{"id":2053965,"date":"2023-10-03T15:19:01","date_gmt":"2023-10-03T19:19:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/how-conservatives-quietly-outmaneuvered-weakened-mcconnell-on-ukraine\/"},"modified":"2023-10-03T15:20:42","modified_gmt":"2023-10-03T19:20:42","slug":"how-conservatives-quietly-outmaneuvered-weakened-mcconnell-on-ukraine","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/how-conservatives-quietly-outmaneuvered-weakened-mcconnell-on-ukraine\/","title":{"rendered":"Conservatives quietly outsmarted weakened McConnell on Ukraine."},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">14<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fhow-conservatives-quietly-outmaneuvered-weakened-mcconnell-on-ukraine%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=2053965&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><div class=\"article-content\">\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Senate Republicans Defy McConnell, \u200cPass Short-Term Spending Bill<\/h2>\n<blockquote>\n<p>Senate Minority Leader Mitch\u2062 McConnell suffered a stunning blow this weekend when Republicans\u200d in the\u2062 upper chamber disregarded \u200dhis repeated calls for prioritizing Ukraine funding\u2063 by passing the House GOP\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/speaker-mccarthy-responds-to-ouster-threat-ill-survive\/\" title=\"McCarthy's response to ouster threat: \"I'll endure.\"\">short-term spending \u2064bill<\/a>, \u200bwhich included no provisions for \u200bthe Volodymyr Zelensky\u200c regime.<\/p>\n<p>Publicly, McConnell pretended his \u2062move to finance \u200bthe \u200bproxy war \u2062in\u2064 Ukraine was temporarily tabled for the convenience of avoiding\u2063 an imminent government shutdown. Behind closed doors, the Senate minority\u2063 leader\u2019s plan \u2062to \u2064indefinitely send U.S. tax dollars to Eastern Europe was shunned by nearly every member of his party who \u200dexpressed discomfort with hinging the fate \u200cof the government \u200dshutdown on Ukraine.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<ul>\n<li>One source familiar with\u2064 the situation told The \u200cFederalist\u2063 that \u2064even McConnell quietly acknowledged to \u200chis colleagues that any\u200b spending bill, including the\u2063 Ukraine funding, was \u200cnot a winning issue for\u200d the party. Yet, he was so committed to\u200d putting another country\u2019s financial well-being ahead of his own that he fought his own conference on it.<\/li>\n<li>The Senate GOP\u2019s defiance of McConnell was confirmed when\u2063 they, at the urging of Senate GOP steering committee members like Sens. Mike\u2064 Lee and Rick Scott, passed\u2062 House\u2062 Republicans\u2019 continuing resolution (CR)\u2064 instead of the Senate bill.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>\u201cWhen I came in on Saturday morning, I was convinced we were \u200bnot going to win. The headwinds were totally\u2064 opposed to us. And then by 1 o\u2019clock, we had decisively defeated McConnell,\u201d a Senate staffer \u200ctold The Federalist.<\/p>\n<p>Corporate media \u2063and\u2063 Beltway insiders paint\u2062 the titanic\u200d twist \u2063as \u2064a sign that\u200c the longest-serving Senate \u2064party leader in US history \u2063is losing control of his conference. The Senate Republicans who defied McConnell and Senate Minority Leader \u2064Chuck Schumer\u2019s expensive \u2062spending package, however, are simply finally harnessing the collective decision-making power they\u2019ve always had to better \u2064reflect the\u200d party and constituents.<\/p>\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">The Mechanics That \u200cMade It \u2063Happen<\/h2>\n<p>Spending negotiations did not \u200dstart looking grim for McConnell until just one day before FY 2023 spending was set to expire. Up until that point, McConnell \u200dwas armed with \u2063his\u2063 deal, \u2063the support of the \u200bPentagon, and \u2064prepared to send billions more U.S. tax\u200c dollars to Ukraine.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s\u2063 rumored that Pentagon officials are on their way over to the Capitol\u200c to lobby for \u200bSchumer-McConnell. The\u2062 Military Industrial Complex doesn\u2019t like to lose,\u201d Lee wrote on \u200dX, formerly known as Twitter.<\/p>\n<p>The package was standard for the Republican leader who has\u2062 spent the last two and a half years pressuring his colleagues to join\u200b Democrats in subsidizing the \u200cwar in \u2064Eastern \u200cEurope.