President Joe Biden forcefully condemned Donald Trump’s threat not to aid NATO countries attacked by Russia as he implored House Republicans Tuesday to follow the Senate"s lead and immediately approve funding for Ukraine, writes USA TODAY.

“The stakes were already high for American security before this bill was passed in the Senate last night”, Biden said in prepared remarks from the White House. “But in recent days, those stakes have risen. That’s because the former president has set a dangerous and shockingly, frankly, un-American signal to the world”.

Biden seized on comments from Trump, who on Saturday recounted telling the leader of a European nation that he would “encourage” Russia “to do whatever the hell they want” to countries that have not paid money they owed to be in the North Atlantic Treaty Organization.

“Can you imagine a former president of the United States saying that? The whole world heard it. The worst thing is he means it”, Biden said. “No other president in our history has ever bowed down to a Russian dictator. Well, let me say this as clearly as I can: I never will. For God’s sake, it’s dumb, it"s shameful, it’s dangerous, it’s un-American”.

The Senate voted 70-29 early Tuesday morning to approve a USD 95 billion foreign aid bill with defense funding for Ukraine and Israel, but Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson has said his chamber won’t take the bill up.