On Tuesday’s broadcast of Bloomberg’s “Balance of Power,” Sen. Mark Warner (D-VA) reacted to news that the Senate will not reach a deal on border and Ukraine funding before the end of the year by stating that the talks “didn’t get super serious” in terms of drafting legislation until the last minute and the White House and Senate Minority Leader Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-KY) should have gotten more involved weeks ago.
Co-host Annmarie Hordern asked, “So, look, Sen. Schumer (D-NY), Majority Leader, called everyone back, did not let them go to holiday [recess] because he said there would be a vote this week. Now, he’s saying it’s too difficult. Can you give us a sense of where you and your colleagues are on trying to hammer out this deal?”
Warner responded, “Well, let’s put it in context. The one person who’s really happy about the fact that we’re not getting aid to Ukraine by the end of the year is Vladimir Putin. And I think we need to all remember that, that he thought he could outwait the West, outwait the U.S. And I hope and pray that’s not the case. And I could also say, am I frustrated that we didn’t have bigger involvement of the White House and more involvement of the Minority Leader, McConnell, two weeks ago? Absolutely. These talks didn’t get super serious until the last few days in terms of drafting.”
Follow Ian Hanchett on Twitter @IanHanchett
