McConnell faces bleak 'political reality' as he stares down hostile MAGA Republicans

12 February 2024

Sen. Kyrsten Sinema (I-Vermont) and conservative Sen. James Lankford (R-Oklahoma) were quite frustrated when a bipartisan deal linking enhanced security on the U.S./Mexico border with military aid to Ukraine fell apart in the U.S. Senate. But on Thursday, February 8, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Kentucky) and 16 other senators voted to move ahead with a different national security package that includes military aid to Ukraine and Israel but without the border measures from the other package.

In an article published on February 12, Washington Post reporters Liz Goodwin and Leigh Ann Caldwell stress that the other package's collapse reflects the "political reality" that McConnel is facing: his "shaky hold on a conference that increasingly takes its cues from (former President Donald) Trump" — who the Senate minority leader has "not spoken to since two weeks before the January 6, 2021 attack on the U.S. Capitol."

Trump allies in the Senate, according to Goodwin and Caldwell, have "continually resisted" McConnell's "efforts to fund Ukraine."

McConnell told the Washington Post, " First, they wanted to do it, and then, they didn't want to do it — and then, they're not sure…. Look, I felt it was important, and I spent an enormous (amount of) time talking about this trying to convince supporters to support it. On this one, I'm motivated more by what's the right thing for America, and I'm willing to take the heat."

Goodwin and Caldwell point out that McConnell continues to embrace President Ronald Reagan's "peace through strength mantra" at a time when Trump and his allies have an "America First view of the world."

McConnell told the Post, "Clearly, there is more objection to foreign involvement in the Senate now than there used to be. Usually, we just had Rand Paul and Mike Lee, and now, I think it's a bigger group. And in their defense, they just see it differently. They don't think America being involved around the world is a good idea. And so, I respect their judgment — I just don't agree with it."

Read the Washington Post's full article at this link (subscription required).

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