Partisan Politics Shouldn’t Influence Smith’s Support for Ukraine

Congressman Chris Smith has rightfully joined the chorus of American politicians condemning Putin’s invasion of Ukraine. But when he criticizes President Biden, we should remember that Smith’s support for Ukraine is contingent upon which party controls the White House.

In 2015, Smith demanded the Obama administration increase aid to “our good friend and ally Ukraine” because “people are dying,” and repeatedly told then-Secretary of State John Kerry that “delay is denial.”

On March 2nd, while summarizing the recent history of US aid to Ukraine from the House floor and during a hearing with Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman, Smith again criticized the Obama administration. He then made a sudden jump to June of 2021, questioned why the Biden administration had placed an aid package on hold, and reprised his favorite phrase “delay is denial.”

Why the leap forward? What happened between the Obama administration and last summer?

It seems Smith does not want to talk about the fact that in 2019, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky asked Donald Trump for military aid, specifically Javelin anti-tank missiles, and was told he must first “do us a favor though” and announce phony investigations into Joe Biden and the conspiracy theory that Ukraine, not Russia, attacked the 2016 election.

Smith didn’t just endorse this behavior by voting against Trump’s first impeachment, he never even wanted to investigate – he voted against opening the inquiry and cosponsored a resolution of censure which accused Adam Schiff of lying about Trump’s “perfect call.”

Smith is free to criticize Biden for pausing a Ukrainian aid package this summer before a summit with Putin, but he wasn’t at all concerned when Trump withheld an aid package for 85 days in an attempted extortion, or when $35 million of that aid could not be spent in time and had to be renewed by Congress. And Trump’s eventual release of the aid (after details of his call with Zelensky were public) is no excuse. After all, “delay is denial.”

Smith is so worried (now) about delays in Ukrainian aid that he asked Sherman “for a timeline. How did this all come about? Did he (Zelensky) ask for more, and not get it? We need to know this, again, to learn from it, and get it right the next time.”

Considering that “Javelin missiles” and “do us a favor though” appeared in back-to-back sentences during Trump’s “perfect call,” Smith’s current concern for the specific content and timing of aid to Ukraine displays either astonishing hypocrisy or tragic memory loss.

Putin seems willing to pay a heavy price for invading Ukraine, and while it’s possible he would have attacked no matter what, there is certainly room for debate about whether more military aid would have been a deterrent. Smith clearly believes so, stating that “Robust stockpiles of weapons could have bought deterrence—and if necessary, a means for the Ukrainians to defend themselves from Putin’s violence”

Smith may be correct, but curiously, he is only concerned about delays in building up those stockpiles if the President is a Democrat.

The worst is likely yet to come for the Ukrainian people and we should do everything we can to help them in this fight. We must now find effective ways to counter Putin’s aggression without broadening the conflict. Smith’s clear-eyed talk on the risks of a no-fly zone and his proposal to immediately investigate Putin for war crimes are laudable. Let us hope that from now on, the choices Smith and others make regarding US aid to Ukraine are no longer governed by political expediency.