In a memo obtained by Pavlovic Today, White House Deputy Press Secretary and Senior Communications Adviser Andrew Bates criticizes Speaker Mike Johnson taking a vacation amidst escalating tensions between Iran and Russia.
Bates accuses Johnson of appeasing Iran by allowing House Republicans to continue their vacation while Iran potentially supplies ballistic missiles to Russia for attacks on Ukraine.
Bates warns of dire consequences if House Republicans fail to support Ukraine, accusing Johnson of prioritizing political objectives over American and NATO interests.
Read the memo in full below.
RE: Speaker Johnson stays on vacation while Iran considers sending Russia ballistic missiles and brags about murdering Ukrainians
Date: 2/23/2024
From: Deputy Press Secretary and Senior Communications Adviser Andrew Bates
This month Speaker Johnson declared, “We should not be appeasing Iran.” But that’s exactly what he’s doing by insisting House Republicans continue their excessive, undeserved vacation as their inaction inflicts worsening damage to Americans’ safety.
Iran is actively enabling Russia’s war in Ukraine and its attacks against Ukrainian cities. And Iran – the world’s leading sponsor of terrorism, whose proxies have increasingly attacked American service members as we stand with Israel after October 7th – may be close to providing Russia with ballistic missiles so they can slaughter more innocent Ukrainian civilians. In a news article yesterday, Iranian military officials even bragged about providing Russia with missiles that can be used to kill Ukrainian civilians.
President Biden is standing up to Iran. But where is Speaker Johnson’s supposed commitment not to “appease Iran” in all this? Nowhere. Instead, his inaction is benefiting Putin and the Ayatollah.
President Biden and an overwhelming majority of Republicans and Democrats in the Senate have acted on the most pressing national security needs of the American people, including with regard to Putin and Iran in Ukraine.
Putin has signaled he could attack NATO countries the United States is obligated to defend if he succeeds in Ukraine. If House Republicans facilitate Ukraine’s defeat, America could face costs infinitely more expensive than the bipartisan investments we need to make in Ukraine’s capacity to defend themselves.
Right now, Russians are murdering Ukrainian civilians with Iranian drones, artillery ammunition, and guided aerial bombs. In fact, Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi met with Putin in Moscow late last year to plot more economic and military collaboration.
However, even though Speaker Johnson has claimed in front of TV cameras that he recognizes the dire need to help Ukraine, and despite his aforementioned claims to oppose “appeasing” Iran, his actions say differently.
Instead, Speaker Johnson is siding with Putin, the regime in Tehran, and his perceived intra-conference political objectives over the wellbeing of the American people, Ukraine, and NATO.
Last week, Dan Balz wrote in The Washington Post that when it comes to national security, “Johnson’s actions fall far short of words. In fact, they have been in conflict.”
Nowhere is this more true than with regard to the pass Johnson is giving Iran.
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