Former President Trump’s choice of Sen. JD Vance, R-Ohio, as his running mate in the November election could make Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell’s mission to shore up support for Ukraine in the Republican Party more difficult.
The Ohio senator has been a vocal critic of the various foreign aid packages, which included assistance for Ukraine in its ongoing war with Russia. “The problem in Ukraine … is that there’s no clear end point,” he previously remarked, echoing a complaint of other Republicans about the status of the conflict.
Vance has further questioned the continued aid to Ukraine over a lack of oversight, even introducing legislation to better monitor it. “The United States has sent tens of billions worth of military aid to Ukraine with shockingly little accountability for where those resources have gone,” he said in a statement at the time.
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“For example, we know that over half the weapons subject to enhanced end-use monitoring we’ve sent have not been tracked according to DOD standards. This is totally unacceptable. My legislation would require the Biden administration to maintain much higher standards of tracking the weapons we send overseas. If they can’t maintain those standards, they lose their authority to send weapons in the first place,” he added.
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This past spring, the Ohio Republican voted against the $95 billion foreign aid package for Ukraine, Israel, and the Indo-Pacific, which ultimately passed.
On the other hand, McConnell has made support for Ukraine his priority going forward. The Kentucky senator announced he would be stepping down as leader of the upper chamber’s Republicans in February, but he will remain in Congress.
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He previously noted he planned to put “the main part of my focus in the coming years” on pushing back on Russia in Ukraine. He referred to the war as “a worldwide problem for democracies.”
In an interview last week, McConnell claimed to be seeing improvement in his party on the issue of supporting Ukraine and demonstrating leadership on the world stage. “Reagan would turn over in his grave if he thought we were not willing to stand up for people fighting for their independence — particularly against the Russians,” he claimed.
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Despite the clear foreign policy differences between McConnell and Vance, the Senate Minority Leader applauded Trump on his choice of vice presidential nominee on Monday. “Senator JD Vance is a fierce advocate for the president’s policies and is the obvious pick for President Trump. He’ll make a strong case on the campaign trail on why we need to turn the page on the disastrous policies of the Biden administration,” read a tweet from the Kentucky senator’s campaign account.
Trump hasn’t been entirely forthcoming about what he would do to address the war between Ukraine and Russia, often claiming he would quickly be able to end the conflict. “If I’m president, I will have that war settled in one day, 24 hours,” he once said.