Visit our website:
http://www.france24.com
Like us on Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/FRANCE24.English
Follow us on Twitter:
https://twitter.com/France24_en
Category
🗞
NewsTranscript
00:00 Now Ukraine's president has confirmed rumors he's looking at replacing the country's top
00:04 general.
00:05 The shakeup has raised concerns among Ukrainians and observers over in Washington.
00:10 It comes as Republicans in the United States continue to block aid and much-needed munitions
00:14 to Kiev.
00:15 We can now bring in our international affairs commentator, Douglas Herbert.
00:18 Doug, great to see you.
00:19 How are you?
00:20 It doesn't look like Ukraine will be getting any substantial funding from the United States
00:24 until potentially after the U.S. elections.
00:26 Let's even take substantial out of there.
00:28 It looks like any aid to Ukraine, military or otherwise, is basically about to collapse.
00:32 Why?
00:33 It all boils down to Donald Trump.
00:34 Now let's do the back story.
00:36 Let me explain what I mean by that.
00:38 One French news outlet actually headlined today, editorially, "Trump Sacrifices Ukraine
00:43 for His Campaign."
00:44 What are we talking about?
00:46 For months, for months, the Republicans in Congress, the MAGA beholden, most of them
00:52 Republicans, that is beholden to Trump, have been demanding, "Okay, Joe Biden.
00:57 You want aid for Israel and Ukraine?
00:59 You want to tie them together?
01:01 Okay, fine.
01:02 Let's do it.
01:03 Let's negotiate.
01:04 You give us a clampdown on border security, that is U.S.-Mexico immigration border security,
01:10 much stricter restrictions on who can enter and the conditions under which they can stay,
01:16 and then we'll talk.
01:17 We'll talk about aid to Ukraine."
01:19 So what happened?
01:20 Well, it looked like as of last Sunday, there had been a deal, bipartisan, a compromise
01:25 in the Senate between Democrats and Republicans, almost unheard of these days, on just such
01:30 a package, which would tie wartime aid for Ukraine and Israel, and also other allies,
01:35 with tougher immigration measures.
01:38 And by tougher, I mean much tougher.
01:40 We're talking about a package of draconian immigration restrictions in terms of who can
01:45 come for asylum, expulsions, the conditions, detentions, all of it.
01:50 It seemed to meet everything on the Republicans' wish list, except for one thing.
01:56 Donald Trump, who never read the text of the bill before it was released, was already slamming
02:01 it, and he was basically already signaling and telling Republicans in Congress, "Do not
02:07 pass this deal," which leads to a lot of people on Capitol Hill, skeptical and not so skeptical,
02:13 to say that this is not about what's in the immigration bill.
02:17 This is about Republicans doing the bidding of Donald Trump for his campaign.
02:22 Donald Trump needs to use immigration or the lack of immigration reform, which is badly
02:27 needed in America, as a cudgel with which to beat Joe Biden, to make him look weak,
02:32 to make him look fumbling, to make him look like he is presiding over, deliberately presiding
02:37 over intentionally, chaos at the border.
02:40 So he could not have a package.
02:42 No matter what was in that package, you could argue, there was no way it was going to pass
02:45 muster with Donald Trump.
02:46 He needs this to campaign.
02:48 So the bill's about to fall on the wayside, not just in the House, which is hard line,
02:51 really hard line, but also Republicans in the Senate seem to be abandoning ship.
02:56 No one wants to basically cross Donald Trump, who isn't back in the White House yet.
03:01 The election isn't going to happen.
03:02 And he's not even back on the Republican ticket for now.
03:04 Exactly.
03:05 So what are the consequences of all of this?
03:07 The consequences?
03:08 Well, don't trust me.
03:10 Let's hear it from the real horse's mouth, the CIA chief.
03:13 CIA Director William Burns, a man who has been present on many geopolitical fronts lately,
03:19 including in the Middle East.
03:21 He recently wrote an article, a pretty hard hitting article in Foreign Affairs magazine.
03:25 And he wrote, and let's bring it up.
03:27 This is what he said with regard to if the US ditches the 60 billion dollars, which was
03:31 in this package to Ukraine, he wrote, it's a long quote, but worth looking at.
03:36 Keeping the arms flowing will put Ukraine in a stronger position if an opportunity for
03:41 serious negotiations emerge.
03:43 It offers a chance to ensure a long term win for Ukraine, a strategic loss for Russia.
03:48 Ukraine could safeguard its sovereignty and rebuild while Russia would be left to deal
03:51 with the enduring costs of Putin's folly.
03:55 For the US, here's the clincher, to walk away from the conflict at this crucial moment and
03:59 cut off support to Ukraine would be an own goal of historic proportions.
04:04 That is a really bad mistake.
04:06 It's not just the US sitting up and taking notice at the breakdown of this deal, apparent
04:11 breakdown.
04:12 There are also European allies who say that this jeopardizes all of transatlantic security.
04:17 This is a big deal because it shows that immigration has always been an almost intractable debate
04:21 and matter over decades in the US.
04:23 But with the way right now the MAGA party is rallying behind Donald Trump and doing
04:27 his bidding almost blindly, it's frustrating not just Democrats, but Republicans as well,
04:34 who some of whom were in favor of this package, but see how their party, how the chips are
04:38 falling in the party, and once again are unwilling or unable for political reasons to cross Donald
04:44 Trump.
04:45 So Donald Trump dictating everything.
04:46 I will just note the Republicans in the House, the hardliners, they are putting forward their
04:50 own alternative proposal for $17 billion plus in aid just for Israel.
04:55 Standalone package for Israel.
04:57 Joe Biden, the White House says that is dead on arrival.
04:59 They will veto a unilateral bill.
05:01 I like how you've renamed the Republican Party the MAGA party.
05:04 Thank you.