Despite congressional inaction to send much-needed military support to Ukraine, 73 percent of Americans say the war in Ukraine is important to American interests.
February 19, 2024
A new Pew Research poll finds that 74 percent of Americans believe that the war in Ukraine is important to US national interests with 43 percent of respondents saying that the war is “very important.” Among Democrats, 81 percent believe that Russia’s war against Ukraine is important to America’s interests, whereas only 69 percent of Republicans feel that way.
When examined at the micro-level, 34 percent say the war is “somewhat important” to them personally, while 25 percent say that the war in Ukraine is “very important” to them personally – representing, on the whole, 56 percent of Republicans and 65 percent of Democrats who feel the war is important to them on a personal level, with older Americans being more interested in the topic than younger citizens.
Steve Moore, a Republican political strategist who worked in Congress for many years is not surprised as the “poll shows what we all know – a majority of Americans support Ukraine.”
Despite Americans’ strong interest in the fate of Ukraine, Congressional Speaker Mike Johnson decided to adjourn Congress until the end of February, reconvening a mere two days before the US Government is poised to shut down due to a federal budget having not been passed.
Johnson has been keen to block further assistance for Ukraine because former President Donald Trump is urging Republicans to prevent a deal being reached before elections. Trump had earlier called on Republicans to reject the compromise Senate aid package for Ukraine.
Republicans appear to be on the verge of nominating Trump, who has so far won in all states where there have been primaries and who is leading his opponent, Nikki Haley, country-wide by an average of 57.7 percent.
Credit: Pew Research
Donald Trump, Jr., the President’s son, has recently begun attacking Republican Senators who did not comply with his father’s demands to not support Ukraine aid and has openly called on those senators to be challenged in their next primaries, according to The Hill.
Moore, who founded the Ukraine Freedom Project, notes: “What the poll did not ask is whether they support spending $62 billion to aid Ukraine.”
However, he added: “The Ukraine Freedom Project poll of Republican voters shows that only 36 percent of Republicans favor spending more money on Ukraine and only 16 percent strongly favor spending the money.”
Seeing this divide, Moore surmises that “two years of largely unanswered Russian propaganda directed at American conservatives has taken its toll.”
So, is Congress’ behavior in not passing Ukraine aid going to hurt the public’s perception of the House?
More points out that “the other question not asked by Pew in this survey is American’s opinion of Congress,” adding: “Typically, Americans view Congress slightly more favorably than they do a root canal. Nobody likes the way Congress is behaving on any topic.”
Gallup Polls found that currently only 15 percent of Americans approve the way that Congress is doing its job.
Whether Ukraine aid will pass the House is still unknown, though there are increasing threats from House members that they will bypass the Speaker’s refusal to conduct a vote and will force a vote on Ukraine using a procedure called a “discharge petition,” which allows a long-awaited bill to be brought to the floor, without the Speaker’s consent. Circumventing the Speaker would be a blow to Johnson.
A report from NBC on Monday indicated that the “Biden administration is leaning toward supplying Ukraine with long-range missiles if Republicans continue to block US military aid to Ukraine,” saying that “the White House could turn to an ally to provide Kyiv with ATACM missiles capable of striking Russian-held Crimea.”
https://www.kyivpost.com/post/28297
It’s clear that the numbers of people in the US who support Ukraine could be higher if Biden had a better capacity for communicating the importance of it to the country. Maybe the media could also do more in this regard. People are people, and many simply are too ignorant to figure out for themselves what dire consequences a mafia victory could mean, even to them personally.
At any rate, this is still positive news.
That is very interesting. In a devious attempt to boost Trumpkov, putler lies that he’s rooting for Biden.
Trumpkov’s aid block is stated by the defenders to be the main reason for the loss of Avdiivka. They were outgunned and outnumbered already; Trumpkov managed to land the killer blow.
Maybe decent Republicans will react violently to this appalling un-American betrayal?
It was Steve Moore; the decent Republican referred to in the article, who exposed the torture by putinaZis of Ukrainian Protestants: Pentecostals, Evangelicals etc. The same communion that the foul hypocrite Mike Johnson is from.
“two years of largely unanswered Russian propaganda directed at American conservatives has taken its toll.”
It’s a lot more than that. Russian propaganda has been spewing out FROM INSIDE AMERICA for 10 years via Steve Bannon’s sick Breitbart site and more recently Gateway Pundit. But in fact there are more than 100 sites originating in the US that pump out magaputler dreck. There is a particularly vile one called DC News. It’s pure kremkrapp and very evil. Its writers are American and not afraid to have their photos published.
Gateway Pundit : pure evil. You can’t believe it’s American, yet its owner is a friend of Trump. This is how it covered Avdiivka:
Cut in Half by Russians, Avdiivka is Reinforced by Ukrainian Nazi Azov Battalion – Massive Missile Strike on Reinforcements Causes Some Defenders to Withdraw:
“In a devious attempt to boost Trumpkov, putler lies that he’s rooting for Biden.”
That statement was meant for all those brainless monkeys who are incapable of informing themselves and putting the info together to formulate an own opinion. To those with brains, it was an obvious and cheap attempt at reverse psychology.
As for the sewage from Gateway Pundit, it proves that no country is immune to being populated by mangy subhuman pricks.
If all those supporters would contact their Congressmen, the deadlock could be overcome. Someone needs to organize a drive to apply pressure on Representatives. Critical feedback from constituents will make many Republicans think twice!
This is where one of Biden’s big failures comes to play, Mr. Gray. His ineffective communication with the American people is at fault for this. Indeed, the MSM, too, could’ve done more, especially when looking at the pro-putler/pro-mafia/pro-extremist misinformation, propaganda, lies, and fake news oozing out of various right-wing, left-wing sources and social media.
‘only 15 percent of Americans approve the way that Congress is doing its job.”
They’re *not* doing their job. The 118th Congress is the most unproductive in decades. The House has voted 749 times this year, but passed just 27 bills that have become law. And, to celebrate getting nothing done, Mike Johnson sent everyone home until the end of the month.
Here’s an American who agrees with you. His well argued call for action comes from the heart:
“Opinion: As an American in Avdiivka, what is Congress doing?”
https://kyivindependent.com/opinion-from-an-american-in-avdiivka-what-is-congress-doing/
“Jackie” is a heroic man. God give him and all the heroes extra strength.
“ it is clear to me that this is solely about Ukraine.”
Clear to me too. God damn those bastards.
Right, Larry. This government is one of the worst in living memory.
As we say in the UK, they couldn’t organise a piss-up in a brewery.
No shit! 😉