'Rudderless' Senate GOP 'starting to resemble their counterparts in the House': analysis

07 February 2024

Cohesion among Senate Republicans appears to be fraying amid the rapid and sudden failure of a bipartisan border security bill. And according to a Washington Post analysis, Republicans in the US Senate may suffer the same fate as their colleagues on the opposite end of the US Capitol.

Paul Kane, who is the congressional bureau chief for the Post, wrote Wednesday that Senate Republicans are "starting to resemble their counterparts in the House" and are "at risk of descending into a rudderless caucus incapable of following through on basic pledges." Despite their vocal support for arming Ukrainian fighters pushing back against Russian incursion, funding Israel in the wake of the October 7 terror attack by Hamas and cracking down on the influx of migrants on the Southern border, Kane noted that Republicans walked away empty-handed.

"The Senate GOP twisted itself into so many knots that Republicans now expect unanimous opposition Wednesday against a bill that tries to accomplish all three of those goals, including the very Republican who negotiated the package," Kane wrote. "With former President Donald Trump objecting to the legislation — openly saying he did not want them to give President Biden a political win — Senate Republicans fell in line quickly, emulating how the House Republicans behaved most of the past year."

The 370-page, $118 billion bill was originally a supplemental foreign aid package meant to resupply US allies in Asia, Europe and the Middle East, but Republicans insisted that additional money be made available for border security. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Kentucky) oversaw bipartisan negotiations, in which ardent Trump supporter Sen. James Lankford (R-Oklahoma) successfully inserted language that would have implemented many items on the conservative wish list for the border.

Sens. Chris Murphy (D-Connecticut) and Kyrsten Sinema (I-Arizona) worked with Lankford for weeks to assemble a package that was aimed at getting the 60 votes needed to bypass a filibuster. However, as Kane observed, Republicans are now set to kill their best chances of notching a major policy victory in an election year out of fear of a primary challenge from the far right.

"I never expected they would leave Senator Lankford hanging out to dry as badly as they did," Murphy told the Post. "This is admittedly a scary situation when you don’t have real partners."

Trump, who is basing his campaign around immigration and the border, has publicly warned Republicans considering a vote for the bill that he would endorse primary challengers against them. Even if the bill survives its slim chances of passage in the US Senate, House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-Louisiana) has already promised to kill it in his chamber.

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