![CNN's Poppy Harlow pressed White House national security spokesman John Kirby on Wednesday over the White House's decision to tie border funding to foreign aid. [Screenshot CNN]](https://images.dailycaller.com/image/width=960,height=411,fit=cover,f=auto/https://cdn01.dailycaller.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/Screenshot-2023-12-13-at-9.54.40-AM-e1702479628576.png "CNN's Poppy Harlow pressed White House national security spokesman John Kirby on Wednesday over the White House's decision to tie border funding to foreign aid. [Screenshot CNN]")
CNN’s Poppy Harlow pressed White House national security spokesman John Kirby on Wednesday over the White House’s decision to tie border funding to foreign aid.
President Joe Biden proposed a $106 billion supplemental spending package in October following Hamas’ attack on Israel that includes more than $61 billion in emergency funding for Ukraine, $14.3 billion aid for Israel and $1.4 billion for state and local governments handling the influx of migrants. Speaker Mike Johnson told the White House there would be no aid for Ukraine unless the border is given aid.
Harlow first asked Kirby what the White House would be willing to compromise with Republicans on in order to secure funding for Ukraine.
“I won’t negotiate here on national TV and public about what we’re talking about. But the president has said that he is willing to have a serious good faith negotiation with the other side. Not just on border security. And by the way, border security was baked into our supplemental request, some $6 billion. But also immigration policy. Policies in general about the immigration system. So’s he is willing to have a good faith negotiation over those things.”
WATCH:
“That’s the point, for example, Senator Langford, whose leading this on the Republican side, is making. You guys, the White House, coupled this together in the supplemental and it’s got to stay coupled for us to get Ukraine funding. Why is that wrong?” (RELATED: ‘But Isn’t That The Point?’: Dem Sen Backtracks Answer Over Ukraine Aid After CNN Anchor Pushes Him)
“We didn’t say it was wrong. We did put border and Ukraine and Israel and Indo-Pacific funding in the supplemental. And we are not certainly walking away from the idea that there is a negotiation going on right now to talk about border security and immigration reform and to get funding for Ukraine. We are approaching this pretty pragmatically. We understand that certainly in the Republican side that they have got both of these sort of attached to one another. So we are willing to engage, you know, in a very transparent way on both.”
Republicans have also seen support from Democratic leaders at the state and local level who have expressed dissatisfaction with the White House’s aid proposal. Leaders are arguing that Democratic cities have become overrun with migrants and the White House’s decision to shove border funding in the aid package was “disheartening” and a “mistake.”