McConnell Speaks to Press about Aid Package

... the world. Clearly on the Ukraine portion of this, we had difficulty on the Republican side. I think no Democrats in the House voted against Ukraine. I believe that's largely the case in the Senate. (00:19) But our problems didn't just arrive today. This current administration's decision to leave Afghanistan was a huge mistake, like sending a green light to all of our adversaries. Second, the administration has not asked for defense budgets big enough to keep up with inflation. (00:46) So we've all learned a lesson as a result of Russian behavior. We've got two new members of NATO, got a significant number of European countries spending more as a percentage of GDP than we are. With regard to the claim that this was a huge amount of money, I know it seems like it, but to put the 60 billion in context, it's about 0.2% of our GDP. 0.2% of our GDP. Our overall defense budget is 3% of our GDP. (01:30) So what have we learned additionally? That number one, we need to get our industrial base going wholly aside from what we've experienced in Ukraine. We need it to deal with the two big powers that are out there. (01:50) I'm not a history professor, but I know a little bit about American history, certainly in the last hundred years. And it seems to me my party's had a tendency to be isolationist when there's a Democrat in the White House. This was true right before World War II, when the most prominent Republican, Robert Taft, opposed even Lend-Lease. Well, Pearl Harbor solved that problem for a little while. But then after the war, Taft and most of the Republicans opposed NATO and the Marshall Plan. So fortunately, from my point of view, Eisenhower got the nomination in '52 instead of Taft, and we have largely been consistently in support of America playing a strong leadership role in the free world. (02:51) And so I think all of this, as these views have been enhanced, in my opinion in the right direction. The latest evidence of that is there were 30 Republicans who just voted for cloture. We'll see what happens on final passage, but that's eight more than the 22 who voted to send the bill out of the Senate in the first place.

Leader McConnell, how concerned are you about the way the speaker handled this? You were very clear you wanted the Senate bill to pass. He spent another two months or so going through this, changed the bill. What would you say about the way he has handled this and the impact that it had by waiting two additional months?

There's nothing, in my view, to dislike about what the House passed. It's pretty close to what we passed. And the most important thing is to get this to the president for his signature.

Leader McConnell, what is your legacy if the next president is Trump, who has encouraged Putin to invade our NATO allies if they don't contribute enough to defense spending?

I'm sorry, what's your question?

What is your legacy if the next president is Trump, who has encouraged Russia to invade our NATO allies if they don't contribute enough to defense spending?

We can speculate all day about what might happen or what might not happen. I'm going to consistently avoid discussing the presidential election. I got one job as I give up my leader position, that's to create a Republican majority in the Senate. And I'm going to confine my political observations to taking the Senate back.

Leader McConnell, thank you. You've been probably one of the most ardent backers of Ukraine in the Senate here. But what took so long to get some of these other eight Republicans persuaded to your position here? Was it the overall nature of this bill? And what was lost in that time period for Ukraine?

Well, that's a good question. You already know the answer. I think the demonization of Ukraine began by Tucker Carlson, who in my opinion ended up where he should have been all along, which is interviewing Vladimir Putin. And so he had an enormous audience which convinced a lot of rank-and-file Republicans that maybe this was a mistake. (05:21) I think the former president had sort of mixed views on it. We all felt that border was a complete disaster, myself included. And Chad, you remember covering the phases we went through. First it was an effort to make law, which requires you to deal with Democrats. And then a number of our members thought it wasn't good enough. And then our nominee for president didn't seem to want us to do anything at all. That took months to work our way through it. (05:57) So we ended up doing the supplemental that was originally proposed, which dealt with not all problems. It didn't solve the border problem. But certainly addressed the growing threats at the moment.

You talk about wanting a Republican majority or working to get a Republican majority. But many of these candidates who are running in Republican primaries espouse the belief of this more isolationist perspective that you were concerned about. (06:29) What are you saying to these candidates that you're working for and helping to try and get elected into this next Congress about the positions they should take when they get elected?

Well, I think we've turned the corner on this argument. We went from 22 votes to at least 30. We'll see what happens on final passage. The House is about 50/50, as we thought would happen if they voted on it. So I think we've turned the corner on the isolationist movement. I've noticed how uncomfortable proponents of that are when you call them isolationists. So I think we've made some progress, and I think it's going to have to continue because we got big problems.

[inaudible 00:07:12] if the ATACMS are provided?

Russia, Iran. Going into World War II, we just had Germany and Japan. You could argue that this is a more challenging time right now than it was leading up to World War II. I don't want it to take something like the Pearl Harbor attack to get our attention. (07:37) And one of the good things that's come out of this it seems to me is we paid attention to the facts. Underfunding defense, the importance of standing up for our friends, that we can't sort of hide out in isolation here in the hopes that they would give up on us if we give up on them. They're at war with us, and I think a lot more Americans now understand and appreciate that.

We were talking a little bit about the border crisis, and this contains nothing to help the border crisis. We're having known terrorists who are coming over the border right now. How concerned are you about a potential threat to America? And would you like to see the next Congress deal with this border crisis?

