ukraine now that the whole enterprise has been revealed as a fruitless, corrupt and incredibly destructive disaster?” Carlson wondered in the introduction to his interview with Massie.
U.S. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin reportedly told members of Congress that unless they approve more funding to Ukraine, the United States would have to fight Russia, Carlson also revealed on December 7.
Carlson reported that Austin spoke at a classified briefing for members of the House of Representatives on December 6, and at one point told members that “we’ll send your uncles, cousins, and sons to fight Russia” unless Kyiv obtains the $60 billion in aid requested by the White House.
“The Biden administration is openly threatening Americans over Ukraine,” Carlson posted on X, summarizing Austin’s message as “Pay the oligarchs or we’ll kill your kids.”
“He really said this?” X owner Elon Musk asked.
“He really did. Confirmed,” Carlson replied.
Congress is presently debating on whether to accept a $111 billion “national security supplemental request,” which includes funding for Ukraine as well as Israel. Republicans have said they would not let the bill pass unless Washington first increases spending on the drastic security situation at the U.S.-Mexico border, increases immigration controls, and overhauls asylum and parole laws in immigration proceedings.
Last week, former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev also proclaimed that Washington’s continued support for Ukraine had nothing to do with protecting “democracy” or combatting Russia, but instead was about making profits and overhauling the U.S. military-industrial complex.
Meanwhile, U.S. President Joe Biden has lashed out against Republicans such as Massie, who have objected to aid packages for Ukraine, lambasting the failure to support Kyiv as “absolutely crazy” and “against U.S. interests.” Biden has repeatedly pledged that Washington would support Kyiv for “as long as it takes” in its conflict with Russia.
On December 5, Biden said that the refusal of congressional Republicans to provide more aid to Ukraine to fight Russia — unless the Democrats agree to address the issue of US-Mexico border security — is “just wrong,” following a tumultuous briefing that his senior officials gave the Senate.
“The failure to support Ukraine is just absolutely crazy,” Biden told reporters. “It’s against U.S. interests.”
The speaker of the Republican-controlled House, Mike Johnson, has said that GOP legislators would only approve more money for Kyiv if U.S. border security is accounted for and the White House is able to outline a clear plan for dealing with the Russia-Ukraine conflict.
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer castigated Republican members for “hijacking” the meeting, which took place in private, and using it for grandstanding instead. Some senators, including Mitt Romney (R-Utah), walked out early. Romney said Biden’s people “were saying things we’ve all known” from papers and were not “willing to actually discuss what it takes to get a deal done.”
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky was poised to make a personal appeal to the senators via videolink, but canceled his meeting at the last moment. Ukrainian MP Aleksandra Ustinova hinted in a social media post that the apparently unassailable Republican resistance was the reason why Zelensky did not attend this week’s meeting.
Although “Ukraine fatigue” has settled in among some congressional Republicans, many of the party’s known hawks concur with Biden’s allegation that sending money to Ukraine was in the interests of the United States.
Republican chairs of the Foreign Affairs, Armed Services, and Intelligence Committees in the House have welcomed the White House talking points in a memo aiming to convince their party members to back the Ukraine funding bill, as per a report by left-wing outlet Axios. Senator Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), a vocal advocate for Kyiv’s cause, maintained that the White House would “get a robust Republican vote” if it offered real border security, as demanded by the GOP.
On December 4, National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan said that lawmakers had a choice between backing “the fight for freedom in Ukraine” and letting Russian President Vladimir Putin “prevail.”
Andrey Yermak, Zelensky’s chief of staff, said on December 5 that there was a “very high possibility” that his country would lose without American help, in a speech to the U.S. Institute of Peace, a Washington-based think tank.
Moscow regards the Ukraine conflict as part of a U.S. proxy war against Russia, in which the Ukrainians serve as “cannon fodder.”
