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On the surface, it matters that the House considered a series of measures on Thursday designed to curtail U.S. aid to Ukraine, and each of the proposals lost in the face of bipartisan opposition. But just below the surface, it’s worth appreciating just how many Republicans ended up voting for them anyway.
The Hill reported on what became of the Ukraine-related amendments to the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA):
Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) put forth one amendment to strike $300 million in Ukraine funding that failed 89-341, with 130 Republicans joining all Democrats in voting against it. Another proposal from Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.), which would have prohibited all security assistance for Ukraine, similarly failed 70-358 on the House floor, with 149 Republicans opposing it.
The roll call on Greene’s measure is online here, while the roll call on Gaetz’s proposed amendment is online here.
A separate measure, championed by Republican Rep. Andy Ogles of Tennessee would’ve ended a lend-lease authority to Ukraine, and it failed on a 71-360 vote.
Again, a casual observer might look at these outcomes and conclude that a handful of right-wing members pushed anti-Ukraine amendments that didn’t come close to succeeding. But the fact that these efforts received so many GOP votes matters just as much.
About a year ago, as Congress approved a series of measures related to supporting Ukraine, the number of Republicans opposing the bills was quite small. Circling back to our earlier coverage, when the House voted overwhelmingly to ban oil imports from Russia, for example, only 15 House Republicans opposed the measure. A week earlier, the House easily passed a non-binding resolution in support of Ukrainians, which only three Republicans opposed.
Soon after, the House voted to suspend normal trade relations with Russia, and that measure was opposed by only eight Republicans.
When the House passed a bill directing the Biden administration to collect evidence of Russian war crimes, only six Republicans opposed the measure. When the House passed the Ukraine Democracy Defense Lend-Lease Act, only 10 GOP members voted no. The same week, the House passed a largely symbolic measure, pressing the White House to support Ukraine through confiscated Russian oligarchs’ assets, and four Republicans opposed it.
It wasn’t long before this GOP contingent picked up some unflattering nicknames. Then-Republican Rep. Liz Cheney, for example, labeled them the Republican Party’s “Putin wing.” The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee called them the “GOP’s pro-Putin faction.” A Washington Post report added that these Republicans have formed “what some Democrats (and even critics on the right) have labeled ‘Putin’s Caucus.’”
But a year later, this faction is noticeably larger. We’re no longer talking about a handful of fringe figures: As an Axios report noted, Gaetz’s proposal would’ve blocked all U.S. security assistance to Ukraine, and nearly one-third of the House Republican conference went on the record in support of the change.
The GOP’s so-called “Putin wing,” in other words, appears to be getting bigger.