How an unlikely bromance on Capitol Hill led to more weapons on the battlefield in Ukraine

WASHINGTON — The story is so familiar that by now it's a Capitol Hill cliche: Lawmakers from different parties meet in the gym and realize amid the clack of iron weights that they have more in common than not.

But the latest version comes with a geopolitical twist. The senator and congressman who forged a rapport in the House gym quietly collaborated in a way that is making it tougher for Russia to swallow up Ukraine.

Rep. Josh Gottheimer is a New Jersey Democrat and Harvard Law grad who once wrote speeches for Bill Clinton.

Sen. Markwayne Mullin is an Oklahoma Republican who excelled in the mixed martial arts ring and who called Donald Trump “the strongest president in my lifetime.”

Nothing would suggest they'd be on speaking terms in the face of institutional pressures that conspire to pull lawmakers apart. But in the years they've been sweating through round after round of burpees, they started talking. Now they kid each other and text back and forth about politics and policy. They've become friends.

They're hardly the first to see partisan suspicions melt away at the bench press. Nor do Americans necessarily need to care if two lawmakers get along or not. Except that in a bit of serendipity, one can draw a straight line between the congressional gym and Ukraine's strength on the battlefield.

For months, Congress struggled to pass a major foreign aid package giving Ukraine billions of dollars needed to defeat Russia’s military. A breakthrough came in April when House Speaker Mike Johnson defied far-right members of his GOP caucus in passing the bill.

Much has been said about Johnson's maneuvering. Less well-known is the discreet role that Gottheimer and Mullin played in pushing the deal through.

Back in February,