Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) offered some criticism for former Fox News host Tucker Carlson and former President Donald Trump on Tuesday ahead of the Senate’s vote on a $60 billion US aid package.
The package, passed in the House last week, will provide military aid to Ukraine and Israel and is expected to pass the Senate with ease before heading to President Biden’s desk, where he has said he will sign it into law.
During a press conference about the package, the minority leader decided to place blame for the delay in the aid package, saying it was Carlson and Trump’s fault that it took so long.
“The demonization of Ukraine began by Tucker Carlson, who, in my opinion, ended up where he should have been all along, which is interviewing Vladimir Putin,” McConnell told reporters. “And so he had an enormous audience, which convinced a lot of rank and file Republicans that maybe this was a mistake.”
He then went on to say that he also thought “the former president had sort of mixed views on” Ukraine aid, which added to the delay.
“And then our nominee for president didn’t seem to want us to do anything at all,” McConnell said. “That took months to work our way through it.”
McConnell, who has continued to support aiding Ukraine in its war against Russia, said that the passage of the bill will make “an important day for America, and a very important day of freedom-loving countries around the world.”
The legislation was advanced in the Senate after an 80-19 vote. It is expected to have a final vote soon and land on Biden’s desk within the coming days.