Republicans demanded reinforcement of the border with Mexico: US senators argued and shouted at each other during a secret briefing on Ukraine – The Hill

The secret briefing on Ukraine in the U.S. Senate yesterday took place in an extremely tense and confrontational atmosphere.

This information reported by The Hill.

At one point, Republicans were shouting questions at Secretary of State Antony Blinken, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, and Chief of Staff Charles Brown, who were there to advocate for allocating funds to Kyiv.

The dispute revolved around the same issue – Republicans demanding reinforcement of the border with Mexico.

“I asked General Brown for the best military advice. Is supporting Ukraine and Israel so important that Democrats could, at least, reluctantly consider supporting some southern border security? But he only wanted to talk about Ukraine,” said Senator Kramer, one of the participants in the arguments.

Ultimately, the Republicans simply left the briefing.

“There was no reason to sit and listen to people talk about the importance of aiding Israel and Ukraine. We already know and agree with that,” stated Senator Mitt Romney.

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (Democrat) accused Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell of trying to disrupt the meeting.

However, McConnell threatened to “end discussions” if the Democrats didn’t concede on the border issue.

“We want the aid to go to Ukraine and Israel, but we are talking about borders. My response to the majority leader (Schumer): if you don’t believe how serious we are, we will end discussions. I am speaking up and hope that all members of our party will vote against this bill [about aid to Ukraine] to make them understand in the end that we insist on significant changes at the borders,” McConnell stated.