House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., asked the audience at the Conservative Political Action Conference on Thursday whether they wanted Congress to pass another spending bill for Ukraine.
A loud chorus of jeers echoed through the Gaylord National Resort & Convention Center in National Harbor, Maryland.
"Look, there's no appetite for that," Johnson told Newsmax host Rob Finnerty in an interview that aired live on Newsmax and the Newsmax2 online streaming platform. "We have to bring it to an end. And I can tell you that our European allies understand the necessity of this as well. It's drug on too long.
"By some estimates, Russia has lost almost 700,000 troops, maybe more. The Ukrainians have suffered great losses. We have to bring an end to the conflict."
Johnson said President Donald Trump "is the brute force" who can end the war, which will mark its third anniversary Monday. Trump recently talked by phone to Russian President Vladimir Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, and U.S. officials held a first round of peace talks this week with Russia in Saudi Arabia, even though Zelenskyy complained that his country wasn't invited.
"You've got to give him room to operate and do what he does," Johnson said of the president. "He's doing a level set. You've got to get both parties to come and bring about an end of this conflict, which will serve America's interests and everybody's interests around the world.
"But I think of it very much like a mediation or arbitration. If you're a lawyer, ... when you start a mediation, you start an arbitration between two parties. You don't bring them into the room for that first meeting. You do it separately.
"So I think Zelenskyy complaining that he wasn't invited to the first meeting in Saudi Arabia [with] Russia is misplaced. What Trump is trying to do is do a level set, put the conditions in place for that real negotiation to happen, and we've got to allow him to do what he does. Remember, he wrote 'The Art of the Deal.'"
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Michael Katz ✉
Michael Katz is a Newsmax reporter with more than 30 years of experience reporting and editing on news, culture, and politics.
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