Minority leader of the U.S. Senate, Mitch McConnell, appeared on NBC's "Meet the Press" on Sunday morning to discuss the Biden administration, aid to Ukraine, and Donald Trump with host Kristen Welker.
Having recently met with Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to discuss aid and U.S. funding earlier this year, condemning the Biden administration for its lack of due diligence. McConnell said that the administration’s withdrawal from Afghanistan “was a huge mistake.” He continued that this administration underfunds defense, not keeping up with the inflation rates.
“We need to get serious about what we are up against: China, Russia, Iran, and terrorism,” McConnell said, summing up some of the common buzzwords in the political sphere.
All of these make for a “more formidable combination of problems than we had even going into World War II,” McConnell said. Adding that, of course, terrorism was less of an issue in 1939.
When asked about what his message was to Zelenskyy and whether the U.S. aid was arriving in Ukraine too late to make a difference, McConnell said “I’m with ‘em.”
According to him, the United States shouldn’t force a settlement, which he also applied to the example of Israel wherein he disagreed with the current administration’s opinion that Israel “ought to have an election.”
“It’s not our job to tell a Democratic ally whether or not to have an election,” McConnell said.
Choosing to glaze past the second half of the question, he added that it is not the State's responsibility to police, through restrictions, how both Ukraine and Israel decide to address their conflict.
When asked again, he pointed out the benefits the United States has had since it helped Ukraine.
Welker did not receive a straight answer from McConnell, who was quite critical of Trump after Jan. 6, when she confronted him about his endorsement of former president Trump, and asked if he’d vote for the now criminal defendant.
“I said three years ago, shortly after the assault on the Capitol, that I would support the nominee of the party, whoever that was, and I do,” he said plainly.
This is despite what McConnell said in February 2021 when addressing Congress, when he said that without question that former “President Trump is practically and morally responsible for provoking the events of the day.”
McConnell maintained that because the Republican voters have chosen their nominee, all he can do is focus on ensuring that his successor is a majority leader instead of a minority one.
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