Sen. Mike Lee of Utah seems to be ginning up a division among Republicans in the Senate after a group of senators released its bipartisan deal on the border and Ukraine on Sunday. The $118 billion package, which includes wartime aid to Ukraine, Israel, and other allies, was tied to negotiated border security measures. Republican Speaker of the House Mike Johnson very quickly called the bill “even worse than we expected,” saying the bill would be “dead on arrival” in the House. Majority Leader Steve Scalise promised the bill would not even receive a vote in the House.
Lee, who expressed skepticism of the bill long before it was unveiled, quickly went to X (formerly Twitter) to write, “Senate GOP leadership screwed this up—and screwed us.” Saying that any support for the bill would be “unpatriotic,” Lee ended his attack on GOP leadership by proclaiming, “This is a disqualifying betrayal.”
According to Punchbowl News’ Andrew Desiderio, the fireworks aren’t just happening in the public sphere. Lee’s staff was reportedly “yelling” at Republican Sen. James Lankford’s team after their presentation of the bill.
Lee has proceeded to repost other Senate Republicans’ denouncements of the bill, including Eric Schmitt of Missouri and Steve Daines of Montana.
Republican leadership has denied it is taking its marching orders directly from Donald Trump, who has very publicly attacked the concept of a border deal. But their preemptive attacks on any immigration legislation, and the fact that the Senate’s bipartisan bill could be considered a huge policy victory for conservatives, show how beholden they are to Trump.
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