Republican Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell revealed he “apologized” to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy for not sending aid fast enough to the country during an upcoming “Face the Nation” show.
In a clip of the interview, set to be released Sunday, McConnell discusses the approval of the supplemental aid, which provides additional funding to Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan. Host Margaret Brennan began by questioning the Minority leader on his recent phone call with Zelenskyy, asking whether he believes the country will need “more specific weapons” immediately.
“Well, one of the things I apologized for is [that] it’s taken too long,” McConnell stated. “If you go back to the beginning of this administration. Even though I support it obviously, the supplemental requests worked hard to get Republican votes for it. This all started with the precipitous withdrawal from Afghanistan. It’s like sending out a green light to all of the rogue regimes around the world that the Americans are going home.”
“Number two, not giving the Ukrainians what they need soon enough,” he continued. “It didn’t just start with this administration, I mean the Obama administration sent them meals ready to eat. That’s not exactly a way to defend yourself.”
“Following the 2014 partial invasion,” Brennan clarified.
“Yeah, so it’s gradually gotten better,” McConnell said. “The administration has still been self-deterring themselves with some fear that the Russians would be deterred by our lack of action. So my main complaint is let’s get the weapons there as quickly as possible, apologize for how long it took Congress to do its part, but we finally did. He was also impressed by the fact that Republican support grew in the Senate substantially.” (RELATED: Mitch McConnell Will Step Down As Senate Republican Leader In November)
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell tells @margbrennan that he “apologized” to Ukrainian President Zelenskyy over the phone on Thursday because “it’s taken too long” for the U.S. to send additional military aid.
Watch MORE of her interview with McConnell this Sunday on… pic.twitter.com/PdWIv6Hi6e
— Face The Nation (@FaceTheNation) April 25, 2024
“Because you were whipping those votes. You convinced nine additional senators,” Brennan stated.
“It wasn’t something I felt lightly about, let’s put it that way,” McConnell responded.
“But who did you feel you were apologizing for?” Brennan pressed.
“The slowness of it — ” McConnell stated.
“But that wasn’t in the Senate,” Brennan pushed. “The slowness was not in the Senate. Were you apologizing for House Republicans?”
“No, it was in the Senate. We spent about four months trying to agree to a deal with our own border with Mexico, which is a disaster. Initially, obviously, to make a law you have to deal with the other side. They’ve got the White House, they’ve got the Senate. We came up with a proposal, it was – my members felt, many of them, was not good enough. Our nominee for president seemed to be unenthusiastic about acting on that,” McConnell stated.
“So that took three or four months,” he continued. “Once we realized we were not going to be able to legislate on the border, we [poured] in on the subject of the supplemental. I think a number of my members, focusing on that, changed their mind. We grew from 22 to actually 32 – one member missed the last vote, but would’ve voted for it.”
With a vote of 79 to 18 the Senate approved sending legislation regarding foreign aid to President Joe Biden’s desk Tuesday. The bill is expected to send $60.8 billion to Ukraine, $15 billion in military aid with an additional $9 billion in humanitarian aid to Israel, and $8 billion to Taiwan.
The push for additional foreign funding comes after Republicans have continued to be split on the issue. Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson initially refused to approve any funding overseas until the southern border crisis was addressed. However, this month Johnson shifted his position on the issue and began pushing the supplemental deal to the House.