Congress Must Grow a Backbone and President Zelensky Must Explain Mr. Yermak’s Undemocratic Governance

Washington, D.C. - President Biden’s approval rating has now fallen to 31%, but Congress refuses to reflect about our own institution. The approval rating for the U.S. Congress has fallen now to 16%, with an 82% disapproval rating.  Let’s think about this for a second – over 80% of Americans disapprove of the job Congress is doing. In fact, over the last decade, our job approval rating has never risen above the low 30’s. 

If Congress wants to build back its trust with the American people, we could use Ukraine as an example to strengthen that trust. Resolving the situation in Ukraine is in our national interest, but it cannot be done without proper leadership from the United States, or Ukraine will be turned into another Afghanistan. The only difference is that only Ukrainians are feeling the real pain so far where just their children are coming home in caskets by the thousands, but it might be just for now.

We know that results cannot be achieved without proper accountability. The following would help to stop this war in Ukraine and restore international order:

1. Congress must hold the Biden Administration accountable and be transparent with the American people. Nothing should preclude the Administration from publishing which agencies and officials within them are in charge of the funds, including amounts. They should also list amounts and all entities receiving these funds.

2. Congress should request streamlined logistics and oversight of lethal aid, as well as a joint task force to set up proper strategy – instead of ad-hoc procedures. The United States is sending serious weapons like javelins and stingers to a country with real threats of sabotage. Knowing this, why do we continue to leave our weapons at the border with Poland, not verifying they’ll be delivered as intended? Better oversight of logistics will mitigate risks and also improve the speed of delivery of much-needed weapons to the Ukrainian frontlines. Actually, a current lack of these processes is what is contributing to delays – I have seen it firsthand.

3. President Zelensky should provide answers to the Ukrainian people as to why Andriy Yermak is creating a per se dictatorship under the disguise of the ongoing war.  Is this what the Ukrainian people have been fighting for? Yermak has effectively taken control of all institutions and is threatening anyone speaking out against the government with criminal cases and jail as well as using his government powers to eliminate political opponents. I have heard many of these concerns in the US, Europe and Ukraine before but recently experienced them firsthand. It’s one thing for them to smear me on their government-controlled TV channels - not the first time for me as a politician – but they have not stopped there. They decided now to attack people who were just “lucky enough” to meet with me at some point and are not their political puppets. 

Under our recent pressure, Kyiv finally proceeded with an anticorruption prosecutor, which they have been stalling for almost two years. Although to compensate for this, Mr. Yermak is removing people who are not 100% compliant to him and could sabotage the prosecutor’s effectiveness. 

Whether the actions of Mr. Yermak are politically motivated, mercantile, or pro-Russian - it does not matter - they are a threat to the national security of Ukraine and our efforts there. President Zelensky must provide answers to Congress if he wants the American people to trust and support. I do not understand this notion that President Zelensky cannot be questioned. All leaders and presidents must be questioned - whether it’s Biden, Zelensky or Putin. Otherwise, we create an opportunity for dictatorship. As Thomas Paine once said: “A body of men holding themselves accountable to nobody ought not to be trusted by anybody.”

I continue to be attacked by foreign policy establishment elites, but all it takes is one look at their track record to see what “successes” they have achieved for the American people and the world – Afghanistan, Syria, China, Russia, Iran, Ukraine, Belarus, Georgia? – and the list goes on.

The fight for freedom is never easy, but I have full faith in the American people and the heroic Ukrainian fighters that together we will prevail.