McConnell Emphasizes GOP Support for Ukraine at Munich Security Conference
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Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R., Ky.) assured the audience at a summit in Germany Friday that GOP leadership is committed to sending security aid to Ukraine despite intra-party debate about expending U.S. resources for the foreign conflict.
“Reports about the death of Republican support for strong American leadership in the world have been greatly exaggerated,” he said at the Munich Security Conference. “My party’s leaders overwhelmingly support a strong, involved America and a robust transatlantic alliance. Don’t look at Twitter, look at people in power.”
McConnell promised that he, Republican House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, and other top Republicans on the Senate and House committees are dedicated to helping Ukraine fight the war against the Russian aggressor. It is essential to America’s safety that Ukraine be equipped to defend itself against Russia, he said.
“Republican leaders are committed to a strong trans-Atlantic alliance. We are committed to helping Ukraine. Not because of vague moral arguments or abstractions like the so-called ‘rules-based international order,'” he said. “But rather, because America’s own core national interests are at stake. Because our security is interlinked, and our economies are intertwined.”
In January, two key House GOP chairmen urged that tanks, precision munitions, and other weapons be provided to Ukraine, slamming the Biden administration and certain European countries for their reluctance to approve the shipments. Ukraine claimed it needed the weapons to wage a counter-offensive against Russian forces.
“The current handwringing and hesitation by the Biden administration and some of our European allies in providing critical weapon systems to Ukraine stinks of the weak policies of 2021, such as not sanctioning Nord Stream 2 or providing U.S.-origin Stingers before the full-scale invasion,” GOP Representatives Michael McCaul and Mike Rogers said.
They alleged that the Biden administration’s indecision on the matter will prolong the conflict rather than bring it to an end.
However, prior to the midterm elections, McCarthy hinted that American support for sponsoring Ukraine’s war effort could be dwindling amid other domestic problems such as spiraling inflation, high cost of living, and the ongoing border crisis.
“I think people are gonna be sitting in a recession, and they’re not going to write a blank check to Ukraine,” he said.
McConnell condemned the comment shortly after. In May 2022, McConnell said he and his Senate colleagues believed that the war in Ukraine was “the most important thing in the world right now.”
