French President Emmanuel Macron’s recent anti-American remarks after meeting with China’s Xi Jinping could move more and more American lawmakers to withdraw their support for funding the conflict between Ukraine and Russia.
“Europe must reduce its dependency on the United States and avoid getting dragged into a confrontation between China and the U.S. over Taiwan, “ aid French President Emmanuel Macron said in an interview with reporters.
Florida Senator Marco Rubio, who supported sending military aide to Ukraine, may have just signaled that he could pull his support if President Macron’s anti-American position is widely viewed and accepted by Europe as a whole.
“Does Macron speak for all of Europe, is Macron now the head of Europe,” asked Sen. Rubio in a Twitter video he released before reminding viewers that France has “depended heavily on the US for self-defense” over the past 70 years.
Rubio says that maybe the U.S. shouldn’t be involved in Ukraine and it should be left to European nations to deal with.
“Because we're pretty heavily involved in Ukraine right now we're spending a lot of our taxpayer money on a European war and I've supported that because I think that's in the national interest of the United States to be allies to our allies, but if our allies position if in fact, Macron speaks for all of Europe and their position now is they're not going to pick sides between the US and China over Taiwan, and maybe we shouldn't be picking sides either, maybe we should basically say we're gonna focus on Taiwan and the threats that China poses and you guys handle Ukraine and Europe,” stated Sen. Rubio
The majority of Florida’s House congressional caucus voted in favor of funding the war in Ukraine. This was in large part because the Ukraine war funding provision was boot-strapped to the overall federal budget.
In a subsequent House budget bill, where additional funding for the Ukraine war was allocated, Florida lawmakers were split on their support for the continued funding.
The Yea Votes—
Reps. Vern Buchanan, Mario Diaz-Balart, Neal Dunn, Scott Franklin, Carlos Gimenez, Bill Posey, John Rutherford, Maria Elvira Salazar, Michael Waltz, and Daniel Webster.
The Nea Votes—
Reps. Gus Bilirakis, Kat Cammack, Byron Donalds, Matt Gaetz, Brian Mast, and Greg Steube.
Since the war began, the U.S. has given Ukraine over $115 billion in assistance.
Lawmakers like Rep. Donalds has been calling for congressional oversight into the taxpayer dollars sent to Ukraine.
Rep. Gaetz, who sits on the House Armed Services Committee, has filed his “Ukraine Fatigue” resolution to end U.S. financial and military aid to Ukraine.
Only one other Florida lawmaker, Rep. Luna, cosponsored the measure.
