Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) said on Tuesday that the Trump administration didn’t tell him why it had delayed almost $400 million in aid for Ukraine in July, about a week before President Donald Trump reportedly tried to get the Ukrainian government to investigate 2020 rival Joe Biden.
McConnell told reporters that he has “no idea what precipitated the delay.”
“I was not given an explanation,” the Republican leader said after a journalist asked if the Trump administration had given him a reason for withholding the aid. “Fortunately, it finally happened, and I’m glad about that.”
Earlier on Tuesday, Trump said he had delayed giving the funds Congress had allocated to Ukraine because he wanted “other countries to put up money.”
He denied that the delay was connected to his call with the president of Ukraine, during which Trump reportedly pressured him to investigate Biden.
Watch the video of McConnell on C-Span here (McConnell’s comments about Ukraine aid begin at the 10:50 timestamp).
