President Joe Biden has to “step up his game,” and believe Ukraine can win its fight against Russian President Vladimir Putin’s troops, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., said Sunday.
In an interview on CBS News’ “Face The Nation,” McConnell said Biden didn't move quickly enough to help Ukraine defend itself.
“We’ve given [Ukraine] plenty of money,” McConnell said. “I think [Biden] needs to step up his game.”
“I think we ought to go into this believing the Ukrainians can actually win,” McConnell said. “And the way they win is for us to get these defensive weapon systems to them as rapidly as possible.”
“I am perplexed as to why we couldn't get the Polish Russian MiGs into the country,” he said. “The Ukrainians have plenty of pilots and know how to fly them. In the Eastern Block countries, they have Soviet ground-to-air systems that the Ukrainians know how to work.”
“We have the resources that we've given to the president to get those weapons in there as rapidly as possible,” he continued. “And then we provided loan guarantees to the countries that ship the weapons into Ukraine to purchase new weapons, and probably better weapons, from us.”
McConnell said he wants Biden to reassure our Eastern Block allies “we're in this fight with them to win.”
The GOP Senate leader said “the vast majority of the Republican party at large, both in the Congress and across the country, are totally behind the Ukrainians and urging the president to take these steps quicker, to be be bolder.”
He conceded “there may be a few lonely voices off to the side,” but said: “I wouldn't pay much attention two them.”
McConnell also said he hasn’t decided on support for Biden’s nominee for the Supreme Court, Ketanji Brown Jackson — but criticized her refusal to oppose a larger high court membership.
“I asked her to defend the Court,” he said. “[The late Justice] Ruth Bader Ginsburg and [retiring] Justice [Stephen] Breyer both publicly opposed court-packing, that is trying to increase the number of court members in order to get an outcome you like. That would have been an easy thing for her to do, to defend the integrity of the Court. She won't do that.”
“I haven't made a final decision as to how I'm going to vote,” he asserted, saying “I’m going to listen to the evidence — I'm going to listen to the hearings”
“She'll be treated much better than Democrats have typically treated Republican nominees, like Clarence Thomas and Brett Kavanaugh,” McConnell added. “It will be a respectful, deep dive into her record, which I think is entirely appropriate for a lifetime appointment.”
Related Stories:
Fran Beyer ✉
Fran Beyer is a writer with Newsmax and covers national politics.
© 2025 Newsmax. All rights reserved.