<\/p>\n<p>McConnell previously argued \u200bthat sending Ukraine \u2064money without oversight \u200cis \u201cobviously in America\u2019s \u200cself-interest\u201d because it benefits the vast U.S. military-industrial complex.<\/p>\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Reclaiming Possession Of The Party<\/h2>\n<p>Senators Lee and Scott specifically proposed during a Saturday conference lunch that Republicans\u200d in \u2062the upper chamber\u200b wait\u200b for their House GOP colleagues to\u2063 send\u200d over the stopgap. Waiting for the House \u200bbill, they argued, would rid them \u200cof the burden of passing\u200d legislation that goes against\u200b Americans\u2019 wishes \u2062on Ukraine, keep\u2064 Republicans \u200dfrom becoming \u200bshutdown scapegoats, and harbor \u2063McCarthy from the threat of removal \u2064for a little longer.<\/p>\n<p>Even\u200d shadow leadership race candidates Sens.\u200d Cornyn and Thune,\u200d who started September by\u2062 eviscerating House Republicans for opposing the \u200cSenate uniparty\u2019s\u2064 spending plan, expressed support for the \u200dplan \u200dso they would \u2063be seen as sympathetic \u200bto the conference that\u2064 might one day choose them to lead the party.<\/p>\n<p>By\u2064 the\u2063 end\u200d of the \u2064lunch, McConnell and Sen. Susan Collins were the only GOP senators who vocalized \u200bdisdain for passing the House\u2019s CR. McConnell was eventually forced to publicly declare Republican\u2019s intent to pass the stopgap in an attempt to maintain his appearance of control.<\/p>\n<p>Schumer \u2063tried to stifle the vote by starting a \u2062live quorum, which\u2062 requires all senators\u2064 to\u200b convene in the Senate \u2063chambers to fulfill their duties to vote. Republicans were prepared\u2062 to either take down cloture or abstain from voting altogether,\u2064 but Schumer eventually relented and left\u2062 his bill off the table.<\/p>\n<p>The Republicans had successfully defied McConnell and delayed Democrats\u2019 spending \u2063wishlist until mid-November.<\/p>\n<p>Despite suffering defeat on the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/one-on-one-with-rep-andy-ogles-on-government-funding\/\" title=\"Interview with Rep. Andy Ogles on Government Funding\">short-term\u2064 funding bill<\/a>, McConnell is not giving up on his dream \u200cto keep Ukraine in the running for future\u2064 appropriations \u200cnegotiations. He opened his floor speech on the passage of the CR by \u200bpledging to send the Zelensky\u200d regime \u200bmore money before the end of the year.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI\u2019m confident the\u200c Senate will pass further urgent assistance to Ukraine later \u200bthis year,\u201d McConnell \u2064said.<\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s\u200b difficult to \u2063predict\u200b where negotiations will go in the next month. The momentum\u2063 for the Senate GOP to collectively \u200bmake its own decisions without McConnell, however, is there and waiting for them to grasp \u200dit.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator\"> <\/p>\n<h2> What\u200d concerns did many Senate\u200c Republicans express about including Ukraine funding in the spending bill?<\/h2>\n<p><span>  Which did not include Ukraine funding,\u2064 would give Senate Republicans the opportunity to pass a spending bill that reflected their priorities and values.<\/p>\n<p>In a surprising turn of events, Senate Republicans unanimously voted in\u200c favor of the\u2064 House GOP\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/ukraine-covid-and-monkeypox-biden-asks-congress-for-another-47-billion-to-address-critical-needs-for-the-american-people\/\" title=\"Ukraine, COVID, And Monkeypox: Biden Asks Congress For Another  Billion To Address \u2018Critical Needs For The American People\u2019\">short-term spending bill<\/a>, completely disregarding McConnell\u2019s repeated calls for Ukraine \u2063funding. This move comes as a major blow to McConnell, who had been pushing\u200c for the \u200binclusion of provisions supporting the Volodymyr Zelensky regime.<\/p>\n<p>Publicly, McConnell claimed that the decision to table the financing of the proxy war in \u200cUkraine was an effort\u2064 to avoid a\u200b government\u200c shutdown. However, behind closed doors, it was evident\u200c that his plan to\u2064 indefinitely allocate\u2064 US tax dollars\u200d to Eastern Europe was met with discomfort by the majority of his party. Many Republicans expressed concerns about tying the fate of the \u2063government shutdown to Ukraine.