Republicans double down on border demands as clock ticks down on Ukraine aid
After Senate Republicans blocked a Democratic-led effort to advance an emergency aid package for Ukraine and Israel, GOP senators on Thursday doubled down on their strategy of trying to exact border policy changes in exchange for their support for the measure.
They're also calling on President Joe Biden, who has made getting the aid approved before the end of the year aid a top priority, to get directly involved in the Senate negotiations.
"What's next? What's next is the commander in chief -- Joe Biden -- needs to wake up and do something about a broken border," Sen. Lindsey Graham, who's been directly involved in the negotiations over changes in border package, said Thursday.
Republicans involved in the tense talks welcomed Biden's comments Wednesday that he was prepared to "make significant compromises on the border" if it meant securing aid for Ukraine.
ABC News Senior White House Correspondent Selina Wang asked National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby if Biden had made any calls to Capitol Hill after the failed vote to press for the supplemental aid request.
While Kirby said he had no calls to read out, White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said administration officials are "in close touch" with lawmakers on both sides.
"It's stunning this we have gotten to this point," Jean-Pierre said. "And that Republicans in congress are willing to give [Russian President Vladimir] Putin a gift, the greatest gift Putin could hope for. That's what we are seeing. And so they are playing chicken with our national security, that's what we are seeing here, and history will remember them harshly."
Asked by a reporter if the White House assure Ukraine additional funding is coming, Kirby said, "We are not in a position to make that promise to Ukraine, given where things are on the Hill."
If the White House wants a win on Ukraine, Republicans say, then the White House has to negotiate directly with senators.
"When you're making law, the president has got to be involved," Sen. James Lankford, whose been leading negotiations for Republicans, said as he was departed Washington Thursday afternoon. "I'll leave it to him to be able to determine what that really means for him but obviously the White House has got to be engaged in this. If the White House is not engaged into the negotiations then nothing is going to get done on it."
Lawmakers on both sides of the aisle agree they'd like to get something done on Ukraine, Israel, Taiwan and the southern border before Congress leaves for the holiday recess at the end of next week.
But time is slipping away fast, even as the administration issues warnings about the dire state of affairs in Ukraine. Without major progress in negotiations over the Ukraine aid package, there will be little keep them senators in Washington.
Lankford said he hopes lawmakers will stay in for an extra week, up to just before the Christmas holiday, to allow more time to complete their work.
"There's a week left on the schedule, but we've added weeks before," Lankford said. "If we've got the time to be able to finish it, let's get it finished."
Talks between Lankford and his Democratic counterpart, Sen. Chris Murphy, continued Thursday even after a temporary pause. The two met behind the scenes where Lankford presented an offer, but it did not appear any progress was made.
Lankford left saying conversations will likely continue remotely over the weekend.
But Sen. Thom Tillis, R-N.C., who's been involved in negotiations, said the group remains quite far apart.
"We're not at a point where we've reduced things down to writing. There's still major decisions that have to be made about the contours of the agreement and us being able to go back to our conference and say this going to reduce future flows," Tillis said.
Senators on both sides of the aisle continued to emphasize their belief that something has got to get done soon to aid Ukraine and Israel, but the mass expanse of space between where Democrats and Republicans stand on border issues will be exceptionally difficult to stem in the week remaining before Congress breaks.
Republicans today held a press conference to re-emphasize the need to address what they say is a humanitarian crisis at the southern border.
Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, made clear that Republicans see this moment, with Ukraine and Israel aid hanging in the balance, to leverage something the White House wants for border policy.
"President Biden has been unmoved to work with us to try to come up with a solution until now. We've found something that provides us the opportunity to force the administration to do something they have not wanted to do up to this point and we intend to do everything we can to make sure these policies are put in place to stem the flow of illegal immigration into this country, along with all of the problems that go along with it," Cornyn said.
Senate Republicans want major revisions to parole and asylum provisions. House Republicans want even more, and House Speaker Mike Johnson has advocated that the Senate work to keep the border provisions as close to those outlined in the House bill as possible.
But H.R. 2, and policies like it, remain non-starters for Democrats, and passing aid to Ukraine will almost certainly require Democratic support, because many House Republicans do not support Ukraine aid of any kind.
"That is why I am so frustrated about proposals Republicans are bringing to us that get no Democratic votes. This is their problem, the fact that House Republicans are deeply split on Ukraine. To solve their problem, we have to get lots of Democratic votes. The only way to get lots of Democratic votes is to not load the bill up with extreme hardline unpassable immigration policy," Murphy said. "This is a very difficult needle to thread."
-ABC News' Justin Gomez contributed to this report.
