Top Senate Democrat tees up two votes on Israel and Ukraine aid – one with border security, one without – live | US politics

International call for more aid from US for Ukraine

Joanna Walters

The White House is focused on getting a Ukraine aid package through the US Congress, the White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan said on Wednesday, adding there was no “plan B”, Reuters reports.

We believe we still can and will deliver aid for Ukraine,” Sullivan told reporters during a joint press conference with the Nato secretary general, Jens Stoltenberg.

Stoltenberg said it was vital Congress agreed on continued support for Ukraine in the near future.

Stoltenberg said there was no imminent threat to any Nato ally, but added:

We must sustain our support and that is a responsibility for all allies.”

The US Senate is currently voting on the bipartisan border and foreign aid bill that a group of lawmakers has been working on for months and unveiled on Sunday. But the bill appears doomed, despite Republicans having insisted on immigration reform to tighten security at the US-Mexico border. Legislation needs 60 votes to pass the 100-member Senate, where Democrats hold a wafter-thin majority, so GOP support is needed to pass bills.

Joanna Walters

Arizona independent US senator Kyrsten Sinema just told the chamber that the Republican abandonment of efforts to pass immigration reform legislation was “shameful”.

Sinema (who switched from the Democratic party to become an independent not long after the midterm elections in 2022, when Republicans won control of the House), said that many Republican senators may just want to ignore a bill involving tightening border security, but Arizona could not afford that as it is dealing with the increase in migration every day.

Joanna Walters

Republican senator James Lankford of Oklahoma spoke on the floor of the Senate moments ago to say that Americans were telling Congress to “do something” about the increase in migration at the US-Mexico border.

“We have to decide if we are going to do that or not, if we are going to do nothing, or do something,” he said.

He said the bill that looks doomed is “a bill put together by a bipartisan effort – welcome to the US Senate”.

Lankford worked across the aisle with Democrats Patty Murray and Chris Murphy and independent senator Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona to prepare the complex bill that implements immigration reforms, toughens the US-Mexico border, and funds more aid for Ukraine, Israel and allies in the Indo-Pacific region such as Taiwan. At almost 400 pages, he said it took months of complicated work.

But he said he had Republican colleagues who believed lies they read on social media rather than the text of the bill itself. One unnamed fellow GOPer told him: “If you are trying to move a bill that solves the border crisis during the election, I will do everything to destroy you,” Lankford said. And they have done so, he said, by signaling they would not support a bill Republicans had said was sorely needed.

‘You don’t let a fire burn because Trump wants to campaign on ashes’ – senator

Joanna Walters

Washington state’s Democratic senator Patty Murray is on the floor of the US Senate now, lambasting Republicans who are obstructing the border and war aid spending legislation, and thanking her Republican fellow senator, James Lankford, of Oklahoma, who just spoke passionately.

Murray talked of Ukraine’s defense against Russian president Vladimir Putin’s war in Ukraine and Israel’s offensive against Hamas, and the need for more US funds for those allies, and said: “Today is a critical vote. Today is a critical day to decide.” She asked if senators would keep their word when they negotiate with each other.

Both she and Lankford are lamenting the fact that legislation in front of the Senate to implement border reforms and boost funds for Ukraine and Israel is on the brink.

“And lets not forget there is the [US-Mexico] border,” she said. “The site of so many Republican photo ops.”

“That’s the moment we are in, by voting it down, Republicans will be telling our allies our word cannot be trusted, telling dictators like Putin that our threats are not serious,” she said.

“And telling the American people they do not want to solve the crisis at the border, they want to campaign on it – you do not let a fire burn so that Donald Trump can campaign on the ashes,” Murray said.

Hours after the House descended into farce yesterday evening when Republicans failed to impeach the homeland security secretary, Alejandro Mayorkas, and blocked legislation to send military aid to Israel, the Senate is taking a crack at approving a complex bill to tighten immigration policy while assisting both Israel and Ukraine. If that legislation does not pass, and there’s plenty of reason to believe it will not, since Republicans say they no longer like the border security changes, the Senate’s Democratic leader, Chuck Schumer, said they’ll vote on a bill that solely contains funds for Kyiv, and for the counterattack against Hamas. Will that attract the 60 votes needed to pass the Senate, and, if it does, will it make through the House, where Ukraine foes are plenty? We’ll find out soon enough.

Here’s what else is going on today:

• Joe Biden says he will support the Israel-Ukraine aid bill, even if it does not include immigration policy changes.

• The Mayorkas impeachment will die in the Senate, predicted Oklahoma’s Republican senator James Lankford, who negotiated the ill-fated immigration policy bill.

• Nikki Haley had a terrible night in Nevada, where she came in second in the primaries to “none of these candidates”. This morning, she blamed the Republican party’s problems on Donald Trump, who appears on course to win its presidential nomination.

Joe Biden will sign legislation to send new military aid to Ukraine and Israel, even if it does not contain policy changes intended to stop migrants from crossing the southern border, the White House announced.

Here’s what spokesman Andrew Bates had to say:

We support this bill which would protect America’s national security interests by stopping Putin’s onslaught in Ukraine before he turns to other countries, helping Israel defend itself against Hamas terrorists and delivering live-saving humanitarian aid to innocent Palestinian civilians. Even if some congressional Republicans’ commitment to border security hinges on politics, President Biden’s does not. We must still have reforms and more resources to secure the border. These priorities all have strong bipartisan support across the country.

Whether the Senate manages to pass any legislation today is a different matter.

The Senate will this afternoon take two votes on approving aid to Israel and Ukraine, one on a bill that will include hardline immigration policies, and one without, the chamber’s Democratic leader Chuck Schumer announced.

