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Republicans defy Johnson to advance Democrat-backed Ukraine aid
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House Democrats scored a rare victory on Wednesday after the chamber voted to advance a security package providing new military aid for Ukraine and imposing steep sanctions on Russia.
The Democrat-sponsored legislation cleared a procedural vote 218-204 with all Democrats present voting in the affirmative. Seven members of the House Republican conference supported the measure in a notable display of defiance against GOP leadership.
The defecting Republicans included Reps. Don Bacon, R-Neb., Brian Fitzpatrick, R-Pa., Mike Lawler, R-N.Y., Michael McCaul, R-Texas, Max Miller, R-Ohio, and Joe Wilson, R-S.C. Additionally, Rep. Kevin Kiley, I-Calif., an independent who caucuses with Republicans, also voted to advance the bill.
The security package would reaffirm U.S. support for Ukraine and NATO, authorize more than $1 billion in new military assistance, support Ukraine’s postwar reconstruction, and impose new sanctions on Russia and entities that support its war effort if Moscow continues the war, among other provisions.
WASHINGTON, DC – JUNE 03: U.S. Speaker of the House Mike Johnson (R-LA) answers questions from reporters during a press conference at the U.S. Capitol on June 03, 2026 in Washington, DC. ((Photo by Win McNamee/Getty Images))
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The measure now heads for a vote on final passage, where it is expected to pass as soon as Thursday.
Its fate in the Republican-controlled Senate remains uncertain, where a bipartisan effort to impose sweeping sanctions on Russia has stalled for more than a year despite overwhelming support. Trump is expected to veto the legislation if it reaches his desk.
The vote came after Democrats and a handful of Republicans teamed up to force consideration of the legislation over the objections of House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., who controls the floor.
Fitzpatrick, Bacon and Kiley crossed party lines to sign the Democratic-led discharge petition, a legislative maneuver that allows lawmakers to trigger a vote on legislation with majority support.
«This is our opportunity to provide the leverage that could prove decisive in ending this conflict on acceptable terms in a way that will deter future Russian aggression,» Kiley, an independent lawmaker, told Fox News Digital in an interview.
«It’s just inconceivable that we should not be having additional sanctions against working with Putin,» Rep. Joe Wilson, R-S.C., who supported the underlying bill’s advancement, told Fox News. «Over and over again, we need to be standing with the courageous people of Ukraine.»
«We need to stop what Putin is doing, which is trying to resurrect the Soviet Union,» he added.
Rep. Kevin Kiley, I-Calif., was the 218th signature on the discharge petition forcing a vote on the Ukraine Support Act. (Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc.)
6 HOUSE REPUBLICANS DEFY TRUMP ON KEY AGENDA ITEM IN DEM-PUSHED VOTE
The measure was vigorously opposed by Republican leadership, who argued the pro-Ukraine measure was poorly drafted and undermined the administration’s efforts to end the years-long conflict, which has been estimated to have killed hundreds of thousands.
The bill calls for NATO countries to increase defense spending to 2% of GDP prior to NATO’s Washington Summit — an event that occurred nearly two years ago in July 2024. Trump also secured a newer commitment from allies in 2025 to hike defense spending to 5% of their economic output over the course of a decade.
Additionally, the legislation mandates that Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, a taxpayer-funded outlet, have its funding restored after the Trump administration sought to cut off the outlet’s congressionally approved funding in 2025. Federal courts later ordered the funding restored amid an ongoing legal battle.
The Russia-Ukraine war has continued with no end in sight, despite Trump’s vow to end the conflict upon returning to office.
Proponents of the Ukraine Support Act argue that the legislative branch should pressure the Trump administration to take a harder line against Russian President Vladimir Putin.
«This is the moment for Congress to assert itself,» Kiley told Fox News Digital. «We’re seeing just further brutality on the part of Russia now, and so I think that if Congress gets involved in a meaningful way, it could provide the decisive leverage to finally bring about a resolution.»
