In a stunning reversal, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) is urging the Senate G.O.P. caucus to vote against the bipartisan border security and foreign defense aid package. It comes after spending weeks helping a bipartisan group of senators craft it, and just hours after he spoke in favor of the legislation.
The development was reported by Punchbowl News' Jake Sherman, who said McConnell's announcement came in a closed-door Republican strategy session with his colleagues.
The proposed bill, released over the weekend after negotiations between Sens. Chris Murphy (D-CT), Kyrsten Sinema (I-AZ), and James Lankford (R-OK), would authorize aid for both Israel and Ukraine in their respective wars, while dramatically overhauling border and asylum policy in a way that largely gives Republicans what they wanted. It would require the border to be shut down if daily encounters average greater than 5,000, put new restrictions on asylum, and speed up removals, in return for providing counsel to unaccompanied migrant children and raising the cap on visas.
Former President Donald Trump was whipping against the bill even before the text was finalized, and many of his allies admitted they opposed the bill because an improvement in the border crisis would lift President Joe Biden's re-election prospects.
As a consequence, House Republican leadership has already warned they have no plans to take up the bill even if it passes in the Senate.
Just three hours before, McConnell gave a speech at the Capitol emphasizing the importance of passing the legislation.
"I've spoken at length for months about the urgent need to invest in American hard power, stand with our allies and start showing our adversaries that the world's foremost superpower intends to start acting like one," he said.
