House Republicans called the state of the union “in crisis” on Tuesday, hours before President Biden was scheduled to deliver the high-profile annual address to both chambers of Congress and the nation.
GOP lawmakers hammered Mr. Biden for failing to do more to prevent the Russian invasion of Ukraine, and for failing to do more to help the Ukrainian people who are now under attack.
“For months, President Biden failed to engage in meaningful deterrence against Russian aggression,” said House GOP Conference Chair Elise Stefanik of New York. “And just weeks ago, his administration actually lobbied against Republican efforts to sanction Russia. On day one of his presidency, Joe Biden killed the Keystone XL pipeline and launched his war on American energy independence.”
“And then Joe Biden gifted [Russian President Vladimir] Putin the Nord Stream 2 pipeline while importing a record amount of oil from Russia last year,” she said.
Mr. Biden initially decided not to block the natural gas pipeline, although he agreed to the action after Russia’s invasion.
Republican leaders want the Biden administration to provide more military and medical supplies for the Ukrainian people who are being bombed by Russians in civilian areas.
“They’re not asking for American men and women to fight. They’re just asking to have some supplies. So they can at least have a fair fight,” said House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, California Republican.
He listed anti-tank missiles, air defense support, ammunition, rifles and machine guns as items being called for and noted that Ukrainian officials have provided a list of necessities.
Rep. Victoria Spartz, Indiana Republican and a first-term lawmaker who was born in Ukraine, told reporters that she is hearing from her family and friends that the Russian military is using heavy machine gun fire to kill civilians in villages as well as running them over with tanks.
“I called my friend and she said she was able to get out…and she saw a woman in the gas station get shot with her children with machine guns,” she said. “They’re slaughtering them like animals. They kill the people. It is not a war. It’s a genocide, because we have a crazy man that believes that he holds the whole world hostage.”
She denounced a lack of will from Mr. Biden to do more for the Ukrainian people.
“This president needs to get his act together and exercise some leadership. What’s happening under his watch is an atrocity. What he’s doing to this country and the world is unforgivable, but I think we’ll get together as Republicans and Democrats,” Ms. Spartz said.
She continued, “But he must act decisively fast or all this blood of many millions of Ukrainians will be on his hands too, with all this oil that was blood that’s flowing from Russia and gas that we are buying and Europeans are buying. It’s next to the blood of the Ukrainian people.”
Mr. Biden has issued a raft of sanctions to economically hurt Mr. Putin’s government, including cutting off U.S. transactions with the central bank, so Americans cannot engage in business with Russia.
Republicans, however, say the U.S. sanctions do not go far enough.
“These carve-outs sanctions need to go. We need to get tough on this administration. Get tough on Putin. Putin has blood on his hands and it’s going to get a lot worse before it gets better,” said Rep. Michael McCaul, Texas Republican said. “[Joint Chiefs Chairman] General [Mark] Milley is correct. They’re going to win. But they’re going to lose in the end.”
Correction: A previous version of this article incorrectly referenced Rep. Kevin McCarthy’s leadership title.
• Kerry Picket can be reached at kpicket@washingtontimes.com.
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