Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) announced on Tuesday that he chatted with President Joe Biden last week in an effort to secure a multi-billion dollar aid package to Ukraine while claiming that his Senate colleagues agree that the war in the Eastern European nation was “the most important thing in the world right now.”
The D.C. establishment might believe the fight against Russia should be the federal government’s top priority, but polling indicates that the American people are more concerned about issues relating to the economy and inflation.
McConnell held a press conference on Tuesday, flanked by GOP senators, to discuss the pending $40 billion aid package for Ukraine that is likely to be voted upon sometime this week.
“I think we all agree the most important thing going on in the world right now is the war in Ukraine,” McConnell told reporters. “I had a chance to call the president last week and request that the Ukraine package move by itself and quickly. He said, let me think it over. He called back in about 15 minutes and agreed that we need to do this for Ukraine only, and quickly.”
“I think we’re on a path to getting that done, discussions are underway between the House and Senate appropriators on the crafting of the package,” he added. “It needs to be clean of extraneous matters, directly related to helping Ukrainians win the war.”
His comments can be seen here:
.@LeaderMcConnell": "I had a chance to call the president last week and request that the Ukraine package more by itself and quickly…He called back in about 15 minutes and agreed…I think we're on a path to getting that done." pic.twitter.com/0C8rc8IyJQ
— CSPAN (@cspan) May 10, 2022
On Tuesday, The Daily Wire reported that Congressional Democrats decided to remove COVID-19 funding from support for Ukraine, in a move that appeared to be specific to speed up support for the Eastern European nation.
“We cannot afford delay in this vital war effort. Hence, I am prepared to accept that these two measures move separately so that the Ukrainian aid bill can get to my desk right away,” President Joe Biden said on Monday.
While Biden and McConnell might want to focus on the war in Ukraine, multiple polls report that the American people, especially Republicans, are not as interested in that topic as their elected leaders in D.C. are.
According to a poll conducted by Trafalgar Group, the American people are far more concerned with other issues facing the nation than they are with Ukraine.
That poll, taken between April 24 and April 27, surveyed 1,080 likely voters. It found that 38.5% of respondents say that “lower inflation and fixing the economy” is the most important issue in the 2022 elections. Nearly 16% of respondents said “addressing climate change” was their top concern, while 11% said “securing the border” was the most important issue. Just 6.5% said that “ending the Russia/Ukraine war” was the most important.
In late March, a Quinnipiac University poll of 1,462 American adults also found that 30% of Americans say inflation was “the most urgent issue facing America,” while just 14% of poll takers said that the war in Ukraine was their top concern.
Furthermore, according to Tralfagar, just 3.6% of GOP voters answered that the most important issue in the 2022 midterms was the war in Ukraine.
Nonetheless, McConnell tweeted on Tuesday, “Continued U.S. assistance must move at the speed of relevance to help Ukraine defeat the invaders and win this war.”