- Former GOP Rep. Adam Kinzinger blasted the GOP for its attempt to tie Ukraine aid to border security.
- “It’s not a serious party,” the former congressman told CNN’s Christiane Amanpour.
- Speaker Mike Johnson on Saturday announced the House would vote on a stand-alone Israel aid bill.
Former Rep. Adam Kinzinger on Thursday blasted congressional Republicans over their attempt to link wartime Ukraine aid with border security, arguing that the GOP isn’t a “serious” political party.
Kinzinger, a one-time Republican member of the House January 6 committee, criticized the earlier legislative push to tie the two critical issues together while speaking with CNN’s Christiane Amanpour.
“The whole party has become a joke in terms of what it’s going for,” he said. “It pretends to be a party of policy. I was in Congress for 12 years. In the early part of my congressional career we were focused on policy. That mattered.”
Kinzinger, who served in the House from 2011 to 2023, called out the GOP after conservatives in the lower chamber turned their backs on the bipartisan border security deal that was crafted in the Senate.
“Just four or five months ago, the GOP ‘tanked’ Ukraine aid in order to get a border change because they needed a change in policy in legislation,” he said. “Now, President Biden has come forward and said ‘Ok, I’m basically going to give you everything you’ve asked for.’ And now the Republican position after Donald Trump said he wants this issue politically … the Republican position has been we don’t need to change policy.”
“It’s not a serious party,” he continued. “Linking the issue of Ukraine and the border is very bad and very wrong. They’re very different issues. Regardless, the current president gave them a lot on this and they’re waking away.”
Donald Trump has been vocal in his distaste for the bipartisan border security plan, remarking that he would gladly take credit should it fall apart.
House Speaker Mike Johnson of Louisiana, meanwhile, announced on Saturday that the House next week would vote on a stand-alone bill that would give $17.6 billion in aid to Israel.
However, the Democratic-controlled Senate in the coming days is set to unveil a national security package that includes a border deal, along with funding for Ukraine and Israel.