The successful discharge petition is the latest instance in which a majority of lawmakers have worked around Johnson’s opposition to put legislation on the floor.
«Democrats have repeatedly governed in the minority as if we were in the majority, and we’re going to do so again this week,» House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., said Tuesday, arguing his party is displaying support for «the free world, for democracy, for truth and the Ukrainian people» by forcing a vote on the security package.
House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., speaks with reporters as he walks to his office after a press conference at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C., on March 27, 2026. (Samuel Corum/Getty Images)
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The use of discharge petitions, a rarely used tool historically deployed by the minority, has exploded under Johnson’s leadership.
A coalition of Democrats and a handful of Republicans has used the legislative maneuver to force votes on legislation compelling the release of the Epstein files, extending legal protections to Haitian nationals and overturning a regulation targeting federal employees’ collective bargaining rights.
congress, ukraine, democrats, republicans, sanctions
INTERNACIONAL
Estados Unidos aumenta la presión sobre Cuba: más sanciones a empresas y un guiño a la petrolera Exxon Mobil
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New York City’s socialist Mayor Zohran Mamdani did it again.
One year after sending political shock waves across the country with his New York City Democratic primary victory on his way to winning election as mayor of the nation’s most populous city, Mamdani tested the limits of his political powers.
And he easily passed the test, upending the Democratic Party establishment as a trio of Mamdani-endorsed far-left congressional candidates won their primaries over more moderate incumbents and rivals.
Mamdani was the biggest winner on Tuesday, but President Donald Trump also covered his bases, as New York, Maryland, Utah and South Carolina held primaries and runoff elections.
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Congressional candidates Claire Valdez, Brad Lander, Darializa Avila Chevalier, and Mayor Zohran Mamdani raise their hands during a Get Out the Vote rally at King’s Theater in New York City on June 18, 2026. Sen. Bernie Sanders joined Mamdani ahead of the primary and early voting to campaign for the candidates challenging incumbents in Democratic primary contests. (Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images)
Democrats lurching left
The mayor’s most shocking victory came in New York’s 13th Congressional District, where Mamdani-backed candidate Darializa Avila Chevalier, a 32-year-old community organizer and democratic socialist, narrowly topped incumbent Democrat Adriano Espaillat, the 71-year-old Congressional Hispanic Caucus chair and the first Dominican American elected to the U.S. House.
Espaillat, who has been in Congress for a decade, was supported by a slew of party leaders, including New York Gov. Kathy Hochul.
MAMDANI-BACKED SOCIALIST WITH HISTORY OF ANTI-AMERICAN RHETORIC WINS VICIOUS DEM PRIMARY RACE
In the race to succeed retiring Democratic Rep. Nydia Velazquez, Mamdani-endorsed state Assembly Member Claire Valdez, who is also aligned with the Democratic Socialists of America, downed Brooklyn Borough President Antonio Reynoso by double digits. Reynoso, who was supported by Velazquez, was downed by more than 20 points.
«Tonight, we haven’t just won an election. We have declared that this movement is durable — that it is growing, and that it will not stop until working people are no longer asked to just build the table, no longer just offered a seat at the table, but will run the table,» Valdez said in declaring victory.
And a third Mamdani-backed congressional candidate, progressive Brad Lander, crushed incumbent Democratic Rep. Dan Goldman. Lander, the former New York City comptroller, ran against Mamdani last year in the crowded Democratic primary field but became one of his biggest backers in the general election.
Chevalier, Valdez, and Lander showcased the mayor’s platform of focusing on affordability in a city with one of the nation’s highest costs of living. And all three were very critical of Israel.
