- Senator Tommy Tuberville of Alabama has long opposed aid to Ukraine.
- He gave a nearly 10-minute speech against the bill before the bill passed Tuesday.
- But during the vote, the Alabama senator was nowhere to be found.
Before the Senate’s final vote to send aid to Ukraine to President Joe Biden’s desk, Sen. Tommy Tuberville took one final stand against the aid.
The Alabama Republican delivered a more than nine-minute speech Tuesday denouncing additional aid, describing Ukraine as a “black hole with no accountability” while accusing House Republican leaders of “selling out Americans.” by allowing a vote on the bill in the first half of the year. place.
“The war in Ukraine is at a stalemate. It’s been going on for a while,” Tuberville said. “We should work with Ukraine and Russia to negotiate an end to this madness.”
But when the Senate actually voted on the bill shortly after 9 p.m. Tuesday, Tuberville was one of three senators who did not vote.
The war in Ukraine is at a stalemate.
Pouring MORE MONEY into Ukraine’s coffers will only prolong the conflict and lead to more loss of life. pic.twitter.com/UXHPvNoOOY
– Coach Tommy Tuberville (@SenTuberville) April 23, 2024
It’s unclear why Tuberville missed the vote, and his Senate office did not immediately respond to Business Insider’s request for comment. He was there Tuesday to vote against the bill.
Republican Senators Rand Paul of Kentucky and Tim Scott of South Carolina also missed the final vote. Paul has long been an opponent of aid to Ukraine, while Scott said in a statement Tuesday that he supports the bill.
Sen. Katie Britt, Tuberville’s Alabama colleague, voted for the bill Tuesday after voting against a previous version of the aid package in February.
The more than $61 billion in aid to Ukraine was packaged into a broader $95 billion package that included more than $14 billion for Israel, $9 billion in humanitarian aid, aid to Taiwan and a bill to force the sale of TikTok. Tuberville said he supported Israel’s aid.
The Alabama senator has long been an opponent of aid to Ukraine. In May 2022, he was one of 11 Republican senators to vote against a $40 billion aid package for the country.
He wrongly described Russia as a “communist” country, despite the country’s capitalist history since the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991.
“He cannot feed his people,” Tuberville said in February 2022, referring to Russian President Vladimir Putin. “It’s a communist country, so it can’t feed its people, so it needs more farmland.”
He also rejected the idea of lending money to Ukraine, an idea championed by former President Donald Trump.
“I don’t see Ukraine having anything unless they cede part of their country to us, and we don’t want that,” Tuberville told BI last month.
On Tuesday, 15 of Tuberville’s fellow Republicans voted against the foreign aid bill, while three members of the Democratic caucus did the same.
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