I would love to have seen this Congress deal with it. As I just said a minute ago, I asked Senator Lankford to get into a negotiation with the Democrats, because they have the White House and they have the Senate, and he negotiated a bill that I thought was an important step in the right direction. I particularly thought that because the Democrats are awfully uncomfortable with it. So that didn't happen. And that's not an argument for not dealing with the other issue. I'm not happy with the situation at the border. My own view is it's the president's single biggest problem. If I were in his shoes, I'd do something about it.

Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi just called on Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to resign obviously following what Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer previously said. What's your response to that?

Well, my view with regard to allies of ours who are democracies is that we ought not to give them advice on whether or not to have elections and we ought not to give him advice on how to conduct a war. Both of those were broken in effect by this administration. I think that was a mistake. (09:45) But I'm not president, he is. I think the Israelis have to live in the neighborhood. They know best what to do to protect their citizens. With a lot of help from our technology and their own, they had a successful pushback against the missile attack. And I don't think they need particularly public advice from the administration about whether or not to have an election or what their military tactics ought to be.

Leader McConnell, if the ATACMS are provided, will you restrict them to fire at targets only inside Ukraine? The ATACMS, the long-range missiles, will there be restrictions for them to be only fired inside Ukraine?

Well, I hope not. I wouldn't try to dictate to the Ukrainians how to handle a war either.

Are you in favor of sending the ATACMS?

I'm for whatever our military thinks would be useful for them, and I would not put restrictions on it. They're dealing with a rogue country that's trying to take away their independence. It's always important to remember, we're not fighting this war. We don't have any troops there. We're helping them stand up for their independence, and also to do a lot of damage to the military of one of our two biggest adversaries. What's not to like about that?

Leader McConnell, how could this change the-

Thank you. Senator Murray talked about the cost of the delay, the months that this package did not get passed. Do you think that this aid package is going to be sufficient to try to help the Ukrainian fighters make up the time lost and the fact that they were so defunct?

Well, I hope so. It's no question delay was harmful. Very harmful. And the administration is partially responsible for that by being too skittish. In every one of those decision points, I thought the administration could have done it sooner. (11:59) For example, I can remember either the previous administration or the one before that saying we ought to send them meals ready to eat. Really? They've been asking for serious military help for a number of years. I personally have advocated that in the last two administrations and in this one. (12:25) So I do think the president was too tentative, too worried about antagonizing the Russians, who already had troops at the border and pretty obvious that they were not for training exercises. Acting quicker, partially because of the administration, partially because of Congress not approving this bill center, has not been helpful.

Two years ago you had expressed some questions, some concerns about candidate quality with your Senate candidates heading into that election. Do you have any similar concerns this time with your candidates?

You told me the Senate races?

Yes.

Yeah. Well, I feel pretty good about our nominees. I'm pretty confident we're going to win West Virginia, that's 50. You all can do the math, one more makes 51. I've been the majority leader and I've been the minority leader. Majority is better. And I hope to hand this job over to the majority leader.

Leader McConnell, Leader McConnell. What do you think about the fact that even though you got 30 Republicans on this, that both you and Speaker Johnson have had to rely on almost unanimous support from Democrats in order to get Ukraine aid because of this isolationist wing in your party?

Well, I won't say that it's gone away, but we certainly prevail by a larger majority today than we did two months ago. If you're looking for a trend, I think it's a trend in the direction that I would like to see us go, which is America steps up to its leadership role in the world, it does what it needs to do.

Leader McConnell, can you talk about the decision to include the TikTok ban on this bill and why that... Can you talk about the decision to include the TikTok bill with very little changes from the House in this package?

Well, it certainly enjoys a whole lot of support. And I think there were only 48 votes against it in the House, and my impression is most of the senators are in favor of it too. So I don't think it did the bill any harm.

Leader McConnell, can you please respond to J.D. Vance's assertion in the New York Times that we lack the capacity to manufacture the weapons Ukraine needs to win the war. (14:48) Can you respond to J.D. Vance's claim in the New York Times that we lack the industrial capacity-

I'm not going to get into an argument with a colleague. Obviously we have very different points of view about this. In fact, you wrote about it/

Leader McConnell?

Yeah.

Could you just discuss a little bit about Speaker Johnson's transition in this. You've been at briefings at the White House with him. He previously voted against Ukraine aid, and now he was a driving force behind this package in the House that you guys are going to be voting on today. What have you seen and what you've learned over the last few months?

Well, more important than what I think about the speaker is what the former president thinks about the speaker. And he obviously made it clear that he was a fan of Speaker Johnson and suggested some of his critics shut up. So I would just quote the former president. Yeah?

Leader McConnell, what do you make of the comments made by Kentucky's Andy Barr that isolationists within the party are one of the big reasons why border security couldn't be attached to this foreign aid package?

Well, I think we've already covered that. I'm not happy with where we are at the border. But we can walk and chew gum at the same time. If we can't agree how to fix the border, that's no good excuse for not dealing with an obvious additional problem that we've been talking about here. Yeah?

