A source in the room told CNN that Republican Representative Michael McCaul chastised his party members behind closed doors this week for repeating Russian propaganda and Russian President Vladimir Putin's talking points.
During the private meeting with NATO ambassadors and defense ministers on Tuesday, McCaul, a Texas-born former House Foreign Affairs chairman and ardent supporter of Ukraine, admitted that his strong belief that the United States should actively deter Russian aggression in Ukraine makes him a dying breed in the Republican Party, the source continued.
Regarding the private statements, McCaul's staff chose not to comment. McCaul has previously expressed concern that "a good chunk" of his party's base may become infected by Russian propaganda.
Many Republicans now find themselves walking a tightrope as they attempt to strike a balance between their support for Ukraine and President Donald Trump's more isolationist stance, as the party has shifted away from previous GOP President Ronald Reagan's "peace through strength."
There is disagreement among Republicans in Congress on the continuation of aid to Ukraine during its three-year conflict with Russia, but some members of the party still openly support the war-torn nation.
GOP Representative Don Bacon expressed worries this week that vocal members of his party who support an isolationist stance are harming US foreign policy and would jeopardize the party's progress in the process.
"This problem is winning. However, Republicans disagree on it," Bacon stated in an interview with CNN after the veterans' event, when he was joined by MP Oleksandr Lytvynenko, the chair of the defense committee of the Ukrainian Parliament.
"We want to be on the good side, and I'd like Trump to have more moral clarity that there are good and bad guys here."
From Trump's halting and resuming of US military and intelligence assistance to Ukraine to his controversial meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in the Oval Office in late February, the relationship between Washington and Kyiv has been tense since he took office. Even as Moscow has rejected a White House request for a 30-day ceasefire and continues to impose restrictions on even a partial truce in the Black Sea, the US has not penalized Russia.
The public positions taken by the self-described Reaganites are all the more noteworthy because there haven't been many examples of Republicans breaking with Trump in this Congress.
GOP Representative Brian Fitzpatrick took matters into his own hands to speak with Zelensky's chief of staff and get "this train back on the tracks" two days after the altercation between Zelensky and Trump in the Oval Office.
Last month, Mitch McConnell, the former Senate Republican leader, blasted the Trump administration's approach to Ukraine and its shift toward isolationism, accusing Trump's advisors of displaying "their embarrassing naivete" in their interactions with Russian President Vladimir Putin. In a passionate floor speech last month, Republican Senator Roger Wicker criticized rumors that the Trump administration was about to remove some sanctions against Russia. Additionally, Bacon wrote an opinion piece titled "My Fellow Republicans and President Trump, We Must Stand Up to Putin" that was published in the New York Times this week.
GOP Representative Dan Newhouse stated, "I don't know if the group is smaller or not, it's just that the other train of thought is just being more vocal." "I believe that many individuals still believe that we support our friends. The relationship between America and its allies has been both beneficial and symbiotic.
Republicans who have opposed the administration, from denouncing Trump's assertion that Zelensky is a "dictator" to criticizing the administration's strategy for negotiating a cease-fire agreement between the two nations, say they have had to be selective about when they speak in public.
"Some committee chairs say, 'Don, you are the spokesperson on this, you should continue.'" Including those who don't speak out themselves," Bacon stated.
The GOP legislators tell CNN that they are dedicated to consistently presenting their argument behind the scenes to everyone who would listen, despite the fluctuating public pressure.
Republican Representative Dusty Johnson of South Dakota acknowledged that there are occasions when there is a gap between the public and private spheres, saying, "The truth is that when their team is in the White House, people always have a tendency to praise in public and criticize in private." That's what good teammates are supposed to do.
South Carolina Republican Representative Joe Wilson usually has pins next to the American and Ukrainian flags on hand. His cufflinks, which were a present from the deputy mayor of Kyiv, depict the Russian missile cruiser sinking on the right and a Ukrainian soldier on the flagship's beach on the left, respectively, illustrating the victory of Ukrainian forces in sinking the Russian Black Sea Fleet's "mothership."
Wilson, the co-chair of the Bipartisan Helsinki Commission, compared the outbreak of World War II to Putin's invasion of Ukraine, saying, "As a history student, I feel like we're sort of reliving 1939 when on September 1 Hitler invaded Poland."
He stated that he is "not opposed" to anything Trump does, but he hoped the now-famous encounter in the Oval Office had been a "private conversation."
He tells CNN about a meeting he had with House Speaker Mike Johnson at the RNC convention in Milwaukee last year, where the speaker confirmed to a group of European Union diplomats that he was a "Reaganite."
"I erupted in cheers," Wilson remembered.
Johnson, however, has drastically retreated on the topic and lately surrendered to Trump after risking his job last year to pass crucial funds for international aid.
In February, when asked if he had seen another funding bill for the war in Ukraine, Johnson shook his head at the Conservative Political Action Conference.
The speaker declared, "There's no appetite for that." "What are your thoughts?"
Boos broke out from the far-right throng.
