Why Republicans Tanked The Border Compromise They Demanded & Negotiated
Republicans blocked the bipartisan border bill they negotiated after Trump declared his opposition to it. Rather than give Biden a win and create a solution, they want to campaign on the problem.
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A party divided against itself cannot govern. And a party that is only interested in gaining power is incapable of putting real-world solutions above political calculations. That’s what we saw culminate this week in the GOP.
In a transparent appeasement of Donald Trump’s demands to keep the border crisis ongoing for his campaign, Republicans retreated from the most comprehensive border security bill in years. It was a bill they not only demanded from Democrats but negotiated every step of the way.
Republicans have been complaining about the border and exploiting migrants as political tools for years. When it was finally time to do something about it, they didn’t back their talk up with action. They’re the fear-mongering dog that finally caught the caravan.
There have been attempts to spin this bill’s embarrassing defeat as an issue of substance and policy rather than a blatant capitulation to Trump. But the timeline and facts don’t back up the new Republican stance.
It’s important to lay out the details of what occurred, using Repubicans’ own words.
Let’s dive in.
How Republicans Went From Border Bill Negotiation To Nullification
In the fall, Republicans rejected Ukraine aid and demanded a border bill as a precondition for a deal. During ongoing negotiations in November, Senate Republicans even publicly laid out their demands that a Ukraine bill must include border provisions. They likely thought this was something Democrats wouldn’t agree to. So, Senate Democrats and President Biden called their bluff and negotiated in good faith.
Senators Chris Murphy (D-CT) and Kyrsten Sinema (I-AZ) spent four months negotiating with Senator James Lankford (R-OK), who was deputized by Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY). They surprisingly came to a compromise. The result was a $118 billion bipartisan border and foreign aid bill that included border security measures, funding for Ukraine, and aid to Israel. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) and McConnell supported the deal.
The bill proposed key changes Democrats prioritize - like additional asylum judges, increasing visa slots, legal representation for unaccompanied minors, and speeding up asylum claims. But it also made many concessions to conservatives. It didn’t include wider immigration reforms - like protections for DACA recipients - that have traditionally been part of these kinds of negotiations.
On the other hand, the bill included broad border security measures conservatives demanded. There was a 5,000-per-day average border crossing threshold that, if crossed, would require the border to be shut down. It included more funding to expand detainment and modifications to catch-and-release. It was about as close to a border compromise as possible in this polarized political climate.
The Border Patrol Union backed the bill. Senator Lankford, ranked the second most conservative Senator in the country, led negotiations on it. It was by no means a liberal, open-border bill. In fact, it was quite the opposite. A sane Republican Party would’ve taken the deal while Democrats were remarkably supportive of it. In December, it appeared this bill had a real shot of passing. Then, Donald Trump started talking.
In mid-January, Trump won the Iowa Caucuses, and Republicans began treating him like the presumptive nominee. He began viciously attacking the bipartisan agreement.
In a January 17 post on his social network Truth Social, Trump began directly pressuring House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) to oppose the border deal:
“I do not think we should do a Border Deal, at all, unless we get EVERYTHING needed to shut down the INVASION of Millions & Millions of people, many from parts unknown, into our once great, but soon to be great again, Country! Also, I have no doubt that our wonderful Speaker of the House, Mike Johnson, will only make a deal that is PERFECT ON THE BORDER. Remember, without Strong Borders and Honest Elections, we don’t have a Country!!!”
Trump posted this before the text of the bill had even been released. As I noted, the border bill provides more emergency powers to the President to shut down the border, so Trump is misrepresenting the bill. Trump would go on to blast the bill as a “radical,” “horrendous,” “open border bill.” Which, of course, is a lie.
Speaker Johnson heard this clearly and began to forcefully speak out against the bill. Instead, the House shifted its focus to a baseless, soon-to-be failed effort to impeach DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas - who played an integral role in the Senate border bill negotiations.
