Mitch McConnell admits bipartisan Senate border bill has ‘no real chance’ at passing
NY Post
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell waved a rhetorical white flag Tuesday, admitting the bipartisan supplemental spending package was doomed fewer than 48 hours after its text was revealed.
“It’s been made pretty clear to us by the [House] speaker [Mike Johnson] that it will not become law,” the 81-year-old Kentuckian bluntly conceded to reporters.
“It looks to me and to most our members as if we have no real chance here to make a law,” McConnell added.
The Republican leader bowed to political reality after a two-day outcry among conservatives over the $118 billion measure — with McConnell lieutenants Steve Daines of Montana and John Barrasso of Wyoming among those expressing opposition on the Senate side and House GOP leadership bluntly stating Monday that taking up the legislation would be a “waste of time.”
The proposal, which is still set for a Senate procedural vote Wednesday, set aside $20 billion for border security, and included $650 million for border wall construction and a Title 42-style authority to shut down crossings when migrant encounters exceeded a 5,000-per-day average over a one-week period.
That number wasn’t low enough for border hawk Republicans like Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas), who suggested Tuesday that McConnell should be jettisoned as majority leader over the ordeal.
