View of The White House in Washington, DC on October 20, 2022. Jakub Porzycki/NurPhoto/Getty Images
The White House is downplaying a CNN poll that shows most Americans oppose Congress providing additional funding to support Ukraine in its war with Russia ahead of a reported administration request for more aid.
“We have seen throughout this war solid support from the American people, solid support from the Congress in a bipartisan and bicameral way for continuing to support Ukraine and we’re going to stay focused on that,” National Security Council Coordinator for Strategic Communications John Kirby told reporters Wednesday.
Kirby said the aid is not only important to the people of Ukraine but also to European and NATO allies “given that this fighting is on the doorstep” of many of those countries.
Additionally, he said, it’s a matter of “national security of the American people.”
“I think it’s important to remember that if we just sit back and we let Putin win, we let him take Ukraine, where does it stop next?” Kirby said.
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell called for continued support for Ukraine during an event in Louisville, Kentucky, on Wednesday. He pushed back on arguments from House Republicans — and some Senate Republicans — that Russian aggression in Ukraine is not an issue for the US.
“Most of the money that we spend related to Ukraine is actually spent in the US, replenishing weapons, more modern weapons. So, it’s actually employing people here and improving our own military for what may lie ahead,” he said.
What the poll says: Last week a CNN poll showed that overall 55% of people said the US Congress should not authorize additional funding to support Ukraine. That’s compared to 45% who said Congress should authorize such funding.
About 51% said that the US has already done enough to help Ukraine while 48% said it should do more.
A poll conducted in the early days of the Russian invasion in late February 2022 found 62% of people felt the US should have been doing more.
Partisan divisions have widened since that poll, too, with most Democrats and Republicans now on opposing sides of questions on the US role in Ukraine.
CNN’s Morgan Rimmer contributed reporting to this post.
Source link: https://www.cnn.com/europe/live-news/russia-ukraine-war-new-08-09-23/index.html