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lite.cnn.com - on gopher - inofficial | |
ARTICLE VIEW: | |
Biden signs foreign aid bill providing crucial military assistance to | |
Ukraine | |
By Michael Williams, Arlette Saenz and Kevin Liptak, CNN | |
Updated: | |
1:13 PM EDT, Tue April 30, 2024 | |
Source: CNN | |
President Joe Biden on Wednesday signed into law an aid package to | |
Ukraine, | |
The aid package, and nearly $61 billion in aid to Ukraine, $26 billion | |
for the Israel-Hamas conflict – including $15 billion in Israeli | |
military aid, $9 billion in humanitarian aid for Gaza and $2.4 billion | |
for regional US military operations – and $8 billion for the | |
Indo-Pacific. The package also includes a bill that could eventually | |
lead to the banning of TikTok in the United States - giving Chinese | |
parent company ByteDance roughly nine months to sell it or else it will | |
be banned from app stores in the United States. | |
Wearing a US-Ukrainian flag pin and speaking from the White House after | |
signing the bill on Wednesday, Biden said it was a “good day for | |
America, a good day for Ukraine and a good day for world peace.” | |
The aid package, Biden said, is “going to make America safer. It’s | |
going to make the world safer. And it continues America’s leadership | |
in the world.” | |
The signing of the aid package was the culmination of months of tense | |
negotiations, personal lobbying from Ukrainian President Volodymyr | |
Zelensky and a split in the House Republican conference that continues | |
to threaten the leadership position of House Speaker Mike Johnson. | |
Hardline House conservatives opposed further US funding to Kyiv and | |
threatened to oust Johnson over his handling of the negotiations. | |
Conservatives in Congress have opposed additional assistance for what | |
they view as an unwinnable war. | |
Biden had spent months lobbying Johnson to move forward with aid to | |
Ukraine, enlisting top administration officials and CIA Director Bill | |
Burns to lay out the stakes for Ukraine - and ultimately democracy in | |
Europe and across the world - if Russia continued to make inroads in | |
its military campaign there. | |
Earlier this year, Biden signaled his intentions to make significant | |
immigration-related concessions if Congress were to move forward with | |
the aid bill. Republicans in Congress had demanded those concessions, | |
but retreated from the issue after former President Donald Trump | |
signaled his opposition to allowing Biden to claim a win on an issue | |
Trump hopes to campaign on. | |
He acknowledged the bumpy road to get the package passed in his remarks | |
on Wednesday. | |
“It was a difficult path,” Biden said. “It should have been | |
easier. It should have gotten there sooner. But in the end, we did what | |
America always does: We rose to the moment, came together. We got it | |
done.” | |
Spending the bulk of his remarks talking about the Ukraine aid, Biden | |
noted that Russia has “been responsible for a brutal campaign against | |
Ukraine.” | |
“They’ve killed tens of thousands of Ukrainians,” Biden said, | |
“bombed hospitals … kindergartens, grain silos, tried to plunge | |
Ukraine into a cold dark winter.” | |
But left unsaid in that statement is something that is likely to cause | |
further frustrations from Biden’s left flank: Israel has also been | |
accused of targeting hospitals in Gaza, using hunger as a weapon of war | |
and carrying out an imprecise military campaign that has killed tens of | |
thousands of Palestinians, many of them children. The aid package | |
includes billions of dollars worth of additional military equipment for | |
that country. | |
Some of the Democrats who voted against the bill cited the Israel aid | |
as the reason why they did so. | |
The final vote in the Senate was 79-18. Fifteen Republicans voted with | |
two Democrats and an independent against the bill. Among the senators | |
who voted against the bill was Sen. Bernie Sanders, who spent time with | |
Biden earlier this week and said he was against further US funding of | |
Israel’s war in Gaza. | |
“Enough is enough,” Sanders said in a post on X shortly after the | |
bill’s passage. “No more money for [Israeli Prime Minister | |
Benjamin] Netanyahu’s war machine.” | |
Funding going to Ukraine quickly | |
The bill’s effects will be felt most quickly and acutely on | |
