Several conservatives agree with Senator JD Vance‘s (R-OH) memo, which circulated early Monday, claiming there is a “hidden” phrase in the national security supplemental bill that he believes might be used to impeach former President Donald Trump if he is elected later this year.
Vance addressed a memo to GOP members, emphasizing that the package, which would transfer billions of dollars to Ukraine, guarantees funding until September 2025. Trump, on the other hand, has promised to halt the war in Ukraine within 24 hours of taking office, thereby ending funding.
Vance’s memo claimed that the supplemental bill “represents an attempt by the foreign policy blob/deep state to stop President Trump from pursuing his desired policy, and if he does so anyways, to provide grounds to impeach him and undermine his administration,” and urged Republicans to oppose its passage.
I just sent the below memo to every one of my Republican colleagues in Congress.
Buried in the bill’s text is an impeachment time bomb for the next Trump presidency if he tries to stop funding the war in Ukraine.
We must vote against this disastrous bill. pic.twitter.com/uKqet9s0xd
VISIT OUR YOUTUBE CHANNEL— JD Vance (@JDVance) February 12, 2024
On Monday, Senator Rand Paul (R-KY) said he supported Vance’s statement, claiming that Democrats are “setting up” for a potential Trump presidential victory.
“They’re locking in foreign aid that will even tie the hands of the next president,” Paul said. “So, I think it’s a terrible idea. But also, if the next president were to try to have a different policy, you can see the Democrats again starting an impeachment.”
“I think they’re going to try to impeach him before he gains office now, and that’s exactly what this is,” he was quoted as saying.
Mark Paoletta, former OMB General Counsel during the Trump administration, told Fox News Digital in a statement that the clause in the bill text is a “effort to inappropriately tie President Trump’s hands in his next term by locking in Ukraine funding for multiple years.”
“In a presidential election year, Congress should not be making long-term funding commitments, particularly in foreign policy, that will attempt to tie the hands of the next commander-in-chief,” Paoletta said in a statement. “President Trump had every right to pause the Ukraine funding for about 60 days, given his concerns about corruption in Ukraine and how best to spend those funds.”
He went on to say, “As OMB General Counsel, I issued the legal justification to pause the funding, and would do it again today.”
Russ Vought, a former Trump cabinet official, agreed with Vance’s memo, saying in a post on X that Vance is “absolutely right to interpret these Ukraine provisions” in this way.
Sen. Tommy Tuberville, R-Ala., stated that the clause in the measure “is gonna force him to send money and spend money for Ukraine.”
“This is in the bill,” Tuberville told Fox News Digital. “So, it’s just another situation where the Democrats are doing something and working towards making sure that money’s spent in a certain area where American taxpayers and this country don’t have.”
In 2019, the OMB, which is part of the Trump government, kept about $400 million in security aid from Ukraine. This happened right before Trump asked Volodymyr Zelenskyy, the president of Ukraine, to look into the family of his 2020 opponent, Joe Biden. In return for the investigation, the White House is said to have denied Zelenskyy a visit to the Oval Office.
These activities spurred the impeachment drive against Trump, who was eventually acquitted.
Trump has stated that if elected president this year, he would end the conflict in Ukraine “within 24 hours.”
The additional package, which is expected to pass the upper house this week, will send billions of dollars to Ukraine, Israel, and the Indo-Pacific. The legislative text includes $1.6 billion to fund Ukraine’s military and slightly under $14 billion for the Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative, which is due to expire on September 30, 2025.
“These are the exact same accounts President Trump was impeached for pausing in December 2019,” Vance said in a memo sent to GOP offices early Monday. “Every single House Republican voted against this impeachment solution.”
The Senate is preparing for the final set of procedural votes Monday night to move the supplemental package forward for a final vote this week, despite numerous Republicans in opposition refusing to agree to a timetable and continuing to filibuster. It’s unclear whether the bill will succeed in the Republican-controlled House.
A previous version of this bill, which included border-related provisions, failed to clear the Senate last week.
The offices of Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) did not reply to Fox News Digital’s requests for comment on Vance’s memo.
#JDVance #NationalSecurityBill #TrumpImpeachment
