WASHINGTON (JTA) — Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, the most senior elected Jewish official in U.S. history, invoked the Holocaust in making the case for an assistance package for Ukraine.
“There’s a Holocaust going on,” Schumer, a New York Democrat, said at a press conference on Tuesday as he was wrapping up negotiations for a massive $1.5 trillion spending bill that congressional leaders unveiled on Wednesday morning.
The package includes just under $14 billion in assistance for Ukraine as the country faces down the invasion launched last month by Russian President Vladimir Putin.
“When you see that people are lined up on buses just to leave a conflict zone, and Putin’s artillery shells those buses, that is just below humanity, below dignity,” Schumer said. “We also need to give the brave Ukrainian fighting forces who were doing much better than anyone ever imagined the arms they need, whether it be javelins or stingers.”
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