“Speaker of the US House of Representatives Mike Johnson said on Wednesday that he will not meet with President Volodymyr Zelenskyi on Thursday. Source: Johnson’s press conference, Voice of America correspondent Kateryna Lisunova on Facebook When asked if Johnson would meet with Zelensky, and if not, whether it was because of Zelensky’s trip to Pennsylvania, the speaker replied that he was unable to schedule a meeting with Zelensky this week. because he was very busy.”, — write: www.pravda.com.ua
Speaker of the US House of Representatives Mike Johnson said on Wednesday that he will not meet with President Volodymyr Zelenskyi on Thursday.
Source: Johnson’s press conference, “Voice of America” correspondent Kateryna Lisunova on Facebook
Asked if Johnson would meet with Zelenskyi, and if not, whether it was because of Zelenskyi’s trip to Pennsylvania, the speaker said he was unable to schedule a meeting with Zelenskyi this week because he was very busy.
Direct speech Johnson: “And I don’t even think I’ll be in town tomorrow.
But look what I would tell him if we sat down, we would talk about this letter about the ambassador.
I think it was a terrible development and it is straining relations between the two countries at a very unfortunate time for Ukraine, so I regret it.”
Details: Zelensky has several meetings scheduled for Thursday in the US Congress. At 9:00 a.m., the bipartisan meeting closed in the Senate. Senator Chuck Schumer and Senator Mitch McConnell will accompany the President of Ukraine to the meeting hall. The meeting will last about 1-1.5 hours.
At 11 a.m., the House of Representatives will also hold a closed bipartisan meeting of the House Armed Services Committee. Gregory Meeks and Michael McCall are expected to participate. The meeting will last about 1 hour.
Prehistory:
- Earlier this week, Zelenskyi visited a military plant in Scranton that produces metal casings for 155-mm shells, which are urgently needed by the Ukrainian army.
- The BBC reports that Scranton is the hometown of President Joe Biden, and Pennsylvania is almost the main state that will decide the outcome of the November presidential election. In Scranton, Zelensky was met by state governor Josh Shapiro, Pennsylvania senator Bob Casey and congressman Matt Cartwright. They are all Democrats.
- All this caused noticeable dissatisfaction among some Republicans, who perceived the Ukrainian president’s trip to a key state as a form of campaigning for their opponents.
- On Thursday, Zelensky is expected to visit the Capitol and meet with lawmakers from both parties, but Johnson will not be among them.
- Johnson played an important role in the adoption in April (after many months of delays) of a bill that allocated $61 billion to support Ukraine and related purposes. The most radical opponents of this among the Republicans threatened the speaker with removal from office if he put this bill to a vote; the initiative to remove it ultimately failed.