2024-04-20 18:24:40
Republican Mike Johnson was propelled to the perch of the US House of Representatives six months ago, almost by accident. Before becoming one of the most ardent defenders of American aid to Ukraine, adopted on Saturday in his hemicycle.
The change on this question of the fifty-year-old, baby-faced, with carefully combed salt-and-pepper hair, is disconcerting. The former ultra-conservative lawyer, apostle of the values of the “deep South”, was catapulted at the head of the House of Representatives after the surprise dismissal of Kevin McCarthy in October.
After one, two, three candidates, the name of Mike Johnson, unknown to the general public, was put forward with Donald Trump’s blessingto chair this parliamentary group, plunged into the middle of a fratricidal war.
Meeting with Zelensky in December
Under the presidency of Mike Johnson, suffice to say that American aid to Ukraine initially got off to a bad start. The “speaker”, a supporter of a certain budgetary orthodoxy, is very skeptical about these billions sent by the United States, in the face of a conflict which is getting bogged down. In December, Voldymyr Zelensky goes to Washington to try to convince parliamentarians to adopt an envelope of 60 billion dollars, which he assures is crucial to prevail against Russia.
The Ukrainian president strolls through the corridors of Congress surrounded by the Democratic and Republican leaders of the Senate – both very favorable to this military and economic assistance. But his meeting with Mike Johnson takes place away from the cameras.
After his exchange with Mr. Zelensky, the “speaker” appears dry, almost brittle.
He denounces the “billions of dollars” demanded by the Biden administration “without adequate supervision, without a real victory strategy”. And blocks the validation of these funds for months.
“Churchill or Chamberlain”
Monday, early evening, about-face by the Republican leader. Against all expectations, the elected official from Louisiana announces that his room will carefully examine an aid plan for Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan, to which he gives his full support.
Certainly, the Republican made a concession to Donald Trump, who demanded that part of these funds be in the form of a loan – the candidate for the White House believes that the United States should “stop giving money without hope of being reimbursed. But this debt can be erased and the envelope almost corresponds to the funds requested months earlier by President Biden.
Questioned Wednesday during a press conference, the Republican himself provided some answers. “To put it bluntly: I would rather send ammunition to Ukraine than send our boys to fight,” he pleaded to journalists. Before mentioning, not without a certain emotion, the case of his son, who is preparing to enter the Naval Academy. “This is a life-size test for me, as for so many American families,” he said.
The adoption of this envelope, however, risks costing the Republican leader dearly: a handful of conservative elected officials, fiercely anti-aid to Ukraine, opromised to do everything to dismiss the “speaker”. Referring to the case of his Republican colleague, Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries wanted to be philosophical, assuring that he was facing a situation “where one can be either a Churchill or a Chamberlain”.
Without himself spinning the metaphor about the two British Prime Ministers – one a supporter of the Munich agreements, the other architect of the victory of the allies during the Second World War – Mike Johnson assured that he saw himself as a “wartime speaker”. And he pleads, looking serious: “History judges us by our actions.”
Following the vote, Volodymyr Zelensky said he was “grateful” to American elected officials and “personally” to Mike Johnson for having “made a decision that keeps history on the right track”.
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