Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) was reportedly incensed during a classified Senate intelligence briefing on Ukraine Tuesday after multiple Republican senators brought up security at the U.S. southern border.
The briefing included top Biden administration and military officials such as Secretary of State Antony Blinken, Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin, and Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Charles Q. Brown Jr., The Hill reported. Sens. Kevin Cramer (R-ND) and Tom Cotton (R-AR) reportedly grilled the senior officials in the room, asking them pointed questions about the importance of securing the southern border.
“I asked Gen. Brown [for] his best military advice. Is supporting Ukraine and Israel important enough that Democrats could at least consider reluctantly supporting some southern border security? He wanted to talk about Ukraine,” Cramer said.
The question made Schumer go “nuts,” according to Cramer. The Senate majority leader later said the Republican senators were acting disrespectfully toward the military officials.
“One of them started — was disrespectful — and started screaming at one of the generals and challenging him why he didn’t go to the border,” Schumer said, according to The Hill.
Schumer then accused Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) of attempting to “hijack” the intelligence briefing to address Republicans’ concerns about the border crisis.
“It was immediately hijacked by Leader McConnell. The first question — instead of asking our panelists — he called on Lankford to give a five-minute talk about the negotiations on the border, and that wasn’t the purpose of the meeting at all,” said Schumer. “And then when I brought up the idea that they could do an amendment and have the ability to get something done on [the] border, [Republican colleagues] got stuck.”
Sen. Angus King (I-ME), who caucuses with the Democrats, reportedly agreed that those in the meeting should address the ongoing border crisis and defended Republicans who sought answers on the issue.
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“Sen. King said, ‘Hey, this may not have been the time that I want to discuss this, but it’s an important topic. The president put it on the agenda with the supplemental having border funding. This is the only time we’re all together, so it’s totally legitimate for us to have that discussion,’” according to a Republican senator who was familiar with the talks.
Republicans on Capitol Hill are looking to push the Biden administration to do more to address the border crisis as President Joe Biden urges Congress to approve more funding for Ukraine. After the White House sent a letter to Congress requesting more funds for the European country, House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) responded by blasting the Biden administration for “failing to substantively address” Republicans’ concerns about a resolution in Ukraine while “continually ignoring the catastrophe at our own border.”
“House Republicans have resolved that any national security supplemental package must begin with our own border,” Johnson said. “We believe both issues can be agreed upon if Senate Democrats and the White House will negotiate reasonably.”