Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer’s bid to bring President Joe Biden’s $106 billion war budget request to the floor failed on a cloture vote yesterday of 49 yeas to 51 nays. The motion required 60 “yes” votes to pass. The Republicans were joined by Rep. Bernie Sander (I-VT). Schumer flipped his vote to “no” for procedural reasons.
Schumer had reportedly “dared” the GOP to vote against the cause of Ukraine funding that most had previously supported. He said in a speech that the Senate is facing a question that “goes to the actual preservation of Western and democratic values in the world.” Republican Leader Mitch McConnell was unimpressed. “Legislation that doesn’t include policy changes to secure our borders will not pass the Senate,” he said in his own floor speech. “The situation unfolding at our southern border on President Biden’s watch is a crisis of historic proportions.”
In Washington to add pressure on the GOP is U.K. Foreign Secretary David Cameron, Lord Cameron of Chipping Norton. He reportedly told Fox News last night that if the support package were not approved, the message that this would send out would be “really, extremely bad.”
“I’m more worried that we’re not going to back them enough,” quoth Cameron, as he praised the “brave” and “united” Ukrainian defenders. He said it was “about American security, too,” claiming that Russian President Vladimir Putin would go after other European nations should he win in Ukraine—a move that could ultimately draw in U.S. troops if a NATO ally were attacked.
