{"id":22357,"date":"2024-01-08T01:52:06","date_gmt":"2024-01-08T07:52:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/?p=22357"},"modified":"2024-01-08T01:52:12","modified_gmt":"2024-01-08T07:52:12","slug":"us-house-speaker-suggests-corruption-a-concern-in-washington-kiev","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/?p=22357","title":{"rendered":"US House Speaker Suggests Corruption a Concern in Washington, Kiev"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size\"><strong>House leader Mike Johnson called for oversight of Ukraine aid, continued investigation of Biden, and a renewed focus on the US\u2019 southern border.<\/strong><strong><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size\">US House Speaker Mike Johnson&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.cbsnews.com\/news\/mike-johnson-house-speaker-face-the-nation-transcript-01-07-2024\/\">called for<\/a>&nbsp;greater oversight of US aid to Ukraine Sunday, suggesting concerns over corruption in Kiev played a role in many Republicans\u2019 hesitancy to approve further funding.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size\">\u201cWhat is the endgame in Ukraine?\u201d asked the lawmaker rhetorically during a television interview. \u201cWhat is our strategy? What is the objective? How will we have proper oversight over these precious taxpayer dollars?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size\">\u201cWhat we&#8217;re saying is, let&#8217;s do this in a rational manner,\u201d he added. \u201cWe need accountability for the people who are funding that. The White House has not been forthcoming with those answers,\u201d Johnson stressed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size\">Americans\u2019 support for arming Ukraine has&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/sputnikglobe.com\/20231228\/cause-du-jour-to-yesterdays-news-western-medias-evolving-2023-coverage-on-ukraine-1115862086.html\">declined sharply<\/a>&nbsp;over the last several months with&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.rt.com\/news\/587823-american-support-ukraine-decline-poll\/\">a plurality now saying<\/a>&nbsp;the US has sent too much money to the country. The anti-establishment flank of the Republican Party has led the charge against Ukraine aid as President Zelensky\u2019s vaunted 2023 counteroffensive against Russia was widely considered a failure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size\">Some Republicans have also alleged an axis of corruption extending from US President Joe Biden to Kiev. Former President Donald Trump famously attempted to have authorities in Ukraine investigate the Biden family\u2019s ties to the country, which are under a cloud of controversy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size\">Meanwhile Ukraine has been&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/news\/2015\/feb\/04\/welcome-to-the-most-corrupt-nation-in-europe-ukraine\">dubbed<\/a>&nbsp;\u201cthe most corrupt nation in Europe\u201d by journalists, with various data supporting the dubious honor. It was&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.euractiv.com\/section\/global-europe\/news\/investigation-ukraine-buys-huge-amounts-of-russian-fuels-from-bulgaria\/\">reported<\/a>&nbsp;a year ago that the Kiev regime was using US aid to purchase Russian oil even as the two countries battled in the Donbass region, with officials pocketing the money saved from buying the cheaper fuel.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size\">House Republicans pursued an impeachment inquiry against Biden late last year after it was revealed he had greater knowledge of his son Hunter Biden\u2019s business dealings than he originally claimed. Johnson slammed the Biden administration\u2019s lack of cooperation with their efforts, noting \u201cthe investigation has been impeded, the White House has suddenly refused to turn over documents that have been requested and certain witnesses that are key to unwinding exactly what happened.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size\">\u201cWe have investigated these credible claims [of corruption], whistleblowers have come forward, we had three different committees of the House do extensive investigation on this,\u201d he added. \u201cThe investigations led to a certain point, the truth has been followed wherever it led, because that&#8217;s the responsibility of Congress.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size\">Investigations have revealed that Biden was with his son Hunter during phone calls where Hunter discussed business dealings in Ukraine. Republicans have also unearthed a web of complex companies and financial maneuvers the Biden family has used to move money around. Biden was&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/rollcall.com\/2012\/07\/02\/vice-presidential-hopefuls-include-wealthiest-and-poorest-members-of-congress\/\">previously<\/a>&nbsp;one of the poorest US senators with a reported net worth of negative $106,000 in 2008, but his financial fortunes have dramatically&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/politics\/once-the-poorest-senator-middle-class-joe-biden-has-reaped-millions-in-income-since-leaving-the-vice-presidency\/2019\/06\/25\/931458a8-938d-11e9-b570-6416efdc0803_story.html\">improved<\/a>&nbsp;since his time as vice president under Barack Obama.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size\">\u201cYou have more than $20 million that has been moved to the Biden family through many of their shell companies and in LLCs, that they set up. We know that a lot of that money came from foreign adversaries,\u201d Johnson claimed Sunday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size\">\u201cWe know that Joe Biden discussed Hunter Biden&#8217;s business dealings at least 22 times with his associates from these foreign countries, and we know he was not truthful about it, he lied about the American people at least 16 times on record,\u201d he added. \u201cSo it raises a lot of questions.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size\">Johnson also insisted any further US aid to Ukraine must be accompanied by funds devoted to border security; House Republicans have made repeated efforts to legislatively link the two issues in recent weeks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size\">\u201cWe must secure the US border before we secure anyone else&#8217;s,\u201d Johnson insisted.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size\"><a href=\"https:\/\/sputnikglobe.com\/20240107\/us-house-speaker-suggests-corruption-a-concern-in-washington-kiev-1116044065.html\">Sputnikglobe<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>House leader Mike Johnson called for oversight of Ukraine aid, continued investigation of Biden, and a renewed focus on the US\u2019 southern border. US House Speaker Mike Johnson&nbsp;called for&nbsp;greater oversight of US aid to Ukraine Sunday, suggesting concerns over corruption in Kiev played a role in many Republicans\u2019 hesitancy to approve further funding. \u201cWhat is [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":22358,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[5517,25681,2628,25682,1589,1368,10442,1227],"class_list":["post-22357","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-politics","tag-concern","tag-corruption-issues","tag-kiev","tag-recommendations","tag-representatives","tag-speaker","tag-us","tag-washington"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22357","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=22357"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22357\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":22359,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22357\/revisions\/22359"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/22358"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=22357"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=22357"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=22357"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}