Marie G-P vows to support Johnson over vote to provide $61 billion to Ukraine

Despite delays, Congresswoman tells national magazine that the House speaker showed courage in the face of GOP hardliners' calls to sack him

Southwest Washington Congresswoman Marie Gluesenkamp Perez voted for the $61 billion bill to help Ukraine continue its defense against Russia’s invasion. Now, she says she’s willing to help rescue the Republican House leader who brought the measure to a vote after months of delay.

House Speaker Mike Johnson is facing a possible overthrow attempt after he allowed a House vote on the Ukraine support measure, which Republican hardliners detest.

To survive a coup attempt, Johnson may need the support of some Democrats. Marie GP said she would vote to defend Johnson if a vote to remove him comes up, she told Atlantic writer Russell Berman last Friday.

House minority leader Hakim Jeffries of New York hasn’t indicated whether Democrats should seek more concessions in exchange for voting to save Johnson from his own party. MGP said she does not think Democrats should do so.

“I don’t think my community (in Southwest Washington) is invested in procedural rules and structure. I think my community cares about an America that exerts influence in support of democracies, and putting this package forward is enough to demonstrate for me that he’s worth saving,” said MGP, a first-term Democrat from Skamania County.

“I think Mike Johnson is a man of faith. I think he’s guided by that faith. I am also a woman of faith. And I understand and I respect that. The Southern Baptist Convention put out a letter where they said that they supported funding for Ukraine aid. After that, Mike Johnson (a Southern Baptist) came out in support of moving the military-aid package forward. I do not think that is a coincidence. I see a guy that is guided by conscience, guided by his faith.”

The whole copyrighted article — A Democrat’s Case for Saving Mike Johnson — is available at https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2024/04/mike-johnson-ukraine-democrats/678161/.

MGP has emphasized bipartisanship and pragmatic politics during her 16-month tenure in Congress. She is co-chair of the the centrist Blue Dog Coalition and helped write the aid package for Ukraine, Israel, and Taiwan that the House passed Saturday (the day after the Atlantic interview). For months, she has railed against politicians using the Ukraine and Gaza crises as political footballs.

Johnson, a Louisianan, is even more conservative than his predecessor, Kevin McCarthy, whom the GOP sacked after he cleared the way for a vote on funding the government. MGP voted to depose McCarthy. Johnson’s character is different, she said.

“I do not agree with Mike on many, many issues, but I did not see that level of conviction in Kevin. He had this sort of unctuous image. The reason that Kevin lost his job was that he voted to fund the government. That is an incredibly low bar. Funding the government is not showing courage. That’s just our job. Supporting our allies, supporting our values — that’s courage. And that's something that resonates much more strongly in my community,” MGP told Atlantic.

One of MGP’s Republican challengers to reelection this fall, Joe Kent, opposes further military aid to force Ukraine to the bargaining table and freeze the conflict.

Such a strategy would assure the destruction of a free and democratic Ukraine. Ukraine is running out of ammo, and it’s foolhardy to think that Russian President Vladimir Putin will negotiate while he has the upper hand. Russian leaders only understand power.

Putin also has lamented the breakup of the old Soviet Union, under which Ukraine was under Moscow’s thumb. The only path to compromise in this conflict is from a position of military strength.

Kent also has speculated recently that the CIA and Ukraine may be responsible for a terrorist attack that killed 143 people in Moscow last month. The allegation is one pushed by Kremlin propagandists even though Islamic militants took credit for the attack.

Like many supporters of Ukraine, MGP is frustrated that it took months to get the GOP leadership, including Johnson, to agree to provide additional military assistance. But ultimately, she said, Johnson's heart is in the right place.

“In the cloakroom and around the Hill, there’s been a debate about whether Mike Johnson is (Neville) Chamberlain (the British Prime Minister who appeased Hitler) or (Winston) Churchill (who led Britain through World War II). I think, in the end, he’s manifesting the Churchill quote, “Americans will always do the right thing after they’ve exhausted every other option.”