Vance brings McConnell spat over Ukraine deal into KY Senate Republican primary
Republican candidates running to replace Sen. Mitch McConnell are staking out their positions on the U.S.-backed proposal to end the conflict between Russia and Ukraine after Vice President JD Vance offered sharp criticism of McConnell’s view.
McConnell, long a foreign policy hawk and defender of U.S. aid to Ukraine, which is has been fending off a Russian invasion for nearly four years, wrote in a statement insinuating that the initial peace proposal takes it too easy on Russia.
That deal would require Ukraine cede much of its eastern Donbas region to Russia and was panned by many American political figures sympathetic to Ukraine.
A revised proposal has since been offered, and a version more amenable to Ukraine and European leadership is now on the table. Though full text of the plan has not been released, it reportedly softens language around NATO, territory and Ukrainian military buildup while trimming provisions for Russian economic recovery.
McConnell characterized the initial plan as a wolf in sheep’s clothing, saying Russian President Vladimir Putin was trying to play Trump “for a fool.”
“If administration officials are more concerned with appeasing Putin than securing real peace, then the President ought to find new advisors,” McConnell said. “Rewarding Russian butchery would be disastrous to America’s interests. And a capitulation like Biden’s abandonment of Afghanistan would be catastrophic to a legacy of peace through strength.”
Vance, a skeptic of foreign aid to Ukraine, took to X to express his displeasure with McConnell.
“This is a ridiculous attack on the president’s team, which has worked tirelessly to clean up the mess in Ukraine that Mitch — always eager to write blank checks to Biden’s foreign policy — left us,” Vance wrote.
“I wonder if the three candidates to replace McConnell in Kentucky share his views here,” he added.
Those three Republicans — Rep. Andy Barr, former Kentucky Attorney General Daniel Cameron and Lexington tech entrepreneur Nate Morris — all tried to answer Vance in the ensuing hours.
As has been the case on virtually every issue this race, the three leading GOP candidates all say they support Trump all the way.
First was Nate Morris, a personal friend of Vance who has been a critic of U.S. spending in Ukraine and centered his initial campaign strategy around bashing McConnell. He responded to the Vice President’s post with his own on X in eight minutes.
“Mitch McConnell is 100% wrong on Ukraine. Mitch has offered no plan or vision to find peace between Ukraine and Russia, only more endless war and more attacks on President Trump. I’m running for Senate because Kentucky deserves an America First Senator, not Mitch McConnell 2.0,” Morris wrote.
Barr’s post in response to Vance served as something of a retort to Morris. Trump’s statements and actions on the conflict in Ukraine have fluctuated, and Barr wrote that he’s been with the president “100%.”
“I’m the only candidate in (the race) who applauded President Trump for securing a mineral deal with Ukraine, for imposing tough sanctions on Russia which mirror legislation I introduced during Biden’s failed presidency, for pushing NATO allies to 5% defense spending to GDP to deter Russia, and for providing military support to Ukraine to dial up pressure on Putin to end the war,” Barr wrote.
Barr’s statement supported the president, but stopped short of explicit disagreement with McConnell like Morris and Cameron. Morris highlighted that in a later post.
Cameron wrote in a social media post that he’s “been clear from the day I launched that I disagreed with Senator McConnell on this issue.”
“No more billions to Ukraine and no more forever wars. We cannot keep writing blank checks overseas while families are struggling here at home. This position isn’t new. I’ve stood by it, and it’s also why I proudly support President Trump’s America First agenda. We need leaders in Washington who will finally put the interests of Americans ahead of endless foreign entanglements,” Cameron wrote.
More involved in the latest proposal than in previous talks with Russia was Trump special envoy Steve Witkoff, an influential New York businessman with ties to Morris. Witkoff’s son, Zach, recently held a fundraiser for Morris at the family’s farm on the outskirts of Lexington.
McConnell offered his own evaluation of Vance’s words in a post to X.
He referenced polling showing that the terms of the deal would be anathema to Ukrainians, and that Americans would also not like it.
“The price of peace matters to Americans, too! Demand for Ukraine to give up territory is a fringe position among Trump voters (16%). More popular? Sanctions on Russia and support for Ukraine,” McConnell wrote.
“Conclusion: The most basic reality on the ground is that the price of peace matters. A deal that rewards aggression wouldn’t be worth the paper it’s written on. America isn’t a neutral arbiter, and we shouldn’t act like one,” McConnell ended.
