GOP senators warn Speaker to stand firm on Greene’s Ukraine demand

Senate Republicans are urging Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) not to make any promises to Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) about future military aid for Ukraine, warning it would be a “grave mistake” for the Speaker to box himself in.

Senators expect the Biden administration to request another round of Ukraine aid at the end of the year, and they want Johnson to have the flexibility to move it through the House.

Greene asked Johnson during a Monday meeting to commit to not supporting any more foreign assistance to Ukraine.

But given that House Democrats have pledged to quash Greene’s motion to vacate the Speaker’s chair, GOP senators see little reason for Johnson to rule out another aid package, which could embolden Russian President Vladimir Putin.

“I just think at this point, you can’t tie his hands. He’s the Speaker of the House,” Senate Republican Whip John Thune (S.D.) told reporters Tuesday.

“Right now, he’s got a job to do. Who knows what in the future may or may not be needed or necessary?” he added. “I wouldn’t make any commitments about what he’s going to move on the floor or not move on the floor in response to demands she’s making.”

Thune is running to become the next Senate GOP leader and may be tasked with the job of moving another emergency defense spending package in the next Congress.

Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas), who is vying with Thune to become the next Senate GOP leader, agreed Johnson shouldn’t make any major concessions to Greene on Ukraine funding.

“I don’t think Speaker Johnson needs to make any commitments to Marjorie Taylor Greene. I think she’s marginalizing herself and becoming a nonissue,” he said Tuesday afternoon.

Asked last week if Republicans are getting sick of Greene being the face of House Republicans, Cornyn replied, “I think people are sick and tired of chaos and dysfunction.” 

Greene named her demands in exchange for not calling a snap leadership election during a two-hour meeting Monday with Johnson.

One of her top priorities is for Johnson to pledge he will not support any more aid for Ukraine.

She also asked the Speaker to defund special counsel Jack Smith’s investigations of former President Trump, to promise to allow votes only on legislation that has majority support within the House GOP conference, and to enforce a 1 percent across-the-board spending cut if Congress fails to pass its annual appropriations bills on time.

GOP senators, however, are warning that any legislation that would defund the special counsel’s investigations has no chance of becoming law, given Democratic control of the Senate and White House.

And they warn a 1 percent automatic cut to discretionary spending would hit the Defense Department especially hard.

Sen. Roger Wicker (R-Miss.), the ranking member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, warned it would be a “grave mistake” for Johnson to promise Greene not to bring any more military assistance for Ukraine to the House floor.

Wicker said the administration “possibly” could ask for additional military assistance before the end of the year.  

Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) expressed disbelief that a backbencher in the House would attempt to dictate national security policy to future administrations and the rest of Congress.

“You know what? She’s one person out of a body of 435. You tell me how one person can literally hold the entire House,” she said. “Am I missing something?”

Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell (Ky.) has said he will make boosting Defense spending one of his top priorities for the rest of this year and after he steps down as leader.

“The next thing to focus on is the Defense Department budget for next year. The president’s requests have not been adequate. We need to make sure we’re doing more in Defense through the regular appropriations process,” McConnell told reporters after Congress passed $61 billion for Ukraine last month.

Senate aides expect the Biden administration will come back to Congress for another request for military aid for Ukraine after the November election, probably in late November or December.

National security adviser Jake Sullivan has estimated the aid package that Congress passed in April — and which President Biden initially requested in October — will keep Ukrainian forces well-supplied through the end of the year.

A congressional aide estimated that Defense Department officials would begin putting together a new request for more military aid to Ukraine in September.

Greene wants Johnson to pledge to quash the next round of Ukraine assistance before the administration even puts it together.

Greene noted at a May 1 press conference that Johnson was on record as voting against Ukraine war funding when she voted for him to become Speaker in October.

And she cited Johnson’s support for the war in Ukraine as cementing her decision to force a vote on a motion to vacate the Speaker’s chair.

“Mike Johnson fully joined the disgusting business model of Washington, D.C., to fund forever wars,” she declared. “The uniparty is ‘make Ukraine great again.’ The uniparty is about funding every single foreign war.”

Senate Republicans are well past exasperated with Greene’s threat to force a snap leadership election.

GOP senators have complained for months that the repeated threats using the motion against Johnson have only created “chaos” in the House and hurt the GOP brand with voters.

McConnell said last week that he was looking forward to Republicans and Democrats teaming up to defeat Greene’s challenge to Johnson, which he hopes will bring more stability to the House.

“I’m relieved, as I think all of America is, that the chaos in the House will be discontinued,” McConnell told reporters when asked about Greene’s plan to force a vote on the motion to vacate this week.

Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.), an adviser to the Senate GOP leadership team, said Greene’s war against the Speaker is dragging the rest of the party down.

“She is a horrible leader,” he told CNN in an interview last month. “She is dragging our brand down. She — not the Democrats — are the biggest risk to us getting back our majority.”

Other senators were more diplomatic, despite being fed up with Greene’s persistent threat against the Speaker.

“I’m holding back on my words,” Wicker said as he walked into a Senate GOP leadership meeting Tuesday.

Updated at 9:17 a.m. ET