{"id":4271474,"date":"2024-04-24T12:15:24","date_gmt":"2024-04-24T19:15:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/4271474///wp-json/wp/v2/posts/4271474//www.sbsun.com/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/4271474//?p=4271474&preview=true&preview_id=4271474"},"modified":"2024-04-24T12:43:32","modified_gmt":"2024-04-24T19:43:32","slug":"to-pass-ukraine-aid-reagan-republican-leaders-in-congress-navigated-a-party-transformed-by-trump","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/4271474///wp-json/wp/v2/posts/4271474//www.sbsun.com/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/4271474//2024/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/4271474//04/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/4271474//24/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/4271474//to-pass-ukraine-aid-reagan-republican-leaders-in-congress-navigated-a-party-transformed-by-trump/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/4271474//","title":{"rendered":"To pass Ukraine aid, /wp-json/wp/v2/posts/4271474/u2018Reagan Republican/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/4271474/u2019 leaders in Congress navigated a party transformed by Trump"},"content":{"rendered":"

By STEPHEN GROVES and MARY CLARE JALONICK/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/4271474/n

WASHINGTON /wp-json/wp/v2/posts/4271474/u2014 For Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell and House Speaker Mike Johnson, the necessity of providing Ukraine with weapons and other aid as it fends off Russia/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/4271474/u2019s invasion is rooted in their earliest and most formative political memories./wp-json/wp/v2/posts/4271474/n

McConnell, 82, tells the story of his father/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/4271474/u2019s letters from Eastern Europe in 1945, at the end of World War II, when the foot soldier observed that the Russians were /wp-json/wp/v2/posts/4271474/u201cgoing to be a big problem/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/4271474/u201d before the communist takeover to come. Johnson, 30 years younger, came of age as the Cold War was ending./wp-json/wp/v2/posts/4271474/n

As both men pushed their party this week to support a $95 billion aid package that sends support to Ukraine, as well as Israel, Taiwan and humanitarian missions, they labeled themselves /wp-json/wp/v2/posts/4271474/u201cReagan Republicans/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/4271474/u201d an described the fight against Russian President Vladimir Putin in terms of U.S. strength and leadership. But the all-out effort to get the legislation through Congress left both of them grappling with an entirely new Republican Party shaped by former President Donald Trump./wp-json/wp/v2/posts/4271474/n