Former President Donald Trump has encouraged Republicans to sink a bipartisan compromise on new border security legislation, leaving McConnell unable to get a deal on Ukraine funding tied to the border. Also, some Republicans don’t want to send any more aid to Ukraine.
According to a GOP source familiar with the matter, McConnell told Republicans at a private Wednesday meeting that they are in a “quandary,” given that bipartisan talks over immigration have created intraparty feuding and may have closed off a path to getting a massive package approved this Congress.
McConnell’s goal at the meeting, sources said, was to lay out to his colleagues that there was no clear path ahead unless members were willing to compromise.
Jake Sherman at Punchbowl reported:
MCCONNELL told a closed meeting of Senate Republicans on Wednesday that the politics of the border has flipped for Rs and cast doubt on linking Ukraine and the border. “When we started this, the border united us, and Ukraine divided us.”
“The politics on this have changed,” McConnell told his GOP colleagues. This is ALL about Trump. McConnell referred to Trump as “the nominee” and noted the former president wants to run his 2024 campaign centered on immigration. And the GOP leader said, “We don’t want to do anything to undermine him.”
“We’re in a quandary,” McConnell added. Also today, Senate Republicans criticized McConnell for keeping them in the dark on the deal, saying, “The problem is our leader”:
Several Republican senators ripped into Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell at a Wednesday briefing for keeping them in the dark on critical border security and Ukraine aid bill.
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