Democrats will protect Mike Johnson over Ukraine aid vote, Jeffries suggests

Hakeem Jeffries tells NYT ‘a reasonable number’ of Democrats would vote to save speaker if vote resulted in Republican mutiny

The Democratic leadership in Congress has suggested it would protect the Republican House speaker, Mike Johnson, if he bucks his far-right colleagues and brings a stalled $60bn Ukraine military aid package to a vote, as a new poll shows public support for Ukraine is now fractured down party-political lines.

Hakeem Jeffries, the House minority leader, floated the offer in an interview with the New York Times, saying “a reasonable number” of Democrats would vote to save the Republican speaker if the Ukraine vote resulted in a Republican mutiny.