By late January, after the New Hampshire primary, Senate Minority Leader McConnell began to bend to Trump’s will. On January 24, McConnell told a closed-door meeting of Senate Republicans that the “politics have changed” on this issue. “We’re in a quandary," McConnell said, citing Trump’s opposition to the bill. “We don’t want to do anything to undermine him.”
On January 25, one day after that closed-door meeting with McConnell, Senator Mitt Romney (R-UT) called Trump out for seeking to torpedo the bill:
“The fact that he would communicate to Republican senators and congresspeople that he doesn’t want us to solve the border problem because he wants to blame Biden for it is really appalling.”
At a rally on January 27, Trump proudly took ownership of putting the bill on life support, declaring:
“As the leader of our party, there is zero chance I will support this horrible open borders betrayal of America. I’ll fight it all the way. A lot of the senators are trying to say, respectfully, they’re blaming it on me. I say, that’s OK. Please blame it on me. Please.”
The increasingly likely imminent defeat of this border compromise infuriated Senator Lankford, who felt his four months of work was being thrown out the window.
Lankford summarized what had happened in a January 28 appearance on the “Fox News Sunday” show:
“It is interesting, Republicans, four months ago, would not give funding for Ukraine, for Israel and for our southern border because we demanded changes in policy. So we actually locked arms together and said, ‘We’re not going to give money for this. We want a change in law.’ And now, it’s interesting, a few months later, when we’re finally getting to the end, they’re like, ‘Oh, just kidding, I actually don’t want a change in law because of presidential election year.'”
As we approached this week, the pressure continued to mount. Trump racheted up his attacks on the bill. House Republicans continued to speak out against the bill. Speaker Johnson said the bill was dead on arrival in the House. More Senate Republicans began to speak out against the bill, throwing Lankford under the bus, and many in right-wing media mobilized against it.
In fact, Lankford said he faced outright threats from a right-wing media figure amid his support of the bill. On the Senate floor on Wednesday, ahead of the border bill procedural vote, Lankford made a stunning claim.
“Some of [the conservative opponents of the bill] have been very clear with me: They have political differences with the bill. They say it’s the wrong time to solve the problem, or let the presidential election solve this problem.”
“In fact, I had a popular commentator — four weeks ago, that I talked to — that told me flat out, before they knew any of the contents of the bill — any of the contents, nothing was out at that point — that told me flat out, ‘If you try to move a bill that solves the border crisis during this presidential year, I will do whatever I can to destroy you, because I do not want you to solve this during the presidential election.’ By the way, they have been faithful to their promise, and have done everything they can to destroy me in the past several weeks.”
When the motion to proceed came to the floor, McConnell and Lankford both voted no. It appears the threats worked.
President Biden Seizes On The GOP’s Failure
President Biden grasped onto the Republican infighting and dysfunction. Biden released a statement saying he would immediately shut down the border if this bill passed. By doing this, Biden ensured the public knew he had every intention of taking action on this problem if only Republicans passed the bill they had just negotiated.
In remarks at the White House ahead of Wednesday’s vote, President Biden described exactly what the motivations were to kill the bill:
“The former President is desperately trying to stop this bill because it’s not — he’s not interested in solving the border problem; he wants a political issue to run against me on. They’ve all but said that, across the board. No one really denies that, that I’m aware of.”
Biden is right.
Republicans want us to simultaneously believe that the border is in urgent crisis, but they can wait a year until Trump may or may not get a second term to do anything about it. The truth is this: Republicans want the border crisis to continue so Trump can campaign on it. They have no interest in an actual solution.
This is a classic Trump campaign strategy, much like how he ran his presidency. Trump creates, fuels, or enables a crisis and then claims only he has the solution for it. By allowing the border crisis to continue without the robust legislation necessary to address it, Trump is now going to campaign on the problem that he just prevented from being fixed.
Democrats won’t let this lie slide, though. This week, Biden made a statement that we’ll likely be hearing a lot more of this year:
“Every day between now and November, the American people are going to know that the only reason the border is not secure is Donald Trump and his MAGA Republican friends.”
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