Republican Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell said on his upcoming MSNBC show that he has “apologized” to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy for not sending aid quickly enough.
In a clip from a “Face the Nation” interview scheduled to be released Sunday, McConnell spoke about approving additional aid that would provide additional funds to Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan. MSNBC host Margaret Brennan began by asking the minority leader in a recent phone call with Zelensky whether he thought the country needed “more specialized weapons” right away.
“Well, one thing I apologized for was… [that] It took too long,” McConnell said. “If you go back to the early days of this administration. The additional demands, which I obviously support, worked hard to get Republican votes. It all started with a sharp withdrawal from Afghanistan. It’s like giving the green light to all the rogue regimes in there for Americans to come home.”
“Secondly, don’t give Ukrainians what they need right away,” he continued. “It doesn’t just start with this administration, it’s that the Obama administration sent them ready-to-eat meals. That’s not exactly a way to protect yourself.”
“Following a partial invasion in 2014,” Brennan revealed.
“Well, it’s gradually gotten better,” McConnell said. “The administration is still self-deterring out of concern that Russia will be deterred by our inaction. So my main complaint is that we need to get the weapons there as quickly as possible. And I apologize for how long it took Congress to do its job, but it eventually did. He also saw a huge increase in Republican support in the Senate. I was also impressed.” (Related: Mitch McConnell resigns as Senate Republican leader in November)
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell says: @margbrennan He said he had called Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy to “apologize” on Thursday because it would “take too long” for the United States to send additional military aid.
Read more from this Sunday’s interview with McConnell… pic.twitter.com/PdWIv6Hi6e
— Face The Nation (@FaceTheNation) April 25, 2024
“Because you were flogging votes. You convinced nine more senators,” Brennan said.
McConnell responded: “I didn’t take it lightly, I guess you could say that.”
“But who do you feel you’re apologizing to?” Brennan pressed.
“The slowness of it…” McConnell said.
“But it wasn’t the Senate,” Brennan argued. “Slowness is not in the Senate. Have you apologized to House Republicans?”
“No, it was in the Senate. We spent about four months agreeing to a border deal with Mexico, and this is a disaster. First, of course, we passed the law. You have to deal with the other side to enact it. They have the White House, they have the Senate. We have come up with a proposal, but many of my members feel that this is not enough. Our presidential candidates didn’t seem keen to act on that,” McConnell said.
“So it took three or four months,” he continued. “Once we realized we couldn’t legislate on borders, [poured] On the supplementary subject. I think some of my members took note of that and changed their minds. We went from 22 for her to 32 for him actually. One of the member’s girlfriends missed the last vote, but would have voted. ”
The Senate on Tuesday approved the foreign aid bill by a vote of 79-18 to send it to President Joe Biden’s desk. The bill is expected to send $60.8 billion to Ukraine, $15 billion in military aid, $9 billion in humanitarian aid to Israel and $8 billion to Taiwan.
The push for additional foreign funding comes as Republicans remain divided on the issue. Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson initially refused to approve any foreign funding until the southern border crisis was resolved. But this month, Prime Minister Boris Johnson reversed his stance on the issue and began pushing a further deal through the House of Commons.
