Senate border deal reignites conservative fury against McConnell, calls for his ouster

Conservative senators fumed against their leadership Tuesday, accusing Senate GOP Leader Mitch McConnell of betraying Republican values over the chamber’s bipartisan border deal.

The Republican critics charged Mr. McConnell with including outrageous border policies, including allowing 5,000 illegal immigrants into the country every day, in the bill.

Sen. Ted Cruz, Texas Republican, resurfaced calls for Mr. McConnell’s ejection from leadership.

“I think a Republican leader should actually lead this conference and should advance the priorities of Republicans,” said Mr. Cruz.

He was one of 10 Senate Republicans who voted for Sen. Rick Scott of Florida as GOP leader last year over Mr. McConnell.

Ohio Sen. J.D. Vance, who won his 2022 GOP primary with the help of former President Donald Trump, accused the leadership of being “massively out of touch with Republican voters” and seeking to “sabotage real border security” by appointing GOP Oklahoma Sen. James Lankford to negotiate in secret.

“The idea that we committed to supporting whatever came out of this negotiation is pure, unadulterated b———-,” Mr. Vance said. “We did not agree to a border fig leaf to send another $61 billion to Ukraine.”

Mr. McConnell downplayed Mr. Cruz’s call for his ouster.

“I think we can all agree that Sen. Cruz is not a fan,” he said.

Mr. McConnell also pushed back against criticism that he sought to lump the border with foreign aid. House Republicans first insisted border policies be attached because President Biden requested money for handling migrants.

“I followed the instructions of my conference, who were insisting that we tackle this in October,” Mr. McConnell said. “It was our side who wanted to tackle the border issue.”

Senate Majority Leader Charles E. Schumer vowed Tuesday to push ahead with a procedural vote on the legislation for Wednesday, despite Republicans’ plan to tank it. Sixty votes will be needed to advance it.

The border bill is coupled with aid to Israel and Ukraine, but conservatives in the Senate quickly assailed the bipartisan agreement as an insufficient solution to the southern border crisis while House Republicans warned it would be dead on arrival.

The deal on the border policies was the result of monthslong negotiations between Democrats and Mr. Lankford.

“[Lankford] is deeply principled, he’s deeply honorable,” Mr. Cruz said. “I think leadership sent him out on a kamikaze mission, and I think it was very cynical of Republican leadership to do that.”

The praise for Mr. Lankford was uniform across Senate Republicans, even if they can’t stomach the thought of voting for his work. The blame, conservative critics say, lies with Mr. McConnell.

“This just blew up in Leader McConnell’s face,” said Sen. Ron Johnson, Wisconsin Republican. “This does more harm than good, and that’s not James Lankford’s fault — that’s Leader McConnell’s fault.”