McConnell steps up personal effort to win Ukraine, border deal 

Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) is stepping up his personal efforts to secure a deal on border reform and aid for Ukraine and Israel, which colleagues are characterizing as a major test of his leadership.  

McConnell is the leading GOP advocate for supporting Ukraine and is under increased pressure with Ukraine’s troops running low on ammunition and weapons.  

He’s tasked Sen. James Lankford (R-Okla.) with leading border talks with the Biden administration and Senate Democrats but is stepping up his own involvement.

The GOP leader reminded colleagues at a closed-door lunch meeting Tuesday not to lose sight of the nation’s pressing national security challenges presented by Russia, Iran and China.

“I think he has stepped it up. I think he was really trying to give James Lankford enough room to run to pull together a deal,” said one Republican senator who requested anonymity to explain why McConnell initially kept his distance from the negotiations before getting more involved in recent weeks. 

“For a while, talks were not progressing like people had hoped, and I think now we’re back and we’re so, so close — tantalizingly close — to being able to lock down a deal,” the lawmaker added.  

“And I think this is now where Mitch has looked at it and said, ‘This is now the time to reinforce why we can’t squander this. It’s not going to be everything that everybody wants, but there are other issues beyond [the U.S.-Mexico] border that we’re obligated to be thinking about,’” the source said, recounting McConnell’s message to the GOP conference.  

McConnell reiterated his arguments within the GOP conference about the world becoming more dangerous in recent weeks when he spoke to reporters Tuesday.  

“The world was in a lot of danger before we left, and now it’s even more so. Obviously, we’re working very hard to come up with an agreement to improve our situation at the border, but it’s also important to remember the world is literally at war,” he said.  

“Make no mistake about it: This is the most serious international situation we have faced since the Berlin Wall came down. We need to pass a supplemental. There needs to be a strong border provision as part of it,” McConnell declared. “Our hope is that we’ll get an outcome and we get it soon.”  

GOP senators say McConnell is working to keep a possible border security deal afloat and not let it get derailed by demands from Senate conservatives, notably Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.), who wants to dole out Ukraine aide in $5 billion increments depending on how many migrants cross the border each month.  

According to Johnson, McConnell told Lankford that insisting on pegging periodical Ukraine funding installments to a monthly decrease in migrant flows shouldn’t be a Republican demand.

“I’ve heard that [McConnell] basically told Lankford that’s not on the table,” Johnson said. 

Lankford has denied the claim that McConnell gave him marching orders and instead argued that Johnson’s proposal divides the conference.  

The Wisconsin senator, however, isn’t buying that explanation. He sees McConnell influencing the talks from behind the scenes. 

“Lankford’s saying, ‘Well, it divides the conference.’ Well, this whole thing divides our conference,” Johnson said.  

Johnson said McConnell’s top priority is getting the Ukraine funding passed and that he’ll agree to just enough reforms to asylum and border security law to get it done.  

“That’s been his play from Day One,” he said. “He recognizes, ‘Well, maybe if I throw in some border security,’” he can get Senate Republicans skeptical of funding the Ukraine war to vote “yes.” 

McConnell’s allies have pushed back on Johnson’s criticism, panning his idea of indexing Ukraine military aid and questioning whether he would support any bipartisan deal.  

McConnell’s allies say that Republicans who want to sink the emergency foreign aid package want to keep the issue of border chaos for the 2024 election, but warn that this may be the last opportunity in years to win significant border reforms.  

Republican senators predict that any border security deal will likely divide the Senate GOP conference and could hurt McConnell’s support among conservatives who vote against it.  

“I’m sure it’s more important to him personally than it is to him as a leader,” said Sen. Kevin Cramer (R-N.D.). “If he gets it done as leader, it will come at a cost.”

Sen. Rick Scott (R-Fla.), who challenged McConnell for the top leadership spot after the 2022 midterms, said McConnell didn’t want to hold a special conference meeting Wednesday on the border security negotiations that conservatives called to air their concerns about the negotiations. 

“It was my understanding that he didn’t even want time together,” Scott said. “I know he wants Ukraine aid really bad.” 

McConnell’s allies say any border deal that emerges next week could wind up being a huge victory for Republicans on border security.  

And they’re emphasizing that whatever new tools Congress gives President Biden to slow the number of border crossings could be used to great effect by former President Trump or another future Republican president. 

Emerging from the Republicans’ special border meeting Wednesday, Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) echoed that argument: “What I think is abundantly clear is no matter what we pass now will certainly provide incredible tools to what hopefully will be a new administration to enforce” the border. 

McConnell warned on the Senate floor Wednesday that failing to pass military aid for Ukraine would hurt the United States’s long-term strategic interests and weaken ties to allies around the world.  

“Handing Russia victory in Ukraine on account of a waning attention span will only shred America’s credibility, weaken critical alliances, and force us to contend even more directly with two major adversaries at once,” he said. “I honestly can’t think of a more shortsighted strategic gamble.”