President Joe Biden has finally begun to address the border crisis that has intensified over the course of his first three years in office, though he is attempting to portray Republicans — and former President Donald Trump specifically — as the villains of the story.
Despite repealing a host of immigration rules implemented by his predecessor, Biden nevertheless blamed Trump for the current situation because of his opposition to a bipartisan bill that critics say was never designed to curtail illegal immigration.
“Now, all indications are this bill won’t even move forward to the Senate floor,” the president complained. “Why? A simple reason: Donald Trump. Because Donald Trump thinks it’s bad for him politically. So for the last 24 hours, he’s done nothing, I’m told, but reach out to Republicans in the House and Senate and threaten them and try to intimidate them to vote against this proposal. And looks like they’re caving.”
Even as Biden attempts to shirk responsibility for the border crisis by claiming that he has no control over the situation, the White House has been making threats of its own — namely that if Republicans refused to coalesce around the unpopular bill, the administration would take away even more border security resources.
No biggie, just a sitting president threatening to sacrifice more Americans if he doesn’t get his way pic.twitter.com/TGJeUsGX3n
— The Dank Knight 🦇 (@capeandcowell) February 8, 2024
“Because congressional Republicans are choosing partisan politics over our national security and refusing to pass the bipartisan national security agreement that includes significant border reforms and funding, over the coming weeks, [Immigration and Customs Enforcement] will be forced to reduce operations because of budget shortfalls,” insisted White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre.
Although Biden has attempted to portray Trump as a sort of puppet master forcing GOP lawmakers to do his bidding, a long line of House and Senate Republicans have made their own cases for opposing the bill.
Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX), who voted against the legislation, described it as proof of his own party’s ineffective leadership.
“They released it Sunday night,” he explained. “And within 24 hours, the bill was dead because Republicans understood they couldn’t support a bill that leaves the border open.”
Asserting that his party was duped by Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY), Cruz insisted that the time had come for Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) to be replaced.
“I think there have been a lot of enormous mistakes,” he concluded. “But this mistake was the worst.”
