Former Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell (Ky.) praised President Trump on Tuesday for announcing that he would send additional weapons to Ukraine and blasted “isolationists and restrainers” at the Department of Defense (DOD), possibly taking aim at the Pentagon’s No. 3-ranking official.
“I’m glad that President Trump wants to resume deliveries of lethal capabilities to Ukraine. America’s policy of providing lethal support to Ukraine began during his first term, and likely helped deter earlier Russian escalation,” McConnell said in a statement.
“This time, the president will need to reject calls from the isolationists and restrainers within his administration to limit these deliveries to defensive weapons. And he should disregard those at DoD who invoke munitions shortages to block aid while refusing to invest seriously in expanding munitions productions,” McConnell said.
His comments appeared directed at Elbridge Colby, under secretary of Defense for policy, whom Politico reported was the driving force behind a decision to pause weapons shipments to Ukraine.
McConnell also took a shot at Colby for taking a skeptical view of the agreement among the United States, the United Kingdom and Australia to develop hypersonic weapons and nuclear submarines known as AUKUS.
“The self-indulgent policymaking of restrainers — from Ukraine to AUKUS — has so often required the President to clean up his staff’s messes. And the budget OMB sent to Congress does not put America on a path to peace through strength,” he said, referring to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB).
Colby has questioned the value of the program and is leading a review of the U.S.’s role in the initiative.
The Kentucky senator voted against Colby’s nomination in April, warning that the nominee’s view that the United States should pivot its national security focus away from Europe and the Middle East to prioritize the Indo-Pacific would inflict “geostrategic self-harm.”
“The prioritization that Mr. Colby argues is fresh, new, and urgently needed is, in fact, a return to an Obama-era conception of a la carte geostrategy. Abandoning Ukraine and Europe and downplaying the Middle East to prioritize the Indo-Pacific is not a clever geopolitical chess move,” McConnell warned at the time.
He was the only Republican to vote against Colby while three Democrats — Senate Armed Services Committee ranking member Jack Reed (R.I.), Sen. Mark Kelly (Ariz.) and Sen. Elissa Slotkin (Mich.) — voted to confirm him.
Trump told reporters at the White House on Monday that he planned to send more weapons to Ukraine, citing Russia’s renewed assault on Ukrainian cities.
“We’re going to send some more weapons,” Trump said Monday. “We have to. They have to be able to defend themselves. They’re getting hit very hard. Now they’re getting hit very hard. We’re going to have to send more weapons, defensive weapons, primarily, but they’re getting hit very, very hard. So many people are dying in that mess.”
