Kentucky Senator Rand Paul has slammed his Republican minority leader Mitch McConnell's backing for the military aid bill for Ukraine.
Paul labelled McConnell's support as "outrageous" as the bill excluded provisions for border security.
He called out his fellow legislators for allocating more aid to Ukraine and Israel — both mired in conflicts of their own making — rather than dealing with the migrant crisis on the country's southern border.
“It’s criminal neglect for Mitch McConnell, Chuck Schumer, and Joe Biden to get together to send $100 billion overseas to fix someone else’s border before addressing our border,” Paul told Fox Business’s Larry Kudlow in an interview on Friday.
Responding to US President Joe Biden's remarks that failure to provide aid to Ukraine would be "criminal neglect," Paul stated that it was wrong to discuss funding other countries' militaries without first addressing the US-Mexico border crisis.
Last Sunday, Senators introduced the $118 billion package, with most of the funds earmarked as aid for Ukraine. Other components of the proposed package include border enforcement measures, along with military aid to Israel and Taiwan.
However, the bill still faces strong opposition from the Republican majority in the House of Representatives led by Speaker Mike Johnson.
The vote for an enhanced $95.3 billion bill excluding funds for the US border indicated that Ukraine takes precedence over US domestic problems. The plan gives Ukraine $60 billion, $14 billion for Israel's security aid, $9 billion to help civilians in Gaza, the West Bank, and Ukraine, and $4.8 billion to support US "allies" in the Asia-Pacific region.
Paul promised to stall votes on the new bill on Friday, calling it "rotten." Democrat Senator John Fetterman insulted him, calling him a "peckerhead" for making fellow legislators follow procedural measures to pass the Ukraine funding package.
The so-called bipartisan agreement on border security, which fell apart after months of negotiations, was partly negotiated by Paul's fellow Republican Senator James Lankford from Oklahoma.