really worked with majority leader chuck schumer to pass this through his own chamber, frustrating and outraging those on his right flank. once again, there's a lot of bills mike johnson has done over the course of the last several weeks that have angered his right flank. that's something to keep an eye on when lawmakers return, not next week in the house, but the week after like lauren fox, i'm on capitol hill on a very big day. thanks very much. president joe biden is saying that the house is passage of the foreign aid bill sends what he calls a clear message about the power of america's leadership to the world white house correspondent priscilla alvarez is with me here in the studio. so priscilla, what else are we hearing from the president? >> well, there's no doubt, alex, that this is a significant moment for the white house& a win for them after months of wrangling for this aid. now, the president of plotting this in a statement this afternoon saying, quote today members of both parties in the house voted to advance our national security interests and send a clear message about the power of american leadership on the world stage at this critical inflection point, they came together there to answer history's call
you so much for joining me today. anna very busy saturday. i'm fredricka whitfield, the cnn newsroom with alex marquardt, starts right now you are in. the cnn newsroom. i'm alex barack board in washington. thank you so much for joining us. we begin with breaking news on capitol hill after months of delays and political turmoil in a rare saturday vote, house lawmakers passed stay billion package of aid for ukraine, for israel and taiwan now the deal heads to the senate for a vote before it can be signed by president joe biden two reporters across washington as well as in kyiv and in jerusalem. let's start with cnn's lauren fox on capitol hill to help break it all down. lauren, what is the latest yeah obviously this vote a long time coming. alex and there's been a lot of
couple of seconds after the house vote went down. so cleanly, the ukrainians were waiting for this and we're hoping for this and some of the things that priscilla mentioned, obviously for the ukrainians have been really real issues that they've been having. the lack of ammunition as far as artillery is concerned, also, air defense systems and air defense missiles as well. one of the things of course, alex, that we've been talking about over the past couple of weeks and that you've been reporting about out as well, is the fact that the russians have launched this massive aerial campaign against ukraine's energy infrastructure in the ukrainian, just saying, look, in some cases, we simply don't have the air defense missiles to hold that up. so it's a big deal for them. we've actually been in touch with a couple of troops who are on the frontlines fighting there. that was one of them who said that they had essentially felt they would have been forgotten by the united states. and now they realize that that's not the case. another one was also saying that this aid, which they hope will come soon also motivates a troops were fighting on the frontlines, hoping that they can turn things around. the president of this country, volodymyr
he knows that if we didn't do this the consequences would have been severe not just for the united states, for the free world, we need to send to russia when we need to split our ally, israel. >> so i think he did everything i could to try to get all three done. like i said, you don't want have one failure, me and the other two things fail as well. i think that's right. that's where we got. i've always been a mike's a friend. he's a man of character. he's analyst, is always said his for ukraine, i've always believed them of course, it wasn't just republicans who are applauding the speaker i talked to one democrat representative mike quigley when i asked him whether his view of the speaker has changed over the course of the last several weeks he kinda pause for a minute. >> he said, i guess it has i guess, what happened today. i wasn't sure was ever going to happen, but obviously there was bipartisan support for that package. it now heads to the united states senate, majority leader chuck schumer, announcing just a few two minutes ago, alex, that a key vote will begin in the senate
will help them at least stabilize the situation going forward. i also want to read you what we got from the foreign minister of this country because he's were comments made directly to cnn. he said, quote, enabling ukraine to push back russian aggression is equal to preventing a the larger war in europe and averting the risk of of all want to be aggressors, plunging our world into chaos. i sincerely thank the us house of representatives, alex. >> yeah. so important, fred, as you say, not just materially but psychologically for those troops who have been struggling on the frontlines against russian forces fred pleitgen to the ukrainian capital. thanks very much. now to israel, where they house actions. today's sets up $26 in usa with some strings cnn senior diplomatic editor nic robertson is in jerusalem. nick, what are you hearing there in terms of reaction? >> yeah. as you can imagine, that has been a lot of thanks for the united states, a lot of thanks for speaker johnson. a lot of thanks for house minority leader hakeem jeffries what we heard from president heard psaki said this shows
on tuesday, we still are not sure when the final passage of this package would come together, but it does say a lot because the senate and it was supposed to be in recess next week, they're returning to washington because they view this as so needed. so immediate le, important that they want to take action as soon as possible. >> alex. >> yeah, the senate very eager to pass this. lauren before i let you go speaking of the senate, they passed a bill late on friday to reauthorize the fisa warrantless surveillance program. that's despite bipartisan concern and after hours of intense in an acrimonious debate. so what helped push it through yeah, i think there was just a resounding view from so many folks that this needed to pass before the deadline which happened last night at midnight. >> so there was this last minute ditch effort where they were able to put together a package, passed acid on the floor, gives some votes, gives some amendment votes to those who wanted them and move this forward. but we should just note this is another moment where speaker mike johnson and
expecting to see what happens next in the senate. but clearly a win for the white house, which has been asking for this aid for months. >> yeah, it top intelligence and military officials to your point, they have been essentially begging lawmakers to get ukraine this aid, which is so desperately needed for solvers, great to have you in studio. thanks very much. >> now to ukraine where the months-long delay in passing, this american aid is being blamed for some recent ukrainian losses and russian gains on the battlefield. >> following the vote, ukraine's president zelenskyy posted a thank you message to the us for it support we find our senior international correspondent, fred pleitgen in kyiv right now, fred great to have you there. we've got this. thank you. from president's zelenskyy. it must be a huge feeling of relief where you are yeah, it absolutely is. and you could feel that really reverberate around the city, around kyiv and really around the other the entire country. and also alex, you mentioned there that thank you. tweet essentially by volodymyr zelenskyy, the president of that country at came out only a