FLASHBACK: Lindsey Graham Insisted Biden Must Do ‘More’ for Ukraine Before Voting Against Aid Package

Isaac SchorrFeb 14th, 2024, 3:48 pm
 

Lindsey Graham

Senator Lindsey Graham (R-SC) voted against a foreign aid package for Ukraine, Israel, and Taiwan earlier this week after previously suggesting that the Biden administration needed to more to help the Ukrainian war effort.

In a statement released on Monday night, Graham said that while he had “been saying for months that helping Ukraine, Israel, and Taiwan are extremely important national security imperatives for the United States,” he would be voting against the package because “we must deal with our border first.”

Graham went on to suggest that “the supplemental aid package should be a loan to the countries in question.”

Notably, a compromise deal to fund both the trio of countries and help secure the border was negotiated by Senators James Lankford (R-OK), Kyrsten Sinema (I-AZ), and Chris Murphy (R-CT) before it was rejected by Republicans in both chambers of Congress.

Graham’s decision to join with the majority of his GOP colleagues in rejecting both the border deal and separate aid bill is particularly noteworthy given his past statements.

“My message to the Biden administration is I appreciate what you have done, you need to do more, and I am convinced that there will be bipartisan support to provide more weapons that can turn the tide of battle,” declared Graham during a trip to Kyiv last year.

Graham expressed the same sentiment in a tweet last March musing, “When it comes to Ukraine, the Biden Administration has been slow in supplying Ukraine the weapons they need to drive the Russians out.”

“The last thing we can afford, after the disastrous withdrawal from Afghanistan, is additional weakness and indecision,” he added.

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