Backlash Over Bill Forces Sen McConnell To Change His Tune In A Hurry
In about 24 hours, he did a complete 180
McConnell and Schumer worked together in secret for months to shepherd an effort combining border issues and Israel/Ukraine funding into a single compromise bill.
McConnell’s name was never on it, but Shumer is pretty open about the direct talks he and McConnell were involved in hammering out the details.
It was crafted in secret for months, with absolutely ZERO input from other elected Senators. No opportunity to review the details. No opportunity to raise objections, seek amendments, or offer alternative solutions.
Will this presidential election be the most important in American history?
It was crafted in secret and presented to the Senate as a complete whole which was to be accepted or rejected as a fabled ‘bipartisan deal’.
Sen. Mike Lee was very open about his criticism of this kind of backroom deal that cut the Senate out of the process… leaving voters of states not involved in this process disenfranchised on one of the most pressing questions of the day.
On Sunday, when the bill was unveiled, Leader McConnell endorsed it with this tweet.
My statement on the supplemental national security legislation: https://t.co/X5PKnIrseT
— Leader McConnell (@LeaderMcConnell) February 4, 2024
If you look at the replies to his post, it is overwhelmingly — if not entirely — hostile.
The Republican base is livid, calling it little more than another Dem amnesty bill with a side of endless war funding that will do NOTHING to solve the border crisis.
House GOP has pronounced it dead, and scolded Schumer for ‘not listening’.
Even the usual suspects in the Senate that can be reliably depended upon to ‘cross the aisle’ and kiss Schumer’s *ahem* ring won’t be able to give McConnell cover for this fiasco.
The writing was on the wall. This deal was going nowhere. As a result, he’s effectively crying uncle.
In a dramatic turnaround, Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell recommended to GOP senators in a closed-door meeting that they vote against the first procedural vote Wednesday, according to two people familiar with the meeting who were not authorized to talk publicly about it and spoke anonymously.
It came just hours after the Kentucky Republican had urged colleagues on the Senate floor that “it’s now time for Congress to take action.” McConnell has struggled to marshal his conference to move on the package of $118 billion package of border enforcement policy and funding for Ukraine, Israel and other U.S. allies. — MarketWatch
