President Biden confused Ukraine with NATO in a plea to lawmakers to urgently come back to Washington from vacation and pass his foreign aid package.
“The idea that we’re gonna walk away from Ukraine, the idea that we’re gonna let NATO begin to split is totally against the interests of the United States of America and it against our word we’ve given since all the way back to Eisenhower. So it’s about time we make sure that Congress come home and pass the legislation funding NATO. It’s critical,” Biden told reporters from Delaware, where he is on vacation, on Saturday, mixing up the Eastern European country with the Western alliance.
Ukraine is not a member of NATO, despite Washington’s best efforts following the 2014 Euromaidan coup d’état, with the West’s disregard for Russia’s warnings over the unacceptability of its neighbor joining the bloc serving as one of the root causes of the current crisis.
Biden’s mental acuity has been a subject of concern going back to the 2020 election, with Special Counsel Robert Hur’s damning report last week on the president coming off as a “sympathetic, well-meaning, elderly man with a poor memory” in his probe into Biden’s mishandling of classified documents renewing debate about whether he is fit for office.
Biden’s plea, related to the standoff in Congress over US aid to foreign countries, comes after months of bickering in Washington over whether America can continue to pump tens of billions of additional dollars into the Ukrainian “black hole” while ignoring a domestic crisis on its border with Mexico.
The Senate passed a $95.3 billion funding package for Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan this week, but the MAGA Republican-dominated House has so far blocked the legislation and went into winter recess. Lawmakers are expected to return to Washington at the end of February, just days before the next government funding deadlines on March 1 and 8.
Despite the funding roadblock, Biden expressed confidence that US support for Ukraine would continue.
“I spoke with Zelensky this afternoon to let him know that I was confident we’re going to get that money,” the Biden told reporters. “I’m going to fight to get them the ammunition they need,” he added, blasting lawmakers’ “absurd” and “unethical” blockage of further US assistance.
Ukraine’s president expressed gratitude to Biden after their discussion, suggesting “supporting Ukraine means supporting democracy and freedom” and that he and Biden had “agreed to stay in touch” ahead of the looming two-year anniversary of Russia’s special military operation.
Faltering US assistance has pushed Washington’s European allies to make commitments to ramp up their own aid to Ukraine, which are coming despite self-inflicted crises pummeling the European Union after steps to decouple itself from Russian energy.