<\/p>\n<p>According to sources familiar with\u200d the situation, McConnell \u200ceven privately acknowledged that including Ukraine funding in the \u200dspending bill was \u200cnot a winning\u200d issue\u200b for \u200bthe party. Despite this, he remained committed to \u2063prioritizing another country\u2019s financial well-being over \u200bhis own party&#8217;s interests, leading to \u2062a clash within the GOP.<\/p>\n<p>The defiance \u200dof McConnell by Senate Republicans \u2063was further confirmed when they, at the urging of Senators \u2064Mike Lee and Rick Scott, passed the House Republicans\u2019 continuing resolution instead of\u2064 the Senate bill. This unexpected turn of events left McConnell defeated and\u2064 exposed the growing divide within his own conference.<\/p>\n<p>Those who defied McConnell&#8217;s stance argue that they\u200c are simply exercising their collective decision-making power to better reflect the interests of the \u200bparty and its \u200dconstituents. They believe that McConnell&#8217;s continued insistence on allocating taxpayer money to Ukraine without proper oversight does not align\u200d with their values or\u200d the\u2063 priorities of the\u2063 American people.<\/p>\n<p>The mechanics behind this unexpected outcome began to\u200c unfold just one day before \u200dthe FY 2023 spending was set to expire. Up until that point, McConnell had enjoyed the support of the Pentagon and \u2063was prepared to send billions more US tax dollars to Ukraine. However, as \u2064the deadline approached, the Senate Republicans realized the opportunity to reclaim \u2062possession\u200d of their party and shape the spending bill according to their own priorities.<\/p>\n<p>Senator Lee hinted at the influence of the\u200c Military Industrial Complex on\u200c McConnell&#8217;s previous support for Ukraine funding. It is \u2063rumored that Pentagon officials were intending to lobby for Schumer-McConnell, further highlighting the influence of defense interests in these negotiations.<\/p>\n<p>In the end,\u200b the Senate Republicans&#8217;\u200c decision to pass the House GOP&#8217;s \u200bshort-term spending bill without Ukraine funding serves as a pivotal moment in the ongoing power struggle within the party. This move represents a departure from McConnell&#8217;s leadership and signals a desire\u2062 among Senate Republicans to take control of their own agenda.<\/p>\n<p>As the party continues to face internal divisions, it remains to be seen how this defiance will impact \u2064the leadership dynamics within the Senate GOP. However, one thing is clear \u2013 the Senate Republicans who defied McConnell and Schumer\u2019s expensive spending package \u2063are determined\u200c to prioritize the \u2062interests of their party and \u2062constituents, \u2063even if it means going against their <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/how-conservatives-quietly-outmaneuvered-weakened-mcconnell-on-ukraine\/\" title=\"Conservatives quietly outsmarted weakened McConnell on Ukraine.\">long-serving party leader<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell faced a major setback as Republicans in the upper chamber ignored his pleas to prioritize Ukraine funding. The House GOP&#8217;s short-term spending bill, lacking provisions for the Volodymyr Zelensky regime, was passed. McConnell publicly pretended to support financing the proxy war in Ukraine, but suffered a surprising blow.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":490,"featured_media":2053966,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cndimages.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_2758-scaled-1.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[546],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2053965","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-the-federalist"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cndimages.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_2758-scaled-1.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2053965","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/490"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2053965"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2053965\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2053966"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2053965"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2053965"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2053965"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}