MAMDANI STANDS BY FELLOW SOCIALIST CANDIDATE DESPITE RESURFACED FAR-LEFT, ANTI-AMERICAN POSTS
Lander, who is Jewish, said in his victory speech, «You can criticize Israel and not be antisemitic. You can be an anti-Zionist and not be antisemitic
It was a risky bet for Mamdani, just six months into his tenure as New York City mayor, to take on the establishment, but he comes out of the primary as an emboldened kingmaker in the party.
Mamdani, who campaigned relentlessly for all three congressional candidates, had emphasized that the Democratic Party «must change.»
And on Tuesday night, at the Valdez primary celebration, the mayor said, «Let’s hear it for a politics…that will never forget working people. For a politics that is ready to write a new chapter in our party’s history, and for a politics that realizes the old politics that got us to this crisis, is not the politics that’s going to get us out of this crisis.»
Progressive Rep. Ro Khanna of California, a potential 2028 Democratic presidential contender, said that the results in New York City «shows we have a new party.»
But the results also give Republicans, who have long cast Mamdani as a radical, more ammunition to use him as a cudgel as they work to hold their razor-thin House majority in this year’s midterm elections.
REPUBLICANS RELENTLESSLY USE MAMDANI AS SOCIALIST CUDGEL TO BASH VULNERABLE DEMOCRATS
«Tonight wasn’t just a bad night for so-called ‘Leader’ Hakeem Jeffries. It was the night the Democrat establishment officially surrendered to Zohran Mamdani and the socialist wing of their party. Every House Democrat, in safe and competitive districts alike, will now answer to the radicals calling the shots. And Americans should be terrified by where the Democrat Party is headed,» National Republican Congressional Committee spokesman Mike Marinella argued in a statement.
Trump wins again
The power of the Trump endorsement in GOP primaries was tested again, this time in New York.
And the president prevailed.
Trump-backed first-time candidate Anthony Constantino, a businessman and former boxer, defeated Robert Smullen, a retired Marine Corps colonel and New York assemblyman who had the backing of the state party, in the upstate New York race to succeed retiring GOP Rep. Elise Stefanik.
Meanwhile, in South Carolina’s Republican gubernatorial runoff, Trump couldn’t lose.
That’s because he endorsed both candidates in the race to succeed term-limited GOP Gov. Henry McMaster.
State Attorney General Alan Wilson defeated Lt. Gov. Pamela Evette in a landslide.
TRUMP CAN’T LOSE IN HIGH PROFILE REPUBLICAN RUNOFF
Trump endorsed Evette late last month, a week and a half before the gubernatorial primary.
Evette finished on top of a crowded field of contenders in the primary election, with Wilson second. The field also included Reps. Nancy Mace and Ralph Norman, and multimillionaire businessman Rom Reddy. Since no candidate won a majority of the vote, as the top two finishers, Evette and Wilson advanced to Tuesday’s runoff.
Mace and Norman endorsed Wilson after failing to advance to the runoff. And Wilson was also backed a week ago by Sen. Ted Cruz, the conservative firebrand from Texas.
Trump, meanwhile, made an 11th-hour endorsement on Friday, backing Wilson in addition to his earlier endorsement of Evette, in what appeared to be a move by the president to hedge his bet.
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Wilson, who topped Evette by a more than two-to-one margin as the votes continued to be counted, gave a shout-out to the president in his victory speech.
«I believe he recognized what we’ve been doing,» Wilson said of Trump. «I think he saw the fight in our campaign and the energy in our campaign. I think he likes a fight. I think that’s what won him over.»
democrats elections, midterm elections, donald trump, governors, zohran mamdani, republicans elections
INTERNACIONAL
Rusia lanzó un nuevo ataque masivo con drones y misiles sobre el este de Ucrania: al menos un muerto
Durante la noche del martes y la mañana del miércoles, un nuevo ataque de Rusia contra Ucrania dejó un muerto al este del país, en Kharkiv. Un bombardeo nocturno con drones sobre la ciudad de Balakliya, en la región ucraniana, causó la muerte de una mujer de 56 años, de acuerdo con Oleg Synegubov, jefe de la administración militar regional. Durante el mismo ataque, una mujer de 21 años sufrió una “reacción de estrés agudo”, y se reportaron incendios y daños en viviendas.
