GOP senators: Brexit vote a wake-up call

Two Republican senators are warning that the United Kingdom’s historic decision to leave the European Union is a clear signal about the need for change.

Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) said the results should serve as a “wake-up call.” 

“The results of the ‘Brexit’ referendum should serve as a wake-up call for internationalist bureaucrats from Brussels to Washington, D.C. that some free nations still wish to preserve their national sovereignty,” he said in a statement Friday. “The British people have indicated that they will no longer outsource their future to the EU.” 

{mosads}A day earlier, British voters decided to exit the decades-old union. The unprecedented move sent financial markets diving and sparked fears of a backlash across the global economy.

Cruz added that the United States could learn lessons from the Brexit by focusing on “issues of security, immigration and economic autonomy that drove this historic vote” and deepening the U.S.-U.K. relationship.

Cruz was one three senators who sent President Obama a letter, warning him against trying to influence the vote.

Obama urged voters not to leave the EU during an April visit to the United Kingdom. He told voters the U.K. would go to “the back of the queue” for negotiating trade deals.

Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.), considered a possible Donald Trump vice presidential pick, in a separate statement Friday said the vote should serve as a reminder to Western governments about voter frustration.

“Our citizens are dissatisfied with stagnant economies, declining wages, uncontrolled migration, rising crime, and terror attacks at home. It’s time to abandon the failed policies of the past,” he said. 

Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.), a top Trump ally in the Senate, tied Thursday’s vote to the upcoming presidential election, nothing that “often, Britain makes changes that precede U.S. action.”

“Too many politicians and pundits here in America have been woefully oblivious to, or in some cases complicit in, what is going on around us,” he said. “I applaud yesterday’s strong and patriotic action taken by America’s special friend, retaking its independence. … I believe the American people too will choose independence this November.”

But other Republican senators — including Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Bob Corker (Tenn.) and Intelligence Committee Chairman Richard Burr (N.C.) — refrained from weighing in on the political impactions of the vote, while pledging to maintain the “special relationship” between the U.S. and the U.K.

Lawmakers signaled they were anxiously watching the polls in the days leading up to the vote. Two Democrats on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee said Friday they were “disappointed” with the vote but reiterated their support for a robust U.S.-U.K. partnership. 

Sen. Ben Cardin (D-Md.), the ranking member of the committee, said he was “disappointed,” adding that “strong democratic institutions in Europe are needed now more than ever.” 

Sen. Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.), who backed Britain remaining in the European Union, said that while she is “deeply disappointed by their decision to exit the European Union and concerned about the consequences that will result, the choice was theirs to make.”