South Florida Sun-Sentinel (Sunday)
Congressional GOP gains could put stress on Biden
Possible probes may examine Ukraine, Afghan withdrawal
WASHINGTON — A Republican takeover of the House or Senate in the midterm elections this week could complicate the Biden administration’s efforts to defend Ukraine and lead to public interrogations of officials involved in the 2021 U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan among other things.
Congress has more leverage over domestic affairs than over foreign policy, thanks to the president’s broad powers as commander in chief. But Democrats are bracing for a far more complicated — and, they fear, more politicized — national security environment if Republicans control legislative calendars, committee chairmanships and spending power.
Most worrisome for the Biden administration is the prospect that Republicans might slow the torrent of money and weapons to Ukraine that began before Russia invaded in February. Rep. Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., the minority leader, said last month that a Republican-led House would be unwilling to approve “blank check” assistance for Ukraine.
Congress has approved
$60 billion in aid for Ukraine since the war began on Feb.
24, with no explicit conditions. But some Republicans, encouraged by prominent conservatives such as Fox News host Tucker Carlson, are increasingly questioning the price tag of U.S. aid to the country.
Many conservatives, however, doubt that McCarthy’s comment and those of some Republican candidates mean that a Republican-led House would constrain U.S. support.
Danielle Pletka, a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute and a former Republican Senate foreign policy staff member, called McCarthy’s remark “a completely empty, pandering statement.”
“I think that was just a toe in the water of this growing divide inside the Republican Party between the traditionalist, internationalist wing and the populist, Orban wing of the party,” said Pletka, referring to Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, a strongman who has become a hero to many conservative supporters of former President Donald Trump.
One possible scenario would be a new Republican emphasis on oversight to ensure that U.S. weapons and aid are not diverted from their intended use, in a country with a history of deep corruption. That note was sounded in June by the two Republicans in line to become chairs of the House Committee on Foreign Affairs and the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations.
U.S. aid to Ukraine “will neither be effective nor politically sustainable without strong oversight and accountability mechanisms,” wrote Rep. Mike McCaul, R-Texas, and Sen. Jim Risch, R-Idaho. Both say they continue to support assisting Ukraine.
McCaul and Risch have been sharply critical of the Biden administration’s withdrawal from Afghanistan. Both would probably summon Biden officials, including Secretary of State Antony Blinken to public hearings.
McCaul wrote to Blinken in mid-October requesting that the State Department preserve all documents and communications that might “be potentially responsive to a future congressional inquiry, request, investigation, or subpoena.”
In an August statement on the anniversary of the fall of Kabul, Risch complained that “we still don’t have full answers as to how the Biden administration failed to see it coming and did not have an effective plan in place to evacuate American citizens and Afghan partners.”
“They are going to drag the Biden administration over the coals over Afghanistan,” Pletka said.
Several Republicans called for Blinken’s resignation after the Kabul evacuation, and two House Republicans introduced a resolution calling for his impeachment. But Republicans say they do not expect such efforts to gain traction.
Republicans in both chambers are also eager to press the Biden administration over its policy toward Iran. Many Republicans have criticized President Joe Biden for not doing more to support protesters who have been demonstrating for weeks against the country’s clerical regime.
“Republicans are going to put Iran back on the front burner in Washington,” said Mark Dubowitz, CEO of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, a think tank that calls for relentless pressure on the Iranian government.
Republican gains in Congress would also further complicate Biden’s efforts to resurrect the 2015 Iran nuclear deal, which Trump abandoned.