Senator Ben Sasse (R., Neb.) and Senator Chris Murphy (D., Conn.) engaged in a furious discussion on the floor of the House of Representatives on Thursday.
It started with a speech by Sasse in which he noted a tweet from Murphy targeting the Nebraska senator, among other Republicans, who opposed the $1.5 trillion omnibus package that included $13.6 billion in aid for Ukraine. voted.
Sasse expressed frustration that a draft emergency aid law to Ukraine had not been passed on its own rather than being pasted onto the massive omnibus package last week, and justified his vote on that basis.
“We have spent $13 billion on Ukrainian aid out of a total credit package of $1.5 trillion. So for those of you doing math at home, that’s less than 1 percent of what we passed on to Ukrainian aid in the middle of the night last week,” explains Sasse.
“Ukrainian aid was a bit of sugar on the bigger drug of a $1.5 trillion bill,” he added.
Murphy’s implication that Republicans registered their opposition to the aid within the grand bill represented an attempt to “bully the other side,” Sasse said.
Sasse went on to condemn politicians who fan service a small segment of the population to the detriment of the American people and their governing institutions, using Murphy’s tweet as a prime example. He explained the purpose of the speech by noting that “if you allow liars to lie constantly, and they can get away with it, they just keep doing it.”
Murphy began his response by questioning aloud whether Sasse had broken Senate rules by accusing him of “tribal hackery” on a chart that stood next to Sasse as he delivered his speech, complaining that Republicans often fail to “cast their vote in a manner aligned with their vote.”
He called it “concerned” that Republicans voted against the omnibus, while criticizing the Biden administration for not doing enough for Ukraine, as it reflected the more general “lack of interest in compromise” he described as “a loyalty to the perfect and an antagonism to the good” in the culture of the Senate.
Sasse jumped in to ask Murphy a direct question: “Do you believe the people who voted against?” [the omnibus bill]voted against because they were against Ukrainian aid?”
“Each of us is approaching a big-” Murphy replied before being cut off.
“I’m asking a very simple question,” Sasse said. “Do you think a single person who your Twitter complacency was for, do you think a single person who voted against voted against it because they were against Ukrainian aid?”
“Absolutely not,” Murphy said.
“So what’s the point of the tweet?” asked Sasse.
Murphy reiterated his point that there were not enough compromises in the institution.
At that point, Sasse split the debate on three issues: Ukrainian aid, the budget process and grandstanding. He noted that the real conflict between Murphy and himself was the third, arguing that “the Republic got dumber” as a result of the Connecticut senator’s misleading tweet.
“I think it’s helpful for Republicans to consistently remove the president from office because of his behavior, but then be unwilling to cast the difficult votes needed to help the president implement policy there.” Murphy said, arguing that the omnibus was the “only one.” way the Senate could have provided funds to Ukraine.
Sasse called passing the omnibus or sending no aid to Ukraine a “false choice”, and Murphy defended it by saying that while there were infinitely many other options, Sasse’s choice was “convenient” given that that that was the option on the table, although he agreed that the budget process was dysfunctional. While he never apologized for his tweet, Murphy did say that in the future he would “take the senator’s words seriously and try to put them forward in a constructive way.”
Sasse closed the exchange by agreeing that there is rampant boasting on both sides of the party path, agreeing that the Biden administration is willing to spend money on Ukrainian aid, and reiterating his frustration with the budget process to speak.
The spirited argument between the two senators acted as a direct back-and-forth for much of its duration, in violation of Senate rules.
