The defections by 17 House lawmakers of both parties in an otherwise widely bipartisan vote this week to ban Russian oil imports and impose further sanctions over the invasion of Ukraine highlighted how alertness of U.S. interventionism is a rare area of agreement on the far left and far right.
The uneven vote included two progressives — Omar and Rep. Cori Bush (D-Mo.) — uniting with 15 conservative Republicans registering their opposition.
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Omar said that she opposed it out of concerns that the move would have a “devastating impact” on the people of Russia and Europe and challenged whether sanctions would be detrimental to the Kremlin leaders waging war.
And on the GOP side, Greene and others cautioned that banning Russian oil imports would result in even higher gas prices for Americans and potential reliance on other oil-rich nations such as Venezuela.
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“At least there are two of us who refuse to allow Biden to hurt Americans suffering from rapidly rising gas prices,” Greene tweeted in response to Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) explaining his opposition to the legislation. Rep. Matt Gaetz (Fla.), another Republican who voted against the bill, similarly argued that the move “will make Americans poorer and less safe.”
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“My compassion for Ukrainians won’t force my hand to hurt my own people,” Gaetz wrote in an op-ed for The National Pulse. To be sure, the vote demonstrated how lawmakers wary of the strategy to ban Russian oil were firmly in the minority.
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The legislation, which also allows sanctions for human rights abuses and calls for examining Russia’s access to the World Trade Organization, easily sailed through the House, with 414 lawmakers voting in favor of it. That included the top congressional leaders in both parties.
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The widespread support for the bill is reflective of public sentiment backing sanctions on Moscow across ideological lines.
A Wall Street Journal poll this week, for example, found that 79 percent of Americans support a ban on Russian oil imports even if it drives up gas prices.
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“I think the heart of it is a very clear moral narrative. You have the clearest possible case of aggression against a country that did nothing to deserve the attack and whose leader, a former television comedian, has turned into the reincarnation of Winston Churchill, if Winston Churchill had been a Jewish comedian,” said William Galston, a senior fellow in governance studies at the Brookings Institution.
Americans, nevertheless, are drawing the line when it comes to direct military intervention. A NewsNation-Decision Desk HQ survey found that only 35 percent backed deploying troops into the conflict.
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