MONTGOMERY, Ala. — Early Tuesday morning, the U.S. Senate approved $60 billion in additional aid for Ukraine in a vote of 70-29. All but three of the no votes were from Republicans, including Sen. Tommy Tuberville, who on Wednesday voiced his continued opposition to sending any more aid to Ukraine.
“I was totally against this Ukraine funding that we voted on, we stayed up all night the other night and voted like 5:30 a.m. in the morning,” Tuberville said, speaking at a Montgomery Chamber of Commerce event.
“Why was I against that? First of all, I’m not voting for a dime to Ukraine, I see what’s happening: it’s like a junior high playing an NFL team in football. They can’t win.”
Since Russia’s invasion in early 2022, the United States has allocated more than $110 billion to Ukraine. While initially strong, continued support for Ukraine has waned among Americans in recent months, particularly among Republicans.
Considering the underwhelming counteroffensive last summer that failed to see Ukraine gain any significant ground, as well as the estimated 500,000 casualties, Tuberville argued it to be a waste of money to send additional aid, and instead, urged U.S. leadership to pursue a diplomatic end to the conflict.
“You don’t go to war, you don’t get probably half a million people … killed over there in this conflict, you don’t spend everybody’s money, somebody (needs to) go and negotiate our way out of this, but there’s been no negotiation,” he continued.
“They’ve spent ($110) billion to this point, and then it’s ‘we need $60 billion more.’ Why are we just going to keep doubling up?”
Tuberville has advocated for President Joe Biden to broker a peace deal between Russia and Ukraine since July. According to several reports, a peace deal was on the table shortly after the initial invasion, but at the behest of then-U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson and U.S. leadership, was blocked by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.
Tuberville noted that he was at odds with Republican Senate leadership, but argued that additional aid would not only be a waste of money that could be better served elsewhere, but that continued aid also placed the United States at risk.
“I was against the leader of the Republican Party, Sen. McConnell, (who) said the money is going to the military complex in our country,” he said.
“My question was, if we’re going to spend money in our country to build weapons – which we need, we’re way down in weapons – let’s give the money, build it and keep the weapons. Right now, I don’t know if we could fight a war, because we’re to the point where recruiting is down, (and) our munitions are at the lowest it’s ever been.”
Despite his opposition, the aid package – which totaled $95.3 billion, and also included aid to Israel and Taiwan – passed in the Senate, but now goes to the House, whose leader, Speaker Mike Johnson, R-LA, has already cast doubt on its success.
Following the event, Tuberville expanded on his preference for a negotiated settlement over continually funding Ukraine’s war effort, arguing that diplomacy was the far safer option not only for Ukraine, but for the United States.
“One of the first things I learned in the Armed Services Committee (is that) Russia is the only country in the world that can destroy this country in 45 minutes,” he said.
“That’s how many missiles they have, they are loaded. To me, that’s a good reason to say ‘let’s sit down and talk.’ Will he use them, I don’t think he will, but it should never even come close to that point. To me, diplomacy should come before war; we did no diplomacy, we didn’t sit down with Russian President Vladimir Putin.