On Wednesday night, Arkansas GOP senator Tom Cotton told Newsmax that if Republicans take control of Congress, military aid to Ukraine will continue:
“I believe we will continue to support Ukraine with the kind of military aide that only the U.S. can provide,” he told Newsmax’s “Rob Schmitt Tonight” Wednesday night. “Some of our European partners can provide some military support, but really there are some systems only America can provide.”
Cotton said he expects “a slight change in the way that aid is assigned,” but he does not expect any wavering in U.S. support of Ukraine after Russia’s unprovoked attack on its neighbor.
“Even if the European nations can’t provide the kind of weapons that Ukraine’s soldiers need, they can provide the money that the country needs,” he said.
Cotton was asked about House GOP leader Kevin McCarthy’s statement that the U.S. wouldn’t provide a “blank check” to Ukraine. McCarthy hasn’t publicly clarified what he meant, but CNN reports that he has privately told lawmakers he merely wants more oversight of the funding:
McCarthy told key Republican natsec committee members his comments were being taken out of context.
"McCarthy was not saying, 'We wouldn't spend money.' McCarthy was saying, 'We're gonna be accountable to the taxpayer for every dollar we spend,'" one GOP lawmaker said.
— Jeremy Herb (@jeremyherb) October 26, 2022
Georgia GOP representative Marjorie Taylor Greene vowed at a Trump rally this week that Ukraine wouldn’t receive any more funding in a GOP Congress, but Greene was among a decided minority of House Republicans when she voted against the $40 billion aid package for Ukraine in May. That bill passed the Senate 86–11 and the House 368–57. Most Republicans who voted “no”— about 25 percent of congressional Republicans — said they did so because they wanted more oversight of the aid and/or spending cuts to pay for it.