Majority Leader Schumer Floor Remarks Applauding NATO Allies For Standing With Ukraine After Meeting With Leaders During The 2024 NATO Summit

Washington, D.C. – Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) today spoke on the Senate floor after meeting with the Secretary General of NATO and the leaders of the UK, Germany, Sweden, and Finland as part of the 2024 Summit, where he urged the alliance to continue standing with Ukraine. Below are Senator Schumer’s remarks, which can also be viewed here:

It was my great honor to join earlier this morning with Leader McConnell, and with my Democratic and Republican colleagues, welcoming to the Senate the Secretary General of NATO, as well as leaders of the UK, Germany, Sweden, and Finland.

And for the first time ever, we were proud to welcome the leaders of NATO’s newest two members: Sweden and Finland. Standing in the same room with NATO’s newest members, Sweden and Finland, was a proud moment for us Senators. It was a culmination of the work that began two years ago, when the Senate, in a bipartisan way, overwhelmingly approved their accession to the alliance.

I told the leaders of NATO that America will never turn its back on the alliance. I told them the Senate will always hold up its end of the bargain to support NATO and ensure we have to tools to keep the free world safe.

And I urged everyone in the room to continue standing firmly with Ukraine. I applaud the members of NATO for their major announcement of a new round of aid that will help soldiers on the battlefield – brave Ukrainian soldiers.

Later today, I will also meet with Ukrainian President Zelenskyy at a bipartisan meeting of Senators, and we will affirm yet again that the U.S. stands with them until the job is done. A few months ago, the Senate showed what leadership looks like by passing a sweeping supplemental package that delivered weapons and ammo and air defenses and missiles for Ukrainian solders.

Unfortunately, sadly, many extremists on the hard right – led by Donald Trump – didn’t want to send so much as a nickel to help Ukraine. They would have preferred to let Putin have his way in Europe. The hard-right’s softness towards Putin is a prime example of why they cannot be trusted to protect America on the world stage.

I am glad their opposition to Ukraine aid was ultimately unsuccessful, but a majority of Republicans in this chamber voted against this aid. And what really bothered me was the Republican party has been a strong anti-communist, hawkish party since the days of Ronald Reagan, maybe earlier. And all of a sudden, with Donald Trump – whose knowledge of foreign policy is negligible, to put it kindly, it's often wrong – they turn around and do a 180 degrees and oppose giving aid to Ukraine and instead start to smile upon Putin.

That, my fellow Americans, is a warning of what a Republican-controlled Senate would do if, God forbid, Trump becomes president. They would turn around on all their principles. Donald Trump could on a whim say something and all of a sudden, yes sir, they'll march in line with him. This Ukrainian example was a sad one.

This week, we saw why the supplemental was so important, and why America must stand with the Ukrainian people, after Putin’s forces obliterated an entire wing of the largest children’s hospital in Kyiv. I mentioned this to our NATO leaders and the heads of Sweden and Finland and Germany and Britain who were at our meeting.

What a vicious man Putin is! A children’s hospital! You see the pictures of these children who are trying to survive cancer. You know, you see pictures of children like that, many with their shaved heads. And Putin bombs the hospital? What a despicable man. What a brute. That’s who we’re dealing with, world. That’s who we’re dealing with, America, when it comes to Vladmir Putin.  

Putin’s savagery is an example of why Donald Trump’s vision is so dangerous at this moment, because a Trump Administration would make a Putin victory far more likely.

Thankfully, that is not the case. Instead of breaking NATO, Putin’s war has made NATO even stronger. And it must continue to be that way until the Ukrainian people see victory, and peace is restored to Eastern Europe.

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