OPINION: This article may contain commentary which reflects the author's opinion.
President Joe Biden got a little cross at reporters during a meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, during which he promised an additional $200 million in U.S. taxpayer aid.
After finishing his discussions with Zelensky, reporters assembled in the room at the White House began firing questions at both leaders. After Biden appeared to be taken aback by the number of questions and the heightened volume, the president held up his hand and demanded: “Whoa! Whoa! Whoa! Hush up a second, okay?” – before informing them he had something else to say.
“I got one more thing to say,” he stated while holding a stack of papers in his hand. “I just signed another $200 million draw down from the Department of Defense for Ukraine.”
“That will be coming quickly. Thank you!” he said while facing Zelensky, according to a video clip of the exchange.
WATCH:
After Zelensky said, “thank you very much,” reporters once again began peppering them with questions.
Fox News added: An official said Biden’s promise of an additional $200 million to Ukraine will be taken from Pentagon stockpiles and include additional ammunition for the High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems (HIMARS), high-speed anti-radiation missiles, anti-armor systems, artillery rounds, missiles, demolition munitions, four million rounds of small arms ammunition, generators and other equipment and spare parts.
Zelensky also met with congressional leaders, including Senate Majority Leader Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.), Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), and House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.).
Johnson (R-La.) came away from his meeting with Zelensky more determined than ever to tie providing more aid to his embattled country with a commitment from President Joe Biden to finally get tough on U.S. border security.
Johnson, who has been pushing border security for weeks as part of any future aid package for Ukraine, as well as Taiwan, made it clear following his meeting he wasn’t budging until the White House produced a legitimate and substantial border security plan.
He also accused the Biden administration of failing to provide the American people with a clear plan ahead for Ukraine after providing the country with at least $100 billion, even as the national debt has surpassed $34 trillion under Joe Biden and, for two years of his term, a Democratic Congress.
“I have asked the White House since the day that I was handed the gavel as speaker for clarity,” Johnson told reporters after the meeting. “We need a clear articulation of the strategy to allow Ukraine to win. And thus far their responses have been insufficient.
“What the Biden administration seems to be asking for is billions of additional dollars with no appropriate oversight or clear strategy to win and none of the answers that I think the American people are owed,” he continued.
“I have also been very clear from day one, that our first condition on any national security supplemental spending package is about our own national security first,” Johnson added.
Biden has requested an additional $61 billion in aid for Ukraine.
“In the last three months – October, November, December alone – we’ve had more illegal crossings at the border than in any entire year of the Obama administration,” Johnson noted in a Tuesday statement. “The American people see this. The feel it acutely.”
Johnson is one of a growing number of Republicans who are tired of throwing American tax money at the war there and are pushing for Ukraine to enter into negotiations with Moscow on ending the war and the killing, even if it means ceding portions of the country to Russia that its forces currently occupy.
Sen. J.D. Vance (R-Ohio) argued during an appearance on CNN with host Jake Tapper on Monday that sending billions more to Ukraine won’t make any difference in the overall war effort.
“On the Ukraine question, in particular, everybody knows, everybody with a brain in their head, Jake, knows that this was always going to end in negotiation,” Vance told Tapper.
