A closed-door US Senate briefing on aid to Ukraine has turned into a heated shouting match as some lawmakers were unhappy with the failure to include tougher US immigration policies in the aid package, reports CNN.
US senators say the meeting was tense and did little to break the deadlock.
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer revealed that the row erupted when Minority Leader Mitch McConnell asked Republican Sen. James Lankford of Oklahoma to talk about the border instead of asking a question about Ukraine.
Schumer added that one of the Republicans “showed disrespect and started yelling at one of the generals, asking him why they didn’t go to the border.”
Sources told CNN it was Arkansas Republican Sen. Tom Cotton who was yelling.
Cotton himself indicated that the participants in the briefing “refused to answer any questions about the crisis at the border or what we can do to solve this crisis.”
Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham said there was tension in the chamber early in the session because “no one was talking about the border.”
Republican senators called the briefing a waste of time because they argued it did not discuss information that was not already known or available to the general public. Some Republicans even left the briefing early.
“It was more dramatic because you have an entire political party that seems willing to trash support for Ukraine and Israel because they would rather have a wide open border than support Ukraine and Israel,” said Senator Kevin Cramer.
Utah Republican Sen. Mitt Romney said his party wants to help both Ukraine and Israel, but tougher border security measures are needed.
“They don’t want to do it. So the Republicans just walk out of the briefing because the people who are there don’t want to discuss what it takes to get a deal,” he noted.
Sen. Roger Marshall said his GOP colleagues wanted more focus on the border during the briefing and were disappointed there was no conversation on the topic.
Democratic Senator Mark Warner stressed that the consequences of the suspension of aid to Ukraine “will haunt” the United States for decades.
“Intelligence has been saying for months that Putin thinks he can wait out the West and wait out America, and what I don’t understand about some of my friends is whether we’re ready to prove him right,” he added.
Representatives of both parties have been negotiating for a compromise, but Sen. Chris Murphy, the chief Democratic negotiator, told reporters that the talks broke down because Republicans refused to budge on the demands.
Earlier, Democrats in the US Senate introduced a national security funding package worth about $111 billion to provide aid to Ukraine and Israel, as well as measures aimed at securing the southern border. Republicans want to separate aid to Israel from that to Ukraine and tie funds to Kiev with those for protecting the US southern border from illegal migrants.
2023-12-06 11:20:43
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