Senate Foreign Relations Committee chair pushes for increased Ukraine aid

Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chair Ben Cardin (D-Md.) pushed for increased aid to Ukraine in remarks on the Senate floor Thursday.

“This isn’t a choice between sending funding to Ukraine or not sending funding to Ukraine,” Cardin said. “The choice is between sending American dollars to fight [Russian President Vladimir] Putin now or sending American soldiers to fight him later. If we want to preserve America’s credibility with our allies, it’s up to us.”

“If we want to show our partners we’ll be there to help when times are tough, it’s up to us,” Cardin continued. “If we want to make sure the United States stands on the right side of history, it’s up to us.”

Republicans in the Senate who are in favor of sending aid to Ukraine and working out a deal with Democrats on border security are staking their hopes on those who are close with former President Trump, hoping they can prevent him from sinking it.

Sen. Joni Ernst (R-Iowa), chair of the Senate Republican Policy Committee, requested that colleagues who have endorsed the former president ask him to stop disparaging the deal pending a review of its details by lawmakers this week. 

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) told fellow Republican Senators Wednesday that being able to pass border security reforms tied with Ukraine is becoming harder than originally expected. He also noted that the former president’s antagonism toward any border security deal could be impossible to push past.

“I think he was saying out loud what a lot of people are thinking on this. When [the negotiations] started in October, we were not in a presidential election year. This was a totally different moment on it. Now we are in the heat of a primary in a presidential election year. It’s a huge campaign issue, and it kind of gets sucked into all of this conversation” on a Ukraine aid and border security package, Sen. James Lankford (R-Okla.) said.