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WASHINGTON — As U.S. Speaker Mike Johnson toiled about whether he would risk his leadership position and good graces among conservatives by putting Ukraine aid to a vote of the House, a Texas Republican was working behind the scenes to help tip the scales toward diplomacy.
Rep. Michael McCaul, R-Austin, a veteran member of the House and longtime defense hawk who chairs the House Committee on Foreign Affairs, furiously advocated for the Louisiana Republican to advance the $60.8 billion aid bill to boost Ukraine’s arsenal against Russia. He was a key player among the coalition of Mikes which included Reps. Mike Turner, R-Ohio and Mike Rogers, R-Alabama — known on Capitol Hill as the three national security Mikes — who worked to convince Johnson of the grave importance of supporting Ukraine.
“We appealed to his sense of intellect, but also his sense of morality,” McCaul said in a sit-down interview with The Texas Tribune. “You know that he’s got a moral compass to him and this was a moral issue.” McCaul, who is Catholic, noted that Johnson’s faith played a determining factor, adding that the speaker prayed the night before he released the legislation. McCaul said he thought Johnson, who was under tremendous pressure from the right, ultimately wanted to be on the right side of history.
Johnson, who did not respond to requests for comment, confirmed as much during an emotional press conference with reporters after the vote in April.
“History judges us for what we do,” he said. “I could make a selfish decision and do something that’s different, but I’m doing here what I believe to be the right thing.”
McCaul chatted with Johnson frequently in their respective offices or on the House floor, as well as over text and phone calls since Johnson assumed the speakership in October 2023. Their communication ramped up to multiple times a week leading up to the Ukraine aid vote. McCaul was dining with Johnson the night before the legislation was unveiled, according to a McCaul aide. The aide said that shepherding the bill through together wasn’t easy and strengthened their personal bond, as McCaul now considers Johnson a friend.
McCaul and Turner ultimately helped sway the speaker by ushering in national security experts, including CIA Director Bill Burns, who explained the level of threat posed to Ukraine if the U.S. failed to take action. McCaul said he conveyed that if Johnson continued to block the aid, Ukraine only had a month left because the power grid would have collapsed. He also told Johnson it would send a “worse message” to the United States’ adversaries.
Changing Johnson’s mind was no small feat. Six months earlier and before he was House speaker, Johnson voted with 57 Republicans against $40 billion in emergency funding for Ukraine. The issue would only become more divisive in the coming months as far-right Republicans, who initially backed his rise to the speakership, framed additional funding for Ukraine as a choice that came at the cost of funding U.S. priorities to secure the border. Last month, a majority of House Republicans narrowly voted against the Ukraine aid, which only passed with the help of Democrats.
But McCaul was steadfastly supportive of Ukraine, from supporting early aid to introducing legislation to address war crimes committed during the Russian invasion in early 2022.
McCaul now represents a brand of conservatism that is growing increasingly rare in Congress, having come up in the era of former president George W. Bush. He prides his bipartisan record to get legislation passed, at a time when collaborating across the aisle is seen as a political liability. He has long touted the adage that “politics should stop at the water’s edge,” meaning that the U.S. should set partisan disputes aside when dealing with foreign threats.
McCaul said Congress was “more collegial” when he was first elected nearly two decades ago and today, “compromise is a bad word.” He likened the isolationist views he sees in the GOP today to those some in his party claimed in 1939, when Germany invaded Poland.
Johnson’s decision to bring the Ukraine aid to the floor caused Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Georgia, to deliver on her promise to call for a vote on a motion to vacate the speaker. The motion failed, with only a handful of Republicans supporting her — including Rep. Chip Roy, R-Austin. She and the other hardline Republicans took aim at Johnson because Congress had not yet passed a bill securing the southern border prior to the foreign aid package hitting the floor — though that package did include border security measures that ultimately failed.
“There was this false choice that was manufactured by some that you had to choose between the border and Ukraine,” McCaul said. He added that both Ukraine and the border have national security and strategic perils, but the United States is capable of tackling both.
To be sure, McCaul has been a major supporter of tougher border security as he led the impeachment charge against Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas, citing mismanagement of the southern border and a dereliction of duties in the face of increasing illegal crossings. McCaul had known Mayorkas prior to this effort while he chaired the House Committee on Homeland Security, having worked “really well” with former DHS secretary Jeh Johnson, who Mayorkas served as the deputy for at the time.
“In the beginning, you know, he thought we were like friends,” McCaul said of Mayorkas. McCaul said that as he saw the Biden administration rescinding policies and failing to “detain aggravated felons” he wanted Mayorkas to know he was “completely dissatisfied with his job performance.”
McCaul said Mayorkas hadn’t reached out to him since the first hearing since he “really nailed on him.”
“Mayorkas took an oath to support and defend the Constitution of the United States,” McCaul said in the House Homeland Security committee hearing in January. “In my judgment he violated that oath.”
The Senate ultimately dismissed the impeachment charges.
He said he doesn’t plan to take further action against Mayorkas but wanted the impeachment to send a message to the Biden administration. McCaul, who led a bipartisan delegation to the Texas border in January, said he has never seen worse morale among border patrol and his constituents were “very loud” on this issue.
Matthew Choi contributed to this report.
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