There Are Brave GOP Senators—McConnell Should Be One
If he gives up on a border/Ukraine deal, he will prove himself a sucker and a loser.
MITCH MCCONNELL HAS ACKNOWLEDGED REALITY: Donald Trump is his party’s inevitable nominee and plans to punish anyone in Congress who cooperates on a border compromise or Ukraine aid. To please Trump, Republicans must work toward outcomes that damage President Joe Biden and Ukraine but help Vladimir Putin.
McConnell just wasn’t supposed to be one of those Republicans. He has been a champion for the defense of Ukraine, and the mutual dislike he and Trump feel for one another is universally known. So he startled his colleagues last week when he referred to an immigration deal tied to military aide for Ukraine as putting the party “in a quandary,” and said Republicans mustn’t “do anything to undermine” Trump.
McConnell also said “the politics on this have changed.” But they haven’t—at all.
Trump has been the nominee-in-waiting since last spring, and his minions in Congress never wanted a border deal. That was a ruse, and McConnell knew that.
What has changed is that there are GOP senators who want to fix the border, defend Ukraine’s freedom, and who won’t be cowed by House Republicans, Ted Cruz, or Trump. These senators not only didn’t walk away from bipartisan negotiations on immigration policy and deploy an easy, time-tested lie like Sen. Tim Scott did last week—saying it was “DOA” because Democrats prefer the issue to the solution—they are fighting publicly for a compromise and calling out Trump’s suckups who are trying to kill a deal.
They appear to have more guts than their leader.
Sen. Mitt Romney said of Trump, “the fact that he would communicate to Republican senators and congresspeople that he doesn’t want us to solve the border problem because he wants to blame Biden for it is really appalling.”
And for once, Romney wasn’t alone.
Sen. Thom Tillis, who has worked on the immigration fixes that would accompany security aid for Ukraine, practically invited an attack from the former president.
“I didn’t come here to have the president as a boss or a candidate as a boss. I came here to pass good, solid policy,” the North Carolina senator said. “It is immoral for me to think you looked the other way because you think this is the linchpin for President Trump to win.”
Sen. Todd Young of Indiana said it would be “tragic” to tank the deal, adding, “I hope no one is trying to take this away for campaign purposes.”
While Sen. Kevin Cramer of North Dakota admitted that “there are a good number of people for whom border security is too good an issue to give up,” he said that, for his own part, “I do reject that. I’ve always rejected the notion that perfect has to be the standard.”
Sen. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska insisted she would not give up:
This is not about Trump, and this is not about me. This is about our country. This is about democracy around the world. This is about security for our own country, and so let’s keep pushing to get this border deal. . . . Let’s stand by the commitments that we have made for our friends and our allies so that our word actually means something.
It’s necessary to catalog all these statements from every Republican in the Senate willing to say things they were never willing to say when Trump was in office. They are admitting that they want to solve problems with Democrats and that Trump takes a back seat to that.
They are the good guys, and they are on McConnell’s side. He should have their back.
McConnell retreated a day after his initial comments and said he’s fully on board with a deal and “trying to get an outcome.” But the significance of what he said before he backtracked is perfectly clear: McConnell, who knows Trump is dangerous and so is the party’s isolationist posture, wavered. He considered—or is still considering—abandoning Ukraine, and democracy around the world, to help Trump win presidency or to keep his own job as Republican leader in the Senate.
Even the Wall Street Journal made the case for defying Trump, writing in an editorial that more Republicans are supportive of Ukraine funding than are willing to admit it:
Few voices these days are willing to stand up and say so because they fear Mr. Trump will trash them for it. A border-Ukraine deal offers some cover for a hard Ukraine vote, and a political and policy victory to tout at home.
But the border policy isn’t a fig leaf, and McConnell knows that, too. He recently told his fellow Senate Republicans that no such deal would be possible if Trump wins, and at the time Lindsey Graham agreed, calling it a “historic” opportunity:
To my Republican friends: to get this kind of border security without granting a pathway to citizenship is really unheard of. So if you think you’re going to get a better deal next time, in ’25, if President Trump’s president, Democrats will be expecting a pathway to citizenship for that.
ONE PROFILE IN COURAGE among the Senate Republicans is Sen. James Lankford, who has been leading the negotiations. He has shown a willingness to hurt his political career for a deal—the Oklahoma Republican Party has censured him for ignoring Trump’s wishes—and has been candid, even on Fox News, about how some of his fellow Republicans have been playing politics with border security and urgently needed foreign aid.
McConnell should muster the same courage, to bring on board the requisite number of Republicans and press for a vote on the Senate floor. There is a possibility McConnell and Lankford could be joined by nine or ten Republican senators—Romney, Young, Tillis, Cramer, Graham, Murkowski, Susan Collins, Mike Rounds, John Thune, and potentially Roger Wicker—who could help Democrats break a filibuster.
House Republicans have promised Trump they won’t pass a bill. But it’s not impossible to imagine a few Republicans from Biden-won districts voting with Democrats on a bill that’s easy to defend to swing voters. House GOP leaders can lose only three votes.
That’s why Trump’s henchmen are loudly working to prevent a vote in the Senate at all, and are attacking Senate GOP “leadership.” Ted Cruz, for example, said, “this bill represents Senate Republican leadership waging war on House Republican leadership.”
But Trump’s Senate cronies don’t just want to take down a bill, they want to take down McConnell, no matter who wins the election. The “old crow,” as Trump called him, won’t be rewarded for loyalty should he help wreck a border fix or stop aid to Ukraine.
In November, I wrote that McConnell “owes himself a better legacy than being run out of town by J.D. Vance, Ron Johnson, and Donald Trump. He can help the country, and democracy, and himself, by abandoning the needs of his party to do what is right.”
He still can.
All McConnell has to do is retire his ambition to remain leader. Republicans will likely take the majority in the Senate next year with or without Trump. At age 82 (next month), McConnell is already the longest-serving Senate leader. He doesn’t need more time in the job. Allowing more Ukrainians to die, and Russia to win, only for Trump to dethrone him anyway, would be as pitiful as it would be tragic.