More than 30 Senate Republicans recently voted against a measure sought by President Joe Biden to increase military aid to help Ukraine resist Russia’s invasion. Now, most of those senators are excoriating Biden for not doing enough to help Ukraine. What’s wrong with this picture?
Missouri Sen. Josh Hawley is, as usual, among the leaders of this parade of hypocrisy, accusing the administration last week of “dragging its feet” and hounding Biden to “step up” on the issue. He was specifically referring there to the administration’s reluctance to send Poland’s MiG jet fighters to Ukraine — a position this newspaper has criticized as appearing too timid — but Hawley is the wrong messenger for even the right message on this topic.
Not only did Hawley vote against last week’s omnibus spending bill that included $13.6 billion in new aid to Ukraine, he also was an early voice against substantial U.S. involvement at all. He wrote to Secretary of State Antony Blinken in early February that aggression from China, not Russia, should be America’s primary focus. He also called for the administration to drop its support for Ukraine’s entry into NATO, essentially demanding the appeasement of Russia on that issue.
