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Shameless Schumer to drag prop to SOTU

March 7, 2024 | | Print Article

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer is coming under fire for his plan to bring a Ukrainian soldier to the State of the Union on Thursday.

The New York Democrat was criticized on social media after reports that his guest at President Joe Biden’s address to Congress would essentially be a prop in his ongoing attempt to drum up funding for the war-torn nation.

“I’m very honored to have Andrii as my guest,” Schumer told the New York Post, referring to the young soldier who lost his leg when a landmine exploded.

“Andrii Chevozorov, 25, was injured in the contested Donetsk region in eastern Ukraine in September and has been treated since January at Staten Island University Hospital in New York, where he’s received a prosthetic leg and rehabilitation services,” The Post reported.

The Senate leader told the outlet, “The Ukrainian people, as I saw when I went there two weeks ago, have suffered so, but they are strong, they are valiant, they’re fighting back. And what this is going to do is give a human face.”

“It puts a face to a war where so much is at stake for the world. I think it’s going to focus American opinion on why we have to aid Ukraine,” Schumer added.

Ukrainian-American Dr. Eugene Holuka, who has been treating Chevozorov, will be accompanying and translating for the soldier who will wear his uniform to the event.

“Andrii is fighting for what America stands for. We haven’t had to send a single soldier over there. People like Andrii are busy defending us,” Schumer said.

“One thing is clear: Ukraine will not lose because of its soldiers like Andrii because they are fighting so hard and so bravely. The only reason they’ll lose — and they have good battle plans and good leadership and good teamwork and cohesion — the only reason Ukraine will lose is because of minority of members in the United States House of Representatives will not get them the weapons they need,” he added.

“But we hope that Speaker Johnson will stand up and understand the eyes of history are upon him and all of us. Because if Ukraine falls, as one American leader told me, Russian tanks could be at the border of Poland in a year,” the Democrat continued.

Schumer’s motives and use of the soldier for optics at the SOTU earned him plenty of backlash on social media.

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Frieda Powers
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