Daily Kos Evening Brief: Ukraine caught in the crossfire of the Republican civil war

The House speaker drama may soon become a major international dilemma because the leaderless, dysfunctional Republican Party is suddenly endangering American military and economic assistance to Ukraine. Reps. Jim Jordan and Steve Scalise have both announced their candidacy. Scalise voted for Ukraine aid last week, while Jordan has promised to block such aid. In a not unrelated turn of events, Trump endorsed Jordan (thus ending his own flirtation with the job). Remember: The former president was first impeached for threatening Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy with withholding military assistance unless Ukraine opened up a fake investigation into Hunter Biden. Trump doesn't let go of grudges easily, and it's clear his House minions are still seeking revenge. Yet, binding oneself to Trump has proven catastrophic to many. The only question is whom it will burn next. It has already screwed former Speaker Kevin McCarthy, the MyPillow guy, Rudy Giuliani, the Republican Party, more than 1,100 supporters charged with crimes related to Jan. 6, and, heck, even Trump himself.

The Senate isn’t playing around on Ukraine, and there is strong bipartisan support for continued assistance. But while a strong House majority also supports Ukraine, the Republican civil war will make it difficult to pass any legislation. It's the Republican version of Ukrainian mud season.

Meanwhile, strong majorities of Americans support military aid for Ukraine, but polls do show isolationist sentiment from both the far left and the far right. It is the perfect example of the horseshoe theory of politics, in which the political extremes have more in common with each other than the political center. We know all about the MAGA love for Vladimir Putin’s autocratic, white nationalist, and homophobic Russia, but the far-left base shares many of those same sentiments. In fact, nearly a dozen Code Pink protesters were arrested after occupying Sen. Bernie Sanders office, accusing him of being a warmongering supporter of the military industrial complex. Hilarious, right?

Bernie, a warmonger? Now we’ve really seen it all!

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