Senator Tim Scott (R., S.C.) said Sunday he would not support President Biden’s emergency funding request for additional aid to Ukraine and Israel in its “current construct,” suggesting instead that aid for Israel should be passed separately to allow its approval and disbursement to occur more quickly amid the ongoing war between Israel and Hamas.
The Republican presidential candidate was asked during an appearance on ABC’s This Week whether he would vote against Biden’s funding request, which includes $60 billion for Ukraine and replenishing U.S. stockpiles, $14 billion for Israel, $10 billion for humanitarian efforts, $14 billion for the border and $7 billion for the Indo-Pacific region.
“I will in the current construct, but there’s no doubt that we spent about — over the last two years — $100 billion to Ukraine and this one package is $61 billion for Ukraine, only $14 billion for Israel,” he said.
“Israel is at the beginning of a long protracted war, I think we are much better off, better served as a nation, focusing our resources and our attention immediately on Israel and continuing to prove the kind of level of accountability and responsibility the American people want to see as it relates to the resources for Ukraine,” the South Carolina Republican added.
The prospect of continuing to send aid to Ukraine, which has already received $133 billion in military and economic assistance from the U.S., has been a source of tension in the Republican Party over the last several months. Some have advocated focusing on domestic issues, while others insist it is integral to U.S. interests to help Ukraine defend itself against Russia.
“If we do those separately, I believe we get the Israel package done almost overnight, and then we have the longer process of proving more resources, depending on the level, to Ukraine,” Scott said.
He also spoke about the dire need to address the migrant crisis at the U.S. Southern border.
“Thousands of people have crossed our southern border,” he said. “And on both sides of the aisle . . . one thing we can agree on is that the national security threat represented by an unsafe, unsecure and wide open border has never been higher than it is today.”
Meanwhile, Senate minority leader Mitch McConnell (R., Ky.) defended President Biden’s decision to include aid for Ukraine and Israel together in one budget request after some other Republicans criticized the bundling of the aid.
McConnell’s comments came during an interview on CBS’s Face the Nation that aired Sunday. Host Margaret Brennan asked whether it was possible to pass aid to Ukraine without it being tied to Israel.
“I just think that’s a mistake,” McConnell said. “I mean, I know there are some Republicans in the Senate, and maybe more in the House, saying Ukraine is somehow different. I view it as all interconnected.”
McConnell went on to defend the idea of approving more aid for Ukraine, noting much of the aid is being spent in the U.S. in increasing the production of the weapons.
“No Americans are getting killed in Ukraine. We’re rebuilding our industrial base. The Ukrainians are destroying the army of one of our biggest rivals. I have a hard time finding anything wrong with that. I think it’s wonderful that they’re defending themselves — and also the notion that the Europeans are not doing enough,” he said.
Some Republicans have been skeptical of Biden’s proposed package, pushing back against the idea of tying Israel’s aid to assistance for Ukraine.
“There is an immediate responsibility on Congress to make sure Israel has what it needs to defend itself, and to hold that aid hostage by linking it with a myriad of other issues — including bailout for sanctuary cities and more money for Ukraine — is irresponsible,” Senator Marsha Blackburn (R., Tenn.) said on Thursday.
“These separate funding requests should be considered as such,” she added.