A group of conservative Republican senators is taking a victory lap after it appeared a bipartisan proposal intended to decrease border crossings had no path forward in the Senate on Tuesday while also questioning Minority Leader Mitch McConnell’s (R-KY) leadership for allowing a deal to emerge that the majority of the conference has rejected.
“We need a different governing model for our conference. This one person making all the decisions, keeping everything close to the vest. It’s obviously failing. It’s not working,” Sen. Ron Johnson (R-WI) told reporters Tuesday, flanked by other McConnell foes.
In a dramatic turn of events, McConnell recommended to Republican senators in a closed-door meeting on Monday night that they vote against a procedural step toward advancing the legislation, which was unveiled by a working group on Sunday.
The reversal comes after the Senate Republican leader praised the deal on Sunday, saying it included “direct and immediate solutions to the crisis at our southern border.”
According to sources familiar, McConnell’s original goal was to have a deal that could receive the support of at least half the conference, which includes 49 members.
A large portion of the Republican conference is rejecting the bill because they want more restrictive immigration policies in exchange for approving Ukraine aid. Sens. Ted Cruz (R-TX), Rick Scott (R-FL), Roger Marshall (R-KS), Mike Lee (R-UT), Eric Schmitt (R-MO), J.D. Vance (R-OH), and Johnson held a press conference on Tuesday to air their grievances with both the final deal and the process in which it was negotiated.
“Our line should have been: secure the border and we’re with you, but if you won’t, the answer is no. It was obvious this bill would end in failure,” Cruz said. “Yet, repeatedly, every one of us at lunch stood up and said, ‘This is where it’s going to end.’ And yet, like a cowboy riding a nuclear bomb down, waving a flag, Republican leadership would not listen to reason, and now, we are in a colossal mess.”
When asked if McConnell’s time as leader should end, Cruz replied, “I think it is.”
“I think everyone here supported the leadership challenge to Mitch McConnell in November,” said Cruz, referring to the leadership election in 2022, when McConnell was reelected leader after he was challenged by Scott. “I think a Republican leader should actually lead this conference and should advance the priorities of Republicans.”
McConnell responded Tuesday, telling reporters: “I think we can all agree that Sen. Cruz is not a fan”
Former President Donald Trump’s influence has created obstacles for the Republican leader, with the composition of the conference shifting away from longtime establishment members to those with views more sympathetic to the former president. Vance, a loyal Trump supporter, is a clear example of the transition. The freshman replaced former Sen. Rob Portman, who was part of McConnell’s inner circle before he retired.
“Leadership really screwed this up. I think they made a series of political arguments that were never going to actually fly,” Vance said. “Certainly, on the Ukraine question, I think leadership is massively out of touch with the Republican voters.”
The bill includes more than $60 billion to Ukraine to fight off Russia’s invasion, $20 billion to address the border crisis, $14.1 billion in security assistance to Israel, $10 billion in humanitarian aid to civilians in Gaza, the West Bank, and Ukraine, $4.8 billion to help Taiwan and Indo-Pacific allies, and an additional $2.4 billion to support U.S. Central Command operations in the Red Sea, according to details from the Senate Appropriations Committee.
Johnson took issue with the circumstances in which the deal was negotiated. The legislation was negotiated behind closed doors by a bipartisan group of lawmakers that included Sens. Chris Murphy (D-CT), James Lankford (R-OK), and Kyrsten Sinema (I-AZ) and officials from the White House, with the blessing from leadership on both sides.
“When McConnell entered into this secret negotiation with Schumer, it was fatally flawed — no one knew what was in it,” Johnson said. “What was being leaked looked bad enough, but we weren’t trying to win the argument in the court of public opinion.”
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Scott, who challenged McConnell in a previous leadership election, admitted there isn’t much that the conference can do at this point until after the November 2024 election.
“There will be an election after the November election. As you know, I ran, I put out my plan of what we should do and how we ought to operate,” Scott said. “I hope we have a robust discussion about how we ought to operate.”
