Kinzinger blasts Republican efforts to link border security with Ukraine funding: 'The whole party has become a joke'
- Adam Kinzinger blasted the GOP for its attempt to tie Ukraine aid to border security.
- "It's not a serious party," the former GOP lawmaker told CNN's Christiane Amanpour.
Adam Kinzinger, a former lawmaker from Illinois, blasted congressional Republicans on Thursday 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 select committee for the January 6, 2021, Capitol riot, 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 the Senate crafted.
"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 walking 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 announced on Saturday that the House would vote on a stand-alone bill to give Israel $17.6 billion in aid next week.
But the Democratic-controlled Senate is set to unveil a national-security package that includes a border deal, along with funding for Ukraine and Israel, in the coming days.