Zelensky's pleas for war aid in Washington likely to fall on 'deaf ears'
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Transcript
00:00 International Affairs commentator Douglas Herbert here.
00:02 Doug, we just heard from Zelensky.
00:05 How likely is that message to break through in Washington?
00:08 - It's gonna fall on a lot of death ears.
00:10 Look, this is essentially the last chance saloon
00:13 for Zelensky.
00:14 He met last time with US lawmakers three months ago,
00:17 back in September.
00:18 When he did then, things were already looking very grim
00:21 for Ukraine.
00:22 He was running low on cash,
00:23 he was running low on ammunitions.
00:25 His counter offensive, the much vaunted counter offensive,
00:29 was seen largely as stalling.
00:30 He was facing very, very strength in Russian defenses
00:33 and a President Putin who wasn't going away anytime soon,
00:36 going quietly into the night.
00:38 Things are even more dire now.
00:39 And the message he is gonna be bringing,
00:41 he'll first be meeting with senators,
00:43 then he's gonna be meeting with the House Speaker,
00:45 the Republican Mike Johnson,
00:46 then he's gonna go to the White House and meet with Biden.
00:48 The message in all those cases will be the same.
00:51 It will be, we are facing a matter of life and death
00:54 right now on the battlefield and off,
00:56 and time is of the essence.
00:58 Congress is about to go into recess
00:59 at the end of this week, Friday.
01:01 There's not that much time to deal with it.
01:03 President Biden, as you said,
01:04 has requested an emergency aid package,
01:07 which would include about $60 billion additional dollars
01:10 for Ukraine.
01:11 On top of this, say, 110 billion,
01:12 the US has already spent over two years of war.
01:15 The problem is, what's the problem?
01:17 It's being held up by a wing of the Republican Party
01:20 that is very much in thrall
01:22 to the MAGA-inspired policies of Donald Trump.
01:24 And what is that?
01:25 It's an isolationist America First agenda,
01:27 which is dictating that first priority
01:30 is American border policies, border US-Mexico border.
01:34 So what they're basically saying is,
01:36 unless you need to tie,
01:37 he's demanding that Biden clamp down
01:40 on the US border with Mexico
01:41 or else Ukraine isn't getting any funding.
01:43 Is that gonna happen?
01:44 Very unlikely.
01:46 In fact, we've had senators, one of them,
01:48 explicitly say that unless we see stricter border policy,
01:52 something that a lot in the Democratic Party
01:54 are staunchly opposed to,
01:55 there isn't going to be any aid unlocked.
01:58 It's already been delayed, but nothing more unlocked.
02:01 So it's a critical situation right now.
02:03 The political situation couldn't be worse
02:05 for a President Biden, who continues to this day
02:08 to insist that he staunchly supports Ukraine
02:11 and believes you need to stand with Ukraine
02:12 as long as it takes.
02:14 - So then what happens, Doug,
02:15 if and when Zelensky comes home empty-handed?
02:18 - What happens is, can Europe step in?
02:20 And the easy answer is probably not.
02:23 And I don't say that to be pessimistic.
02:25 What I mean is there is an open letter,
02:27 about 100 European lawmakers,
02:30 a lot of them from Germany, from France, from Italy,
02:33 have just sent an open letter to US lawmakers,
02:37 their counterparts in the US,
02:38 essentially pleading for the Americans,
02:40 do not pull the plug, we beg you,
02:43 do not pull the plug on American aid right now.
02:46 Yes, Europe has given roughly the same amount,
02:48 all of Europe, as the US
02:50 throughout the course of this war to Ukraine.
02:52 But the problem is if the US pulls out
02:55 tens of billions of dollars are no longer there for Ukraine,
02:57 all bets are off.
02:59 Vladimir Putin's prophecies
03:00 that the West has tired of Ukraine
03:03 and that he's gonna win this war
03:04 will essentially have come true.
03:06 So right now, that's what the Europeans are desperate of.
03:08 There's a European summit coming up tomorrow.
03:10 They're gonna be looking at aid, more aid and talks,
03:12 but it's looking very bleak going in right now, politically.