The Republican speaker of the House of Representatives on Tuesday refused to hold a vote on the bill to provide new aid to Ukraine, ignoring US President Joe Biden’s call for Republicans to “choose America” ​​over Vladimir Putin’s Russia.

Mike Johnson’s stance torpedoes, as Biden feared, the bill, which was approved yesterday by the Senate, where the Democrats have a majority.

Johnson, who is close to Trump — Biden’s potential opponent in the November presidential election — told reporters he had no intention of even allowing a vote on the bill.

“Certainly not,” he emphasized.

The Senate has approved a bill that provides $95 billion in aid to Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan, but its final passage depends on the former president’s Republican supporters in the House of Representatives.

“I say to House Republicans: you have to choose. Will you stand for freedom or join terror and tyranny? Will you be with Ukraine or with Putin? Will you choose America or Trump?”, the Democratic president said earlier in his short speech from the White House.

In the midst of an election year, the issue is causing a brawl between Biden and his predecessor.

“Everything is a bargain”

The 81-year-old Democrat in his speech yesterday also criticized Trump’s comments on NATO.

On Saturday the former president said he would “encourage” Russia to attack NATO members who do not pay their dues.

“It’s stupid, it’s shameful and it’s dangerous, it’s anti-American,” Biden said. “He believes (NATO) is a blackmail system. He does not understand that NATO is based on the fundamental values ​​of freedom, security and sovereignty,” he added.

“For Trump, values ​​don’t count, everything is bargained for,” the American president complained.

In the Senate, some Republicans voted in favor of providing aid to Ukraine.

However, the situation is different in the House, where the Republicans have a majority. Johnson has refused for months to consider the bill unless the Biden administration’s immigration policy changes.

“National security starts with border security,” he emphasized again yesterday.

Republicans are calling for aid to Ukraine to be accompanied by tougher immigration policy as record numbers of migrants have arrived at the US-Mexico border.

A compromise text in this direction was recently submitted to the Senate, but in the end the conservatives rejected it considering that it is not strict enough.

It’s hard not to notice Trump’s influence on the Republican party. The former president has made tackling illegal immigration a central issue of his campaign and is not looking to deliver a political victory to Biden just months before the presidential election.

“As Trump suggested”

The resumption of military aid to Ukraine, which has been suspended since the end of December, essentially depends on the bill being debated in Congress.

Democrats overwhelmingly favor continuing aid. But Republicans are divided between those who are pro-Kiev and those who remain loyal to Trump.

On Monday night, Senator Lindsey Graham, until recently one of the Republicans in favor of providing aid to Ukraine, said he would ultimately oppose the passage of the bill. He even added that, instead of providing a comprehensive aid package to Kiev, he would prefer to adopt a system of loans “as proposed by President Trump.”