A weekly meeting of Senate GOP communications directors devolved into chaos on Monday morning over the bipartisan border security deal unveiled the night before.
The spat, confirmed to the Washington Examiner by four attendees, began when Billy Gribbin, the communications director for Sen. Mike Lee (R-UT), started yelling at Aly Beley, the communications director for Sen. James Lankford (R-OK), as she delivered a presentation on her boss’s border agreement.
Beley declined to comment when reached by the Washington Examiner about the dispute.
Gribbin began shouting about the contents of the bill and the process by which it was put together as a few tried to calm him down, with one meeting attendee urging Gribbin not to “make this personal.” A number of Gribbin’s colleagues, including communications directors for two conservative senators, stepped in to defend him, with one speaking up to say they were not “trying to make this personal.”
The dispute ended with Gribbin leaving the room while shouting the word “betrayal,” prompting applause from some of his more conservative colleagues. He declined to discuss the matter when reached by the Washington Examiner for comment, though one communications director who attended the meeting said Gribbin’s “reaction obviously was a lot but I think his attitude reflects how a lot of us feel.”
Tensions were mounting ahead of the meeting over an email that Kate Noyes, communications director for Senate GOP Conference Chairman John Barrasso (R-WY), forwarded to attendees on Sunday evening. Noyes wrote in the email that she was sending the message “on behalf of Team Lankford,” which staffers for more conservative senators took as her making a conferencewide endorsement of the bill.
Noyes told the Washington Examiner in a statement it was not an endorsement, saying: “The Conference routinely sends out background materials on member initiatives.”
Senate appropriators released the legislative text of the bill on Sunday evening, following four months of negotiations between a bipartisan trio of members and the White House on a border security deal that would unlock assistance for Ukraine, Israel, and Taiwan.
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Detractors on both sides of the aisle were quick to attack negotiators and the bill’s contents, while House GOP leadership vowed that the deal would die in their chamber.
The bill has also caused a strain among the Senate Republican Conference, especially with hard-line conservatives like Gribbin’s boss. Lee has gone as far as to call for Senate Republicans to oust and replace current GOP leadership over their embrace of this supplemental, something he did on Sunday evening.
