GOP Sen. Mike Lee recently emphasized how the Republican Party requires urgently “new leadership” to mitigate the historically high illegal immigration flowing through the southern border. Lee unapologetically called out veteran leaders within the GOP, such as Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, who he suggested should be replaced.
Lee took to social media, where he slammed the most recent Senate border bill, criticizing Senate Republicans for secrecy surrounding the legislation and insistence on blindly supporting it. “Even while refusing to let us see the bill they claimed to be negotiating on our behalf—for MONTHS—they were never in doubt, insisting we’d be dumb and even unpatriotic NOT to support it,” Lee posted on X. “This is a disqualifying betrayal.”
According to reports, Sen. McConnell and Majority Leader Chuck Schumer collaborated extensively on the bill, where Lee seemingly questioned the Kentucky senator’s commitment to the party. “I have never worked more closely with Leader McConnell on any piece of legislation as we did on this,” Schumer recently said.
“If you had a lawyer, agent, or employee who (while negotiating on your behalf) botched a deal as badly as Senate GOP leadership botched this border / supplemental aid package, would you immediately fire that person?” Lee asked on X, including a voting poll where over 98% of respondents said “yes.”
Sen. Lee explicitly stated that the new border deal extends far beyond “bad negotiation” into the realm of “betrayal” while rallying the Senate GOP to stand firm and reject the legislation. Others have criticized Sen. James Lankford, whom McConnell appointed as the face of GOP negotiations.
Lankford had previously stated that the Senate bill would not permit 5,000 migrants or more per day to cross the border. “It would be absolutely absurd for me to agree to 5,000 people a day,” he said. However, text within the bill suggests that the new emergency authority would not come into play until 8,500 migrants crossed the border in a single day or there was an average of 5,000 crossings over seven days.
“Still a lot of ground to cover in this 370-page bill, but so far, I haven’t seen anything contradicting what I’ve been saying for the past few weeks. So why did the bill’s authors (and those parroting their talking points) condemn me and others for describing what little I knew about the bill?” Lee wrote on X. “More to the point, why did they keep it secret for so long?”
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Lee doubled down on his request for new leadership within the party, questioning how any Republicans could have backed the “disaster” of the border bill. “This feels like an elaborate practical joke. But it’s not funny. Not one bit. I cannot understand how any Republican would think this was a good idea—or anything other than an unmitigated disaster. WE NEED NEW LEADERSHIP — NOW,” Lee said.
Ohio Sen. J.D. Vance appeared to agree with Lee, posting on X, ‘”The border never closes” is a good summary of this bill, and of Joe Biden’s policy. I can understand why Chris Murphy supports it. I cannot imagine why any Republican supports this atrocious proposal.‘
Similarly, Sen. Ted Cruz called for a leadership change to close the border. “Everyone here also supported a leadership challenge to Mitch McConnell in November. I think a Republican leader should actually lead this conference and should advance the priorities of Republicans,” he said. Watch him here: