President Joe Biden on Friday unveiled a sweeping $106 billion spending package aimed at providing aid to Israel and Ukraine in their respective wars against Hamas and Russia, as well as billions in humanitarian assistance, funding to counter China in the Indo-Pacific and money to secure the U.S.-Mexico border.

On Sunday, Biden saw an unlikely ally take part in a series of interviews going to bat for the president’s latest legislative request: Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell, a figure who could prove crucial in helping to shepherd the bill over the finish line

What You Need To Know

  • Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., on Sunday vouched for President Joe Biden's $106 billion spending package aimed at providing aid to Israel and Ukraine, as well as offering funding for Indo-Pacific allies like Taiwan and the U.S.-Mexico border

  • McConnell made the case that the country’s war with Russia and the fighting between Israel and Hamas are “interconnected"

  • The Kentucky Republican contended that “a significant portion” of the more than $61 billion aimed at helping Ukraine would be spent domestically to replenish American stockpiles

  • He also expressed some support for humanitarian aid to Palestinians in Gaza, though he expressed caution about how funds will be utilized

While some in the GOP are skeptical of providing more aid to Ukraine, the Kentucky Republican made the case that the country’s war with Russia and the fighting between Israel and Hamas are “interconnected.”

“I know there are some Republicans in the Senate, and maybe more in the House, saying Ukraine is somehow different,” McConnell said on CBS’ “Face the Nation” on Sunday. “I view it as all interconnected.”

McConnell contended that “a significant portion” of the more than $61 billion aimed at helping Ukraine would be spent domestically to replenish American stockpiles.

“A significant portion of it is being spent in the United States in 38 different states replacing the weapons that we sent to Ukraine with more modern weapons,” McConnell said, later adding: “We are rebuilding our industrial base. The Ukrainians are destroying the army of one of our biggest rivals. I have a hard time finding anything wrong with that.”

Biden made a similar case in his speech to the nation last week, seeking to clarify to the American people that when the U.S. sends Ukraine military aid, “we send Ukraine equipment sitting in our stockpiles.”

“And when we use the money allocated by Congress, we use it to replenish our own stores, our own stockpiles with new equipment,” the president continued. “Equipment that defends America and is made in America. Patriot missiles for air defense batteries, made in Arizona, artillery shells manufactured in 12 states across the country, in Pennsylvania, Ohio, Texas, and so much more. Just as in World War II, today patriotic American workers are building the arsenal of democracy and serving the cause of freedom.”

McConnell argued that lawmakers should not separate Ukraine and Israel aid, something that some his fellow Republicans want to vote on separately. Ohio Sen. J.D. Vance, for instance, called the effort to tie the two together “completely disgraceful.”

“You can’t just take out part of this,” the Kentucky Republican said in a separate interview with “Fox News Sunday.” “It's an overall effort by [the] Chinese, [the] Russians, the Iranians to go after the free world, and the Israelis are feeling the pinch at the moment more than anyone else, and we need to stick with them.”

“We need to view this as a worldwide problem,” he added.

The Kentucky Republican also sought to dispel the notion that European allies are not doing enough to aid Ukraine.

“You might be interested to know they've done about $90 billion and they are housing lots of refugees who escaped from the war,” McConnell said on Fox News. “We’re providing more military, but they're providing more humanitarian and taking care of people who escaped from Ukraine during this.

“I think that NATO countries are by and large carrying their load, and some of these countries, smaller countries are spending more as a percentage of gross domestic product on helping the Ukrainians than we are,” he continued.

McConnell said that while he “can’t think of a single thing” he supports that the Biden administration has done domestically — though the two did appear together earlier this year to tout an infrastructure project in Kentucky funded by the president’s infrastructure bill, which the Republican leader supported in Congress — they’re “generally in the same place” when it comes to foreign policy.

He also expressed some support for humanitarian aid to Palestinians in Gaza, though he expressed caution about how funds will be utilized.

“We want to make sure we're not sending money to Hamas, I can tell you that,” McConnell told CBS News. “There are genuine humanitarian needs of the people in Gaza who are not Hamas, who've been thrown under the bus by what Hamas did. Innocent people. But we want to be careful about how the money is spent, be sure it actually gets where it's supposed to get.”