...a revolt from the far right over the exclusion of restrictions they had sought to abortion access, transgender care, and racial diversity and inclusion policies at the Pentagon.
That's all just smoke and mirrors - emotive fodder to feed to the base to obscure their actual goal, which is simply to serve Russian interests by denying aid to Ukraine.
The strategy's simple and obvious - insist on tacking on (entirely irrelevant) things that the Democrats will never vote for, then self-righteously vote against the bill when those things are inevitably not included.
And the goal is simple and obvious too - to conjure up a justification for voting against the aid that they can sell to the base, since, Tucker Carlson's efforts notwithstanding, the base isn't yet ready to join the MAGA politicians in swearing fealty to Russia.
The House took a critical step on Friday toward approving a long-stalled package of aid to Ukraine, Israel and other American allies, as Democrats supplied the crucial votes to push the legislation past Republican opposition so that it could be considered on the floor.
But it came only after Speaker Mike Johnson, who put his own job on the line to push through the plan over his party’s objections, was forced to turn to Democrats in a significant breach of custom in the House, further imperiling his position even as he paved the way for the legislation to be voted on and approved.
Those include multiple spending measures to keep the government funded and the annual defense bill, after a revolt from the far right over the exclusion of restrictions they had sought to abortion access, transgender care, and racial diversity and inclusion policies at the Pentagon.
Representative Michael Burgess, Republican of Texas and the chairman of the rules panel, said he wanted the Biden administration to provide more information about how previous foreign aid funding was used and what its long term goals were for ending the conflict in Ukraine.
“I’m concerned that the speaker’s cut a deal with the Democrats to fund foreign wars rather than secure our border,” said Representative Thomas Massie, Republican of Kentucky, one of the most vocal opponents of the legislation who has threatened to vote to oust Mr. Johnson because of it.
The far-right lawmakers who tried to block the rule in committee — Mr. Massie, Mr. Roy and Representative Ralph Norman of South Carolina — opposed it because it would not allow a vote on severe border security provisions they have said should be prioritized over aiding Ukraine.
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