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Marco Rubio slams Biden's Ukraine aid halt, trolls remind him of Trump extortion

Marco Rubio compares Joe Biden's freezing of Ukraine aid to Donald Trump's, asks 'remember when it was an impeachable offence'

The Joe Biden administration has put military aid to Ukraine on hold ahead of the Biden-Putin summit in Switzerland. One person who didn't seem very happy with that was Florida Senator Marco Rubio, whose tweet on the matter led to plenty of trolling, and schooling. 

The highly anticipated bilateral meeting in Geneva was part of President Biden's first foreign trip as POTUS. On June 16, Biden and Putin kicked off their summit with a frosty handshake, before disappearing for five hours to discuss a range of topics. Even before the meeting though, there was plenty of buildup. Former President Trump couldn't resist weighing in, trolling Biden, and telling him "don’t fall asleep" at the meeting. 

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While the meeting appeared to have gone well, with both sides offering positive comments to the press, at home things are quite different. The Republican Party wasted little time in slamming Biden, and as Rubio showed, they seem to still harbor resentment over Trump's two impeachments. Rubio's controversial tweet referenced Trump's first impeachment, tied to Ukraine. 

Rubio says freezing aid an 'impeachable offense'

On June 18, Politico published a story about how the Biden administration had held up a $100 million aid package. Reportedly, the National Security Council (NSC) decided to put that package on hold after Russia announced it was drawing down troops near Ukraine ahead of the Biden-Putin summit. The package is currently frozen but could be sent anytime the administration deems it necessary. Amongst other things, it includes money for short-range air defense systems, small arms and anti-tank weapons.

Rubio tweeted that story, saying, "Remember when freezing military aid to Ukraine was an impeachable offense?" That tweet is in reference to the time Trump threatened to freeze military aid to Ukraine, for which he was impeached. Of course, Rubio missed out on some of the specifics that Twitter was quick to school him on. For one, Biden's freeze isn't contingent on Ukraine, but rather Russia. For another, Trump asked Ukraine to do him a favor in exchange for aid, which the Biden administration has not done. 

Trump's request for a quid-pro-quo sparked off an impeachment investigation in Congress and eventually led to his first impeachment. Republicans widely decried that as partisan, and refused to impeach or acquit Trump over the matter. Freezing aid isn't an impeachable offense, many Presidents have done it in the past. Trump himself froze aid to several nations in Africa, Asia, and the Middle East in 2019, but was never impeached over that.

'It was the extortion part'

Almost immediately after Rubio's tweet, Twitter users jumped on the Senator to remind him why Trump was impeached. Lt. Col Alexander Vindman, who was central to Trump's first impeachment, said, "I understood it was less about the holdup of military aid and more about the quid pro quo extortion, but what do I know?" Another user replied, "Lil' Marco, it was the extortion part that did it."

One person slammed Rubio, "Oh hell no. You don't get to play that game, Senator. If you find evidence Biden tied the freezing of the aid to a personal demand from his lawyer that Ukraine investigate a political opponent, then we can talk. But don't you dare trivialize the extortion racket you acquitted." One user said, "Oh, no you don’t. What was impeachable was the attempted extortion. You’re so bad at this; you can’t even troll well."

A user joked, "marco isn’t stupid enough to think this is extortion this time, he just hopes you are." Actor James Morrison trolled, "Remember when your job is to know what your president* was impeached for? Hint: It wasn't for "freezing military aid." It was for abuse of power and obstructing Congress." Author Zack Hunt said, "Remember when you had integrity? Me neither."

As Politico noted, the aid to Ukraine is still intact and could be sent at any moment. For the time being, it is on hold since Russia hasn't increased its presence on the Russia-Ukraine border, which has become a key source of contention. Since the 2014 invasion of Crimea, the US has been steadily providing Ukraine with aid to help combat Russian aggression, so far totaling around $2.5 billion. There are currently around 80,000 Russian troops still located on the border, according to the Biden administration, after the drawdown.