basquebromance
Diamond Member
- Nov 26, 2015
- 109,396
- 27,066
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- Banned
- #1
i personally oppose sending money to Ukraine or any other country...KENTUCKY 1ST!
www.politico.com
EXCERPTS:
The Kentuckian had already spoken with President Joe Biden by phone ahead of the trip, telling him that he wanted to blunt former President Donald Trump’s influence by conveying to allies in Eastern Europe that “Republicans still believe NATO is important.”
“My argument to [Biden] was, I want to reinforce with the Europeans after some loose talk during the Trump years about whether NATO is important, that at least at the moment, the most important Republican we currently have in Congress has a different point of view,” McConnell said in an interview in his office Thursday just off the Senate floor, a few hours after the chamber had sent the aid package to Biden’s desk.
McConnell told the president he wanted to “push back … against the isolationist sentiment in my own party. And [Biden] agreed that that makes sense.”
The president and McConnell haven’t found much to agree on in the last year and a half. But on a foreign policy crisis that could help define Biden’s White House legacy, they’re in lockstep — agreeing that a united front is necessary not only to defeat Vladimir Putin, but to send a message to China. And while McConnell has long pushed back on Trump’s posture toward Russia and NATO, he’s demonstrated increased comfort with doing so publicly now that Trump is out of the White House.
“The votes speak for themselves,” Schumer said in a brief interview when asked about McConnell’s efforts to blunt Trump’s influence. “It’s amazing the strength of the MAGA wing, that when there’s a brutal, brutal dictator like Putin, they can’t oppose him.”
Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.), one of Trump’s closest allies in the upper chamber, said that while he was in the minority on the Ukraine vote this week, his position better reflects the GOP voter base than McConnell’s does. And Hawley could soon have others joining him in that camp, like J.D. Vance, the GOP nominee in Ohio.
“I’m kind of an outlier,” Hawley acknowledged. “But hopefully we’ll have some more folks join me after November.”
“It’s not helpful,” McConnell said of Trump’s posture. “Obviously I disagree with President Trump about that. But campaign discussions are one thing. Governing is another. And I would plead with you to focus on the people who are voting here [in the Senate] and what is actually happening, not sometimes-loose campaign talk out in primaries across America.”
“The Republicans have been much further ahead than the White House in terms of making sure that Ukraine has what they need,” said Sen. John Barrasso (R-Wyo.), a member of GOP leadership who accompanied McConnell on the trip to Ukraine last week. “We’ve been pulling the White House for a long way. We were shaking our fist when the president was wringing his hands. That’s not changed.”
Inside McConnell’s bid to quash GOP ‘isolationists’
The Republican leader is determined to stamp out a pro-Trump wing of his party that has pushed back on $40 billion in aid to Ukraine — and U.S. support more broadly.
www.politico.com
EXCERPTS:
The Kentuckian had already spoken with President Joe Biden by phone ahead of the trip, telling him that he wanted to blunt former President Donald Trump’s influence by conveying to allies in Eastern Europe that “Republicans still believe NATO is important.”
“My argument to [Biden] was, I want to reinforce with the Europeans after some loose talk during the Trump years about whether NATO is important, that at least at the moment, the most important Republican we currently have in Congress has a different point of view,” McConnell said in an interview in his office Thursday just off the Senate floor, a few hours after the chamber had sent the aid package to Biden’s desk.
McConnell told the president he wanted to “push back … against the isolationist sentiment in my own party. And [Biden] agreed that that makes sense.”
The president and McConnell haven’t found much to agree on in the last year and a half. But on a foreign policy crisis that could help define Biden’s White House legacy, they’re in lockstep — agreeing that a united front is necessary not only to defeat Vladimir Putin, but to send a message to China. And while McConnell has long pushed back on Trump’s posture toward Russia and NATO, he’s demonstrated increased comfort with doing so publicly now that Trump is out of the White House.
“The votes speak for themselves,” Schumer said in a brief interview when asked about McConnell’s efforts to blunt Trump’s influence. “It’s amazing the strength of the MAGA wing, that when there’s a brutal, brutal dictator like Putin, they can’t oppose him.”
Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.), one of Trump’s closest allies in the upper chamber, said that while he was in the minority on the Ukraine vote this week, his position better reflects the GOP voter base than McConnell’s does. And Hawley could soon have others joining him in that camp, like J.D. Vance, the GOP nominee in Ohio.
“I’m kind of an outlier,” Hawley acknowledged. “But hopefully we’ll have some more folks join me after November.”
“It’s not helpful,” McConnell said of Trump’s posture. “Obviously I disagree with President Trump about that. But campaign discussions are one thing. Governing is another. And I would plead with you to focus on the people who are voting here [in the Senate] and what is actually happening, not sometimes-loose campaign talk out in primaries across America.”
“The Republicans have been much further ahead than the White House in terms of making sure that Ukraine has what they need,” said Sen. John Barrasso (R-Wyo.), a member of GOP leadership who accompanied McConnell on the trip to Ukraine last week. “We’ve been pulling the White House for a long way. We were shaking our fist when the president was wringing his hands. That’s not changed.”