Por otra parte, en Sebastopol, ciudad bajo control ruso en Crimea, un ataque atribuido a fuerzas ucranianas dejó a la ciudad sin suministro eléctrico, según informó el gobernador Mikhail Razvozhayev. Razvozhayev exhortó a la población a reservar el uso de teléfonos para comunicaciones de emergencia, con el fin de evitar la sobrecarga de la red eléctrica. “El enemigo vuelve a atacar a traición, intentando privarnos de unas condiciones de vida normales y sembrar el pánico”, escribió el gobernador en Telegram.
Crimea fue anexada por Rusia en 2014 y constituye un punto logístico clave en el conflicto. Ucrania ataca regularmente el territorio con misiles y drones. Mientras tanto, Rusia mantiene una campaña diaria de bombardeos sobre Ucrania con drones y misiles desde el inicio de la invasión, que ya cumple cinco años. Ucrania ha incrementado sus propios ataques, dirigiéndose con frecuencia a depósitos de petróleo y refinerías en territorio ruso, que, según Kiev, financian el esfuerzo de guerra ruso.
En las últimas semanas, Moscú intensificó sus ataques contra Kharkiv, la segunda ciudad más grande de Ucrania: bombas rusas impactaron el sábado pasado un edificio de apartamentos y provocó la muerte de al menos una persona y dejó otras nueve heridas, entre ellos un niño de 6 años.
El alcalde Ihor Terekhov comunicó en Telegram que, horas después del ataque, se recuperó un cuerpo de entre los escombros. Las bombas alcanzaron un edificio de baja altura en el distrito de Kholodnohirskiy durante la madrugada.
El jefe de la administración regional, Syniehubov, precisó que al menos nueve personas resultaron heridas y cinco de ellas permanecieron hospitalizadas. En otro ataque registrado el viernes por la noche, un dron ruso impactó un vehículo civil en otra zona de Kharkiv, causando la muerte de un hombre y heridas a la conductora, según añadió Syniehubov.
Las hostilidades rusas circulan por la misma vía que las declaraciones del presidente ruso Vladimir Putin, quien insiste en continuar con la invasión ya que no están dadas, bajo su mirada, las condiciones optimas para negociar la paz en Ucrania.
Por este motivo, el líder del Kremlin descartó el martes cualquier acercamiento con Ucrania para negociar el fin de la guerra, argumentando que la reciente solicitud de diálogo directo realizada por el mandatario ucraniano Volodimir Zelensky no generó condiciones favorables para entablar negociaciones ni para un encuentro personal entre ambos líderes.
Zelensky había presentado la propuesta en una carta abierta dirigida al Kremlin y publicada el 5 de junio, en la que exigía un alto el fuego inmediato y un encuentro cara a cara con Putin. En ese mensaje, también afirmó que “los rusos están cansados tanto de él como de la guerra”.
Durante el Foro Económico de San Petersburgo, Putin calificó la carta como un “papelito” y la describió como “grosera en partes”. A su vez, sostuvo que ese tipo de comunicados no allanan el camino hacia la paz y los vinculó a un ataque con drones ucraniano contra una residencia estudiantil en Starobilsk ocurrido tres días después de la carta.
“No, ese tipo de comunicados no crean las condiciones necesarias”, afirmó Putin en respuesta a un militar que le consultó sobre la posibilidad de negociaciones. “¿A qué se reducen, al fin y al cabo? A crear, por el contrario, cierto potencial de conflicto”, agregó, y cuestionó las intenciones de Kiev al señalar que, mientras se habla de encuentros personales, “tres días después” ocurre un ataque como el de Starobilsk.
(Con información de AFP)
War,Europe,Military Conflicts
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