House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan(R-OH) said this week that if he becomes the next Speaker of the House, he is against sending another aid package to Ukraine.

Earlier this week, Jim Jordan announced that he was throwing his hat into the ring to be the next Speaker of the House, replacing Kevin McCarthy who has served less than 10 months on the job.

“Are you willing to move forward with an aid package to Ukraine if you’re speaker?” CNN’s Manu Raju asked Jordan on Wednesday.

“I’m against that,” Jordan responded. “At some point, we’re going to have to deal with this appropriations process in the right way. We’re going to try to do that in the next 41 days.”

“The most pressing issue on Americans’ mind is not Ukraine — it is the border situation, and is crime on streets,” he added.

In a letter to House colleagues, Jordan celebrated the successes during McCarthy’s nine months as speaker and stressed his ability to “unite” the conference.

“Now is the time for our Republican conference to come together to keep our promises to Americans,” Jordan wrote. “We can focus on the changes that improve the country and unite us in offering real solutions. But no matter what we do, we must do it together as a conference.”

“I respectfully ask for your support for Speaker of the House of Representatives,” he concluded.

Jordan expanded his claims during an interview this week with Fox News when he was asked "Why should we be sending American tax dollars to Ukraine when we don't even know what the goal is?"

"No one can tell me what the objective is," Jordan said. "Is it some kind of negotiated peace? Is it driving them out of eastern Ukraine? Is it driving them out of Crimea?... So until you can tell me the goal, I don't think we should continue to send money there particularly when we have the problems we have on our border so that's fundamental.

"And then, second, how is the money that's already been sent, how has it been spent? What kind of waste is going on? Those are two fundamental questions that I think the American taxpayers want to know the answers to before they send any more of their hard-earned money there", Jordan concluded

Jordan was endorsed by Donald Trump on Thursday, sealing his deal as one of the likely candidates to replace Kevin McCarthy. "He will be a GREAT Speaker of the House, & has my Complete & Total Endorsement!" Trump said this week. The endorsement comes after Donald Trump's name was also being floated around as a potential replacement, despite Trump not being a member of congress.

Candidates for Speaker will have time to make their case on Tuesday on the House floor with voting likely to start on Wednesday.

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