WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden on Thursday ramped up his efforts to explain to Americans what is at stake as wars rage in Ukraine and the Middle East, and why the United States should send tens of billions of dollars in additional military aid to its embattled allies half a world away.
President Joe Biden on Thursday ramped up his efforts to explain to Americans what is at stake as wars rage in Ukraine and the Middle East, and why the United States should send tens of billions of dollars in additional military aid to its embattled allies half a world away.
After returning to Washington from a one-day visit to Israel following the Hamas terror attacks on Oct. 7, Biden is set to ask Congress for $10 billion in emergency assistance for Israel and $60 billion for Ukraine’s war with Russia, according to people familiar with the administration’s plans.
Aides said Biden had decided to make the case for the spending requests in a rare Oval Office speech to the nation Thursday night, even as polls suggest support among Americans for financial involvement in the two conflicts is far from universal.
A majority of people in recent surveys said the United States should help Israel in its fight with Hamas, but nearly a third of those in the president’s own party do not want to send weapons and military equipment. Support for continuing to arm Ukraine has dropped significantly since the war began nearly 20 months ago.
And in Congress, Biden’s request for what he called “unprecedented” foreign aid faces skepticism among some members of both parties: progressive Democrats who oppose sending arms to Israel and conservative Republicans who have questioned the need to add to the $133 billion in military and economic aid already sent to Ukraine.
Biden’s advisers say the president is seeking to build broader support for what he sees as a critical American response to the two grave struggles that he has said threaten democratic stability across the globe.
“We are going to make sure we have — you have what you need to protect your people, to defend your nation,” Biden told Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel on Wednesday, referencing the country’s air defense system.
