Republican Sen. James Lankford, who spent months negotiating the border provisions the GOP demanded, said he may vote against his own bill this week.
Senate Republicans on Monday signaled their plan to filibuster bipartisan legislation that paired tougher border policy with more U.S. aid to Ukraine, a stunning reversal less than 24 hours after the legislation had been unveiled.
With ex-president Donald Trump urging them to kill it, and many on the right up in arms about the proposal, top Senate Republicans emerged from a heated closed-door meeting and said they needed more time to review the agreement, suggesting that a scheduled Wednesday vote to advance the bill is all but doomed to fail.
Personal theory, this absolute clusterfuck of a situation the Republicans got themselves in wouldn’t have happened without the ouster of McCarthy.
McCarthy is a political operator and probably would have gotten a much smaller bill done on just Ukraine/Israel back in October. Or, just rip the bandaid off and say no more Ukraine funding ever, everyone forgets by the election, and if something goes wrong in Ukraine everyone blames Biden.
Instead, Johnson pretends he’d be for Ukraine funding if only there was border funding which he thinks kills it except the Senate Republicans actually want Ukraine funding, Israel funding, and border funding. So they call his bluff (and/or take him at his word) and actually start negotiating.
And then it takes 4 months so it’s election season now, and Republicans have to either give Biden another bipartisan win and lose a main attack against him, or go back on their word and reject the deal they asked for which makes them look incompetent, and gives them the blame if anything bad happens at the border or in Ukraine (or in Israel).
It’s just such a bad spot to be in and it’s in an election year. And an experienced Speaker wouldn’t have landed here.
With all the stress he’s under, I just feel bad for his kid.
Having to review all that porn must be unbearable.