Tillis on Ukraine funding: 'Can't be a coward' in face of grave threats to world order

U.S. Sen. Thom Tillis defended his Tuesday morning vote for additional American aid to Ukraine, as well as Israel and Taiwan, saying the consequences of not stopping Russian aggression could be catastrophic.

The Democratic-led Senate passed a $95.3-billion bill that included money for Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan early Tuesday morning 70-29 with some Republican support despite vocal opposition among many of Tillis' Republican colleagues.

Sen. Ted Budd, Tillis' North Carolina counterpart in the chamber, voted against the measure. Twenty-two GOP senators voted for it, while 26 voted against. Republican presidential front-runner Donald Trump does not support the deal.

"You can’t be a coward," Tillis told reporters on a conference call Tuesday afternoon. "When you see something so threatening to the democratic world order and when you have access to the information that I have, it would be irresponsible to act in any other way.

"I am not criticizing anybody who voted against it. Maybe they have a different perception of the facts. But I've drawn the conclusion that we will rue the day that we let this coalition disintegrate and let Vladimir Putin occupy the breadbasket of Europe."

Budd, in his first term in the Senate, said security on the American southern border should be the priority.

"The only viable path forward is for Congress to force President Biden to get serious about border security, and then for the American people to see the situation at the border start to get better," Budd said in a speech on the Senate floor. "Until that happens, we find ourselves locked in stalemate as the world burns. We cannot accept this. Yeah, we want to help our allies and partners, but to keep our nation strong, we must always put America first."

House Speaker Mike Johnson, a Louisiana Republican, criticized the lack of southern border provisions in the bill and said the House will "work its own will" on the bill.

A bipartisan measure to that included immigration reforms and foreign aid previously failed in the Senate. Trump, too, was against that measure. That's when senators turned to the foreign aid-only bill over the objections of some Republicans.

"In order to be a strong nation, we first have to be strong here at home," Budd said. "We must secure our own border before we can help other countries protect theirs."

The bulk of the bill is $60 billion to aid Ukraine with $14 billion for Israel, $9 billion for humanitarian aid to Palestinians and nearly $5 billion for allies in the Indo-Pacific region, which are threatened by China. But Tillis said the majority of that money will go to American military industrial manufacturers.

"For every dollar that goes to Ukraine, two and a half dollars will go into building up and restocking our inventories," Tillis said.

He said that if the coalition supporting Ukraine falls apart, then Putin and Russia will be emboldened to take more territory, including Georgia, Moldova and the western Balkans.

Tillis said that North Carolina-based military personnel, including the 82nd Airborne Division stationed at Fort Liberty, would be among the first to respond if a NATO ally were threatened.

"It's going to be thousands of people coming out of [Fort] Liberty, formerly Fort Bragg, that are going to be responsible for dealing with potential mistakes made by politicians who aren't maybe they're not as dialed in as me," Tillis said.

Tillis is co-chair of the Senate NATO Observer group.

"I think, at the end of the day, we will find a way to support Ukraine and if we don't, then we're going to regret it."

It is not the first time Tillis, a former North Carolina House Speaker in his second term in the Senate, has found himself at odds with his party. In June, the North Carolina Republican Party censured him for his record on gay marriage and immigration. Tillis has endorsed Bill Graham in the GOP gubernatorial primary, not lieutenant governor Mark Robinson, the front-runner.

And he was among the most prominent GOP proponents of passing this bill.

"I'm not on a kamikaze mission here," Tillis said. "I think that I could go to the primary votes and convince them that this is sound policy and I will do so in 2026."