“I have scheduled a vote on the supplemental that includes strong bipartisan border reforms that Republicans have demanded for months,” Schumer said in a speech on the Senate floor. He went on:

Now, if Republicans blocked this national security package with border legislation that they demanded later today, I will give them the opportunity to move forward with the package without border reforms. This package will otherwise be largely the same. It will have strong funding for Ukraine, funding for Israel, help for innocent civilians in Gaza and funding to the Indo Pacific. The legislation on the floor today is one of the most important security packages the Senate has considered in a very long time. So the onus is on Senate Republicans to finally take yes for an answer.

Last year, Republicans blocked Senate passage of a bill to provide aid to Israel and Ukraine, demanding that the Democrats agree to pass a law to stem the flow of migrants across the US border with Mexico. But after Joe Biden and his allies announced their support this week for hardline policies intended to do that, the GOP said they were no longer interested – reportedly because Donald Trump pressured them to do so.

It’s unclear how Senate Republicans will vote today. In his speech, Schumer warned the party that they would be doing Trump’s bidding and harming national security if they block both pieces of legislation.

“It would be an embarrassment for our country, an absolute nightmare for the Republican party if they reject national security funding twice in one day. Today is the day for Republicans to do the right thing when it comes to our national security,” Schumer said.

“Why are the Republicans doing all this? Why have they backed off on border when they know it’s the right thing to do? Two words, Donald Trump.”

In remarks to reporters in the Capitol, the House speaker, Mike Johnson, said Republicans will try impeaching homeland security secretary Alejandro Mayorkas again, but did not say when that would happen:

Last time was a setback, but democracy is messy. We live in a time of divided government. We have a razor-thin margin here and every vote counts. Sometimes, when you’re counting votes, and people show up when they’re not expected to be in the building, that changes the equation. But, listen, we have a duty and a responsibility to take care of this issue. We have to hold the secretary of the Department of Homeland Security accountable, and Mayorkas needs to be held accountable. The Biden administration needs to be held accountable, and we will pass those articles of impeachment. We’ll do it on next round.

Last night’s defeat of the impeachment effort was an embarrassment for Johnson, who has only been in the speaker’s job for about three months. Asked to respond to comments from a fellow House Republican that it was a mistake to remove Kevin McCarthy as speaker of the House, Johnson said: “It was a mess, what happened here, but we’re cleaning it up.”

He was also noncommittal about how the House would react if the Democratic-led Senate approves a bill that would fund aid to Israel and Ukraine. “We’ll see what the Senate does. We’re allowing the process to play out and we’ll handle it as it is sent over,” he said.

Hakeem Jeffries, the Democratic House minority leader, took something of a victory lap this morning, after his party successfully mobilized to block the impeachment of the homeland security secretary, Alejandro Mayorkas, with the help of three Republican defectors.

Addressing the press, the New York congressman called on House Republicans to drop what he characterized as partisan stunts, such as the charges against Mayorkas, who faced no threat of being convicted by the Senate. Here’s what Jeffries had to say:

Last night, House Republicans and their speaker, Mike Johnson, were humiliated when their attempt to impeach the homeland security chief, Alejandro Mayorkas, failed on the House floor. Here’s the moment Johnson personally delivered the bad news:

Those are Democrats you can hear cheering.

Nonetheless, Johnson’s spokesperson says the speaker will try again to bring charges against Mayorkas over his handling of migration at the southern border:

But when? The reason Republicans lost last night is that all Democratic lawmakers showed up to vote, while three of the GOP’s own members voted against impeachment. Republicans should be able to win a second vote once majority leader Steve Scalise returns from cancer treatment, but Politico reports he won’t be back until next week, at the earliest.

That creates the scenario of the impeachment effort’s fate becoming entwined with the 13 February special election in New York’s suburbs to fill the empty seat created after the House expelled fabulist George Santos. A victory by Republican Mazi Pilip could prove decisive to the success of a second impeachment vote – but if Democrat Tom Suozzi wins, Republicans could find that they once again don’t have the votes to succeed.

Good morning, US politics blog readers. What a fiasco yesterday was for Republicans in Congress. First, the GOP turned against a deal they had demanded to impose hardline immigration policies and provide military aid to Ukraine and Israel, reportedly because Donald Trump wants to campaign on the issue. It was an embarrassing defeat for Mitch McConnell, the top Senate Republican who supports both countries’ causes. But whatever mortification he felt was eclipsed by the farce that occurred late in the day in the House of Representatives. The Republican speaker, Mike Johnson, barreled ahead with a floor vote on impeaching the homeland security secretary, Alejandro Mayorkas, thinking it had the support to pass. Little did he know that it, in fact, did not, after Democrats united against it and three Republicans defected. But Johnson’s bad night wasn’t over yet. He teed up a vote on a standalone package to fund Israel’s military, thinking he could sway the country’s Democratic backers into voting for it. They did not take the bait, and that legislation also failed to pass.

The House GOP has vowed to press on with the Mayorkas impeachment, bringing the measure back up as soon as today, though it remains unclear if they have the votes to actually do that. Meanwhile, the Senate’s Democratic leader Chuck Schumer is going on the offensive, reportedly by planning a vote on military aid to Israel and Ukraine, without the border crackdown the GOP, at one point, pressed for. We’ll see if that goes anywhere.

Here’s what else is happening today:

• Nikki Haley managed to come in second to “none of these candidates” in Nevada’s low-stakes presidential primary, raising further questions about the viability of her challenge to Trump for the Republican nomination.

• Matt Gaetz and Elise Stefanik, two big Trump fans in the House, plan to introduce a resolution saying that he did not engage in an insurrection.

• Trump yesterday was denied immunity by an appeals court for his alleged attempts to overturn the 2020 election. His campaign says he will appeal.