House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) accused the “pro-Putin” faction within the Republican Party of holding up legislation that aims to provide aid to foreign countries.

Jeffries’s comment comes a month after the U.S. Senate passed a $95 billion defense spending bill, which would aid Ukraine and Israel in their wars against Russia and the terrorist group Hamas respectively. When asked if he could promise President Joe Biden that the House could deliver on providing this aid, Jeffries argued that such a question would be for House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA), who knows that the House of Representatives “has the votes to act on America’s national security interests.”

“The reason why it’s not happening is because there’s a pro-Putin faction in the Republican Party led by Donald Trump and Tucker Carlson, who are blocking this legislation, and that’s shameful,” Jeffries said during an appearance on Face the Nation.

Jeffries also hinted at protecting Johnson from a motion to vacate him from the speaker’s role should he choose to bring the legislation to a House floor vote, a move that would contradict the position of members of his Republican Party. The Democratic leader said that he has observed “a reasonable number” of lawmakers who do not believe Johnson should be ousted from his position of House speaker, so long as he does “the right thing” with providing aid to Israel and Ukraine. In October, the House voted to remove former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) from his position.

The House minority leader was also asked if the Democratic Party would campaign on border security going into the 2024 elections, as doing so was possibly what helped Rep. Tom Suozzi win the special election for New York’s 3rd District in February. When asked about Suozzi describing the situation along the U.S. southern border as an “invasion,” Jeffries said he would not encourage his fellow Democrats to use this type of language.

“Invasion is not a word that I would ever use,” Jeffries said, admitting, “I’m not sure whether he used that word or not or in what context.”

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The issue of securing the southern border while providing financial aid to countries overseas has been a growing topic of contention within Congress over the past few months, with one group of lawmakers moving forward with a plan to pressure Republican leadership to bring a foreign aid and border security bill to the floor. This pressure would incentivize House leadership to bring the legislation to the floor voluntarily, as it would allow lawmakers to propose amendments before finalizing the bill text.

Last month, Jeffries participated in a meeting with Biden, Johnson, Vice President Kamala Harris, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY), and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) for a meeting on the $95 billion foreign aid legislation. The meeting was described by Schumer as “one of the most intense I’ve ever encountered,” with Johnson calling it “frank and honest.”