On Tuesday’s edition of CBS’s “America Decides,” White House National Security Council Coordinator for Strategic Communications John Kirby stated that it’s crucial that we get Israel funding, but wouldn’t back off President Joe Biden’s vow to veto an Israel-only bill.
Kirby said, “[W]e’re willing to have a discussion with members of Congress about immigration reform, but we’ve got to have this funding for Ukraine and for Israel, particularly in the case of Ukraine, because, by the end of the year, it’s going to be very, very difficult for us to provide any support for them.”
After Kirby added that passing more money for the border is also critical for national security and they want Congress to move on that “urgent” need, host Weijia Jiang asked, “And John, there’s an urgent need, of course, for funding for Israel as well, for Ukraine, all of these things. And the President has already said he would veto any Israel-only bill, but is he open to different iterations of these packages coming together, or does it have to be all of his priorities or nothing at all?”
Kirby responded, “Well, again, I don’t want to negotiate here in public. We put a very thoughtful supplemental funding request together, Weijia. It was informed, very much directly by our Israeli counterparts and our Ukrainian counterparts about what they need in the weeks and months ahead, Israel to go after Hamas, Ukraine to defend its territory against Russia. Those were well-informed decisions and well-informed dollar figures. We think they’re all important, and again, we urge Congress to pass this supplemental funding. But I want to stress again, as I said in my first answer…we remain in close consultation with members of Congress. We’ve been briefing them in classified and unclassified sessions about what’s going on, particularly in Ukraine, and how desperate the need is for additional support.”
Follow Ian Hanchett on Twitter @IanHanchett
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