Giving Money to Ukraine is in Your Own Best Interest, David Cameron Tells U.S. Congress

Former British Prime Minister David Cameron told America that “it’s profoundly in your interests” to shovel more money into Ukraine while saying he would like to meet with any members of Congress in need of persuading as he visits Washington.

For Ukraine, “perhaps nothing is more important than the supplemental the Congress is looking at the moment” former Prime Minister David Cameron — who quit the post over losing his own Brexit referendum, but is now back in government as Britain’s chief diplomat — said on Tuesday.

Now Lord Cameron — after he was elevated to Britain’s largely appointed House of Lords — tried to claim that he would not “lecture” Americans on how to spend their money while at the same time appealing for U.S. taxpayer money on behalf of Ukraine.

The comments came after meetings with his American counterpart, Secretary of State Antony Blinken and former President Trump. While Cameron didn’t reveal what he discussed with Trump on Tuesday morning, the British Foreign Office disclosed they had touched on Ukraine and NATO.

Lord Cameron batted down criticism of the meeting with Trump, asserting that it was perfectly normal for British ministers to have private discussions with presidential candidates in the run-up to an election. Similar talks had happened with Barrack Obama and Mitt Romney as candidates, he noted.

“These things are entirely proper. But it was a private meeting”, he said.

On the subject of nudging the U.S. towards passing further spending for Ukraine, Lord Cameron appeared keen to avoid previous missteps, as in February when he called on the U.S. to grant further aid and was invited to “kiss my ass” by Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene for his pains.

Prefiguring such rebukes today, Cameron said as he stood alongside Blinken: “I come here with no intention to lecture anybody or tell anybody what to do or get in the way of the process of politics and other things in the United States. I just come here as a great friend and believer in this country and a belief it’s profoundly in your interests and your security and your future, and the future of all your partners, to release this money and let it through.”

Heaping praise on Ukraine’s martial spirit and morale, Cameron pitched to the U.S. Congress that continuing to back Kyiv was magnificent value for money for American taxpayers. He said: “They’ve sunk 25 per cent of Russia’s Black Sea fleet, they’ve inflicted over 350,000 casualties on Russian armed forces… I think it is absolutely in the interests of U.S. security that Putin fails in his illegal invasion… I would argue it is extremely good value for the United States and for others, perhaps for five or 10 per cent of your defence budget almost half of Russia’s pre-war military equipment has been destroyed but without the loss of a single American life. This is an investment in United States security.”

Lord Cameron further asserted it was good for U.S. jobs to supply Ukraine with U.S.-built defence systems, and continuing to back the country would send the message to those in power in “Tehran, in Pyongyang, in Beijing” that Western nations will stand up for invaded states, even if they aren’t a NATO member like Ukraine.

Making clear he really is in Washington to change minds, Cameron said he’d “make time for any people in Congress who would welcome a conversation” on the Ukraine funding question.

Blinken, for his part, praised the United Kingdom for being an early leader in arming Ukraine, and said his talks with Cameron had “reaffirmed the imperative of continuing to support and help Ukraine defend itself against the ongoing Russian aggression… the imperative of getting assistance to Ukraine now in terms of additional munitions – air defences, artillery, we both heard last week from the Ukrainian foreign minister at Nato about the immediate needs”.

The United States needs “to continue to do our part” for Ukraine, he said.

Besides Lord Cameron being invited to kiss Taylor Greene’s ass for telling Congress how to act, there are other historic precedents warning against the United Kingdom and the United States getting so publicly involved in each other’s domestic politics.

One such instance — which David Cameron of all people should be mindful of — was when then-President Barrack Obama warned the British people they would be punished by the U.S. if they dared to vote to leave the European Union just weeks before the 2016 Brexit referendum.

The intervention went down extremely poorly and was seen as a boon to the Leave side at the time. Brexit leader Nigel Farage reflected that view years later when he said Cameron and Obama had “colluded” to try and frustrate Brexit with the American intervention, but expressed pleasure that it backfired for them, remarking: “Thank you President Obama we probably couldn’t have done it without you.”