Schumer pressures Johnson to pass Ukraine funding bill: 'It's in his hands'

Speaking to reporters after an Oval Office meeting with President Biden, Vice President Kamala Harris, House Speaker Mike Johnson, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer urged the speaker to work toward passing a bill in the House to fund Ukraine. Saying the meeting on Ukraine funding was "one of the most intense" he had ever had in the Oval Office, Schumer spoke about the possible consequences of not funding the country and urged Johnson to "get it done." Schumer added, "It's in his hands."

Video Transcript

CHUCK SCHUMER: The meeting on Ukraine was one of the most intense I have ever encountered in my many meetings in the Oval Office. The four of us, all together, led-- first person to speak was Leader McConnell-- well, the five of us, the president, the vice president, Leader McConnell, Speaker Leader Jeffries, and myself made it so clear how vital this was to the United States-- this was so, so important-- and that we couldn't afford to wait a month or two months or three months because we would, in all likelihood, lose the war.

NATO would be fractured at best. Allies would turn away from the United States. And the boldest leaders, the boldest autocrats of the world, the Putin's, the Xi's, the presidents of North Korea-- I like the governor of North Carolina actually-- the president of North Korea and Iran would be emboldened thinking that the United States was this soft fat country that lost its way and would take advantage. And so we said to the speaker, get it done.

I told him this is one of the moments-- I said, I've been around here a long time. It's maybe four or five times that history is looking over your shoulder. And if you don't do the right thing, whatever the immediate politics are, you will regret it. I told him two years from now and every year after that because really it's in his hands. It's in his hands.