PORTSMOUTH, Va. (WAVY) — It will be a historic mistake if there is no vote on the aid for Ukraine. That’s what Sen. Mark Warner (D-Va.) told reporters in a call on Wednesday.
The Virginia senator was responding to a question related to border security. Last month, a Senate proposal that included funding for aid to Ukraine, as well as a border enforcement deal, was killed by Republicans.
A week later, on Feb. 13, Speaker of the House Mike Johnson announced that a Ukraine aid package passed by the Senate would not get a vote in the House of Representatives because it lacked the tough border measures his party supports.
“It will be a mistake similar to the mistakes made by Neville Chamberlain when he was the prime minister of the U.K. and turned a blind eye to Hitler’s aggression — and we ended up with the Second World War,” Warner said on the call. “I hate to use too much hyperbole, but I think we are in that kind of circumstance if we give a green light to Putin.”
Warner attributed the GOP’s movement away from supporting military aid to Ukraine to former President Donald Trump’s control over the far right of the party.
“I think, candidly, he doesn’t mind the conflict coming,” Warner said of the ex-president, because he thinks he can solve it in a day.”