battlefields in Ukraine, whose soldiers have faced ammunition shortages | |
and battlefield losses in the absence of US assistance this year. | |
Biden said the shipments of military supplies to Ukraine will begin | |
“in the next few hours,” and would include air-defense equipment | |
and munitions for artillery and rocket systems, along with armored | |
vehicles. | |
The Pentagon announced a $1 billion aid package would go to Ukraine | |
just moments after Biden signed the bill into law. | |
Among the capabilities included in the new package is ammunition for | |
High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems (HIMARS), artillery rounds,� | |
RIM-7 and AIM-9M air defense missiles, Bradley Infantry Fighting | |
Vehicles, Stinger anti-aircraft missiles, and more. It also includes | |
various logistics and tactical vehicles, anti-armor systems, training | |
munitions and spare parts, and small arms ammunition including .50 | |
caliber rounds to counter drones. | |
CNN that administration officials have indicated to Congress the US | |
would send long-range Army Tactical Missile Systems, or ATACMS, a | |
system Ukraine has long asked for. The Pentagon after Biden spoke. | |
Biden secretly approved the transfer of the long-range missiles in | |
February for use inside Ukrainian territory. The ATACMS missiles were | |
then quietly included in the $300 million aid package announced on | |
March 12 and ultimately delivered to Ukraine earlier this month, | |
according to Pentagon spokesman Lt. Col. Garron Garn. | |
“It was not announced that we are providing Ukraine with this new | |
capability at the time in order to maintain operational security for | |
Ukraine at their request,” Garn said, deferring questions about their | |
use to Ukraine’s military. | |
Last fall, the US first sent Ukraine the mid-range variant of the | |
ATACMS missile system, which can reach about 100 miles, while the | |
longer-range version can reach as far as 190 miles. | |
Ukrainian officials have been asking the US in private and in public� | |
for the long-range missiles to target deeper behind Russian lines. | |
American officials have previously resisted, citing supply issues | |
and concerns about further provoking Moscow if they are deployed. | |
Biden’s campaign will continue to use TikTok | |
Biden’s campaign will still utilize TikTok to reach voters, officials | |
say, despite Biden signing the potential ban into law. | |
The decision underscores the fraught dynamic of the platform, which is | |
owned by a Chinese company. While national security officials, | |
including those in the Biden administration, have warned of its risks, | |
it remains enormously popular with young Americans, who Biden will rely | |
upon to win reelection. | |
Asked Wednesday whether the campaign would continue using the app, an | |
official said it would. | |
“A fragmented media environment requires us to show up and meet | |
voters where they are – and that includes online,” the official | |
said. “TikTok is one of many places we’re making sure our content | |
is being seen by voters. When the stakes are this high in the election, | |
we are going to use every tool we have to reach young voters where they | |
are. We are using enhanced security measures.” | |
Biden joined Tiktok earlier this year, and often posts video meant to | |
contrast his policies with Trump, who is not on the platform. | |
The bill Biden signed Wednesday gives TikTok’s Chinese parent, | |
ByteDance, 270 days to sell TikTok. Failure to do so would lead to | |
significant consequences: TikTok would be prohibited from US app stores | |
and from “internet hosting services” that support it. | |
That would effectively restrict new downloads of the app and | |
interaction with its content. Biden’s decision to sign the bill on | |
Wednesday puts the deadline for a sale at January 19, 2025. Under the | |
legislation, however, Biden could extend the deadline another 90 days | |
if he determines the company’s made progress toward a sale, giving | |
TikTok potentially up to a year before facing a ban. | |
This story has been updated with additional reporting. | |
CLARIFICATION: This story has been updated to more precisely describe | |
the aid bill and what it supports in Israel and Gaza during the ongoing | |
conflict. | |
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