Leader McConnell, what would you say directly to Ukrainian people who have been waiting for this package to go through for six months?

I'm having a hard time hearing you.

Sorry?

What would you say to the Ukrainian people who have been waiting for six months to this package? What would you tell the Ukrainians?

Well, I would say better late than never. And look, I would love to have gotten this finished a long time ago. For those of you who work here every day, you know I've been talking about this since last summer, if not before. But today is a day of celebration because we finally did get the job done. It's not too late. We don't have to give up on Ukraine and we're not going to.

Leader McConnell. So given how long it took to pass this package, it's not clear whether Congress or a future president can get another package through. On top of that, you mentioned industrial-based issues. It takes a while to replenish this stuff we're sending through drawdown. So how long do you think Ukraine can sustain this for?

Are you talking about an additional package?

Yeah. Basically I'm asking-

Well, I think the next thing to focus on is the Defense Department budget for next year. The president's requests have not been adequate. We need to make sure we're doing more in defense through the regular appropriations process. The kinds of things this supplemental allowed us to would normally have been done in the regular appropriations process, but we didn't have a high enough number. (17:57) This supplemental actually rescued us in the sense that it allowed us to build up our industrial base and to create lots and lots of jobs. The last figure I saw that something like 38 states are benefiting from this. These are American workers producing cutting edge equipment. And as I said earlier, I have a hard time seeing what's wrong with doing this. It's exactly what we need to do, not only for Ukraine, but for ourselves.

Leader Connell?

Yeah.

You said [inaudible 00:18:35] there's a lot of support for the TikTok passage, TikTok proposal in the bill. But President Trump yesterday once again blamed President Biden for the ban for supporting Facebook and other social media platforms. Do you agree with that assessment?

Yeah, I don't think I have anything to say about that part of the bill.

Mr. Leader, on TikTok though, how do you respond to critics who say that this is government overreach? That this is Congress doing something Republicans don't like to do, which is telling a business what it can and cannot do, and also perhaps inhibiting the free speech of hundreds of millions of Americans?

Is your question, am I troubled by this many Republicans?

No, it's more what do you think about the TikTok ban and concerns that it limits free speech, and also that it may limit corporations doing what they want?

Look, that part of the bill, the House added. It was apparently popular among our members. I really have nothing to add to that. I saw that several members said to some of you that I needed to be guided by the majority of our conference. Let me suggest if I viewed that as my responsibility, we would never raise the debt ceiling and we'd never fund the government. Because I've been on the short side among Republicans on both of those issues. (20:15) So it's not unusual for me to be in a different place with the majority on some things that Republicans just don't like to do. They don't like raising the debt ceiling. They don't like funding the government. But we have to do both.

Leader McConnell, opponents on Ukraine aid within your party claim that they are winning the argument, citing where the Republican voter base is on this issue, the fact that Donald Trump is once again the Republican presidential nominee. Given the vote we're going to see today in the Senate, what is your response to that claim, that they are winning the argument?

I hope I understand your question correctly. I think no matter who gets elected president, he will benefit from what we've done today. This is important no matter who wins the presidential elections. Because if we hadn't done it, things would've been considerably worse for whoever the next president is.

Leader, some of the House Republicans had some issues with provisions in this Ukraine aid, like the economic assistance. What comments do you have on that? Some feel that it should only be strictly military assistance to Ukraine.

Your question's about House Republicans?

Yes, sir. Is that a shared-

I confess, that's not my expertise.

Leader McConnell-

What could the Senate have done to move this along faster, or did you think that the Senate had to follow this course because of the House, move the-

Well, I mean, we actually ended up with a greater percentage of our conference than the House supporting the supplemental. And as I've said repeatedly, it shows growth for us playing the role in the world that we need to play. 22 the first time, at least 30 this time. We'll see what the final passage vote is. But at least 30, that's moving the way I'd like to see it move. So I'd call that progress

Leader McConnell, how important is this to you personally, passage of this before you step down from leadership?

This is not about me, this is about our country and the free world. As you all know, I've been around a while. And we've been dealing with the Russians off and on since I was born. My dad was fighting the Germans in World War II, and the war came to an end when he met the Russians in Pilsen, which is in the Czech Republic. And I have some letters. He wrote my mother pointing out the Russians were going to be a big problem, and this is a regular foot soldier. And boy have they been for a long time. (23:10) And as we all know, there was some hope after the Berlin Wall came down and we expanded NATO all the way over to Russia that maybe the Russians are going to be a normal country. Bush 43 tried to treat him like a normal president. So did President Obama. (23:30) But it's clear this is just like the Soviet Union in terms of their ambition for their country. And they only respect one thing, and that's strength. And that we learned from Reagan, peace through strength works. Pretending enemies don't hate you does not work. You can hide out at home, they're still going to hate you. And they're attacking us, at least the Houthis are, and when we need to stand up and do what we did today. (24:08) Okay, thanks everybody.