Putin ally calls speaker of U.S. House ‘our Johnson’
A Russian state-run media host recently referred to House Speaker Mike Johnson as “our Johnson” while discussing the continued stalling of military aid to Ukraine.
Johnson, a Louisiana Republican who ascended to the speakership after the ousting of Kevin McCarthy in October, has long pledged to put forward a bill to approve further rounds of military aid to Ukraine in its ongoing war against Russia. Such a bill has been routinely advocated for by President Joe Biden, with Ukrainian leaders warning that they will lose the war without it.
The matter has faced strong headwinds, however, in the bitterly divided Republican House conference, with further-right members like Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia strongly opposing any continued funding for Ukraine, and others wanting to hold such funding back until stricter U.S.Mexico border laws have been passed.
Johnson has been seen in some corners as stalling on aid to protect his position, considering that Greene has threatened to put forward a motion to vacate the speakership if he moves forward with Ukraine aid.
On Friday, Julia Davis, the founder of the Russia Media Monitor watchdog group, shared a clip from one of the Moscow’s state-run news programs, in which pundits touched on a planned meeting between Johnson and former President Donald Trump at the latter’s Mara-Lago residence in Florida, with one guest suggesting that Trump’s influence could be the deciding factor in the fate of further assistance to Ukraine.
During the discussion, host Olga Skabeeva interjected into the conversation about the House speaker to say, “That would be our Johnson.”
“State TV experts discussed Mike Johnson’s meeting with Trump as the deciding factor in whether Ukraine will receive stalled U.S. funding,” Davis wrote in her post sharing the clip to X on Friday. “Referring to Mike Johnson, state TV host Olga Skabeeva claimed him as ‘theirs,’ just like Trump.”
Newsweek sent an email to Johnson’s office on Saturday morning for comment.
Johnson has recently stressed that he intends to put forward a bill for further Ukraine aid funding, as well as for aid for Israel and Taiwan.
“Mike Johnson is not working for Republicans, he’s not helping Republicans, he’s not even listening to Republicans. Mike Johnson is doing the Deep State’s dirty work,” Greene wrote in a post to X last week. “We need a new Speaker of the House!”
Trump, the presumptive 2024 GOP nominee for president, praised Johnson’s performance after their meeting at Mar-aLago on Friday.
He also suggested that any further aid for
Ukraine should be given in the form of a loan, a proposition that has circulated amongst Republicans recently and been met with criticism and uncertainty.
“When you’re dealing with a country that is fighting for its life, like Ukraine… talking about loans as opposed to providing the necessary infusion of cash is only going to make the economic problems of that country worse,” Jake Sullivan, a national security adviser to Biden, said in February.