Rep. Claudia Tenney, R-N.Y., says there needs to be transparency before the U.S. continues to fund Ukraine's war against Russia.
"I think most Americans, including the people in my district, aren't against Ukraine. They're not against the suffering of the people of Ukraine. They're sympathetic. Many Ukrainian Americans live in my district and all across the country," Tenney said Wednesday during an appearance on Newsmax TV's "Spicer & Co." after President Joe Biden said the U.S. would continue to support Ukraine "as long as it takes."
"What we're upset about and what we don't understand is why this non-transparent process decided behind closed doors without having the accountability we have demanded over and over. There was a little bit of accountability added to the first couple of bills, but now we're at a point where we need to have some progress reports from this administration before we continue to fund this war," she added.
Just before Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy's arrival in D.C., the U.S. announced its largest single delivery of arms to Ukraine, including Patriot surface-to-air missiles, and Congress planned to vote on a spending package that includes about $45 billion in emergency assistance to Ukraine.
U.S. and Ukrainian officials have made clear they do not envision an imminent resolution to the war and are preparing for fighting to continue for some time. The latest infusion of U.S. money would be the biggest yet — and exceed Biden's $37 billion request.
Tenney said other countries should be stepping up more to help Ukraine, including "the Europeans" and "particularly some of the other members who are more directly affected."
She also suggested that "had we had a strong leader like President Trump, who was building our economy, as in America and strong on energy and energy independent, we probably wouldn't have seen this absolutely murderous and destructive invasion and war by [Russian President Vladimir] Putin into Ukraine in this modern era. … This has happened when we project weakness, when we have a war on energy, when we have countries like Germany who resisted the ability of keeping their people safe, their people energy independent, their people able to do something other than burn their own furniture to keep warm in the winter. This ridiculous energy policy, the economic policies of the Biden administration have really put us in such a weak position."
Information from the Associated Press was used in this report.
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Solange Reyner is a writer and editor for Newsmax. She has more than 15 years in the journalism industry reporting and covering news, sports and politics.
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