Like Truman in 1948, President Biden Needs to Campaign Against the Do Nothing Trump MAGA Republicans if They Abandon Immigration Reform

 There is no shortage of Trump-Maga Republican Hypocrisy or Chutzphah. 

After spending three years whining, hyping, and demagoguing the increase in migrants coming legally and illegally to the United States, they want to abandon the most conservative immigration reform legislation (with bipartisan and Biden/Harris Administration support) since perhaps the anti-immigrant hysteria era following the first Red Scare in the late 1910s. 

Why?

Because Donald 'I killed Roe v Wade,' 'I don't want to be Herbert Hoover,' ' dead veterans are suckers' and 'I have to pay $83 million to the woman I sexually assaulted' Trump wants to use illegal immigration entries and the fentanyl traffic that is coming with it, as a campaign issue to run in on this year. 

So much for putting America First.

Trump's insistence on opposing the Senate Bipartisan Immigration Deal, which again is the most conservative in decades (with provisions to reform the asylum-seeking process to six months maximum and shut the southern border if 5,000 illegals come in on a single day except for ports of entry) even though there is no path to citizenship for illegals currently in the country, has apparently found support in Speaker Mike 'The Bible Tells Us' Johnson, who said the Senate version would likely be "dead on arrival" in the House. 

In contrast to Donald 'I was endorsed twice by David Duke' and 'Mexico will pay for the Wall (how many times will his Maga supporters-suckers fall for that)' Trump, President Biden, in a White House statement, signaled his support for the Bipartisan Senate legislation, even though it leans more to Republican than Democratic wish lists on immigration. His statement read:

"For too long, we all know the border’s been broken. It’s long past time to fix it. That’s why two months ago, I instructed my team to begin negotiations with a bipartisan group of Senators to seriously, and finally, address the border crisis. For weeks now that’s what they’ve done. Working around the clock, through the holidays, and over weekends. Let’s be clear. What’s been negotiated would – if passed into law – be the toughest and fairest set of reforms to secure the border we’ve ever had in our country. It would give me, as President, a new emergency authority to shut down the border when it becomes overwhelmed. And if given that authority, I would use it the day I sign the bill into law. Further, Congress needs to finally provide the funding I requested in October to secure the border. This includes an additional 1,300 border patrol agents, 375 immigration judges, 1,600 asylum officers, and over 100 cutting-edge inspection machines to help detect and stop fentanyl at our southwest border. Securing the border through these negotiations is a win for America. For everyone who is demanding tougher border control, this is the way to do it. If you’re serious about the border crisis, pass a bipartisan bill and I will sign it."

To be clear, it is President Biden who is proposing an infusion of funds to beef up border security. 

This legislation has other vital components that need to be considered as well. These include funding for

• Protecting Democracy in Ukraine by asking for funding for that country in its war against Russia. 
• Protecting Taiwan against an expansionist China. 
• Supporting Israeli security and Palestinian humanitarian assistance (on that front it looks like at the time of this writing, a two-month cease-fire may be concluded, thanks in part to Biden/Harris mediation in exchange for the release of the remaining hostages that the Hamas terrorist organization and their allies kidnapped on October 7, 2023.)

Who or What is standing in the way of these vital global concerns. 

Donald 'I have been impeached twice' Trump and his cult MAGA sycophantic apostates in Congress who do not seem to mind if Putin wins against Ukraine or Palestinians suffer. 

Even Senate Republicans including Mitt Romney, Lindsay Graham, John Thune, Tom Tillis, Kevin Cramer, Todd Young, and lead negotiator Jack Lankford expressed their frustration and outrage with what the January 6 instigator was doing. 

Romney rightfully called Trump's position to keep the tensions on the southern border alive to help his electoral chances "really appalling...a person running for President ought to focus on getting the problem solved rather than saying 'hey, don't solve it. Let me take credit for it by solving it later."

Cramer told interviewers:

"I just reject the idea that we should reserve a crisis for a better time to solve it...I don't see how we have a better story to tell when we miss the one opportunity we have to fix it and we go and say we would have loved to have fixed it but it was election season so I thought we'd wait."

Tillis had perhaps the most entertaining response, commenting: 

"They don't know how a bill becomes law. Go back to Schoolhouse Rock. If we don't take the opportunity now, there will be zero Democrat votes for exactly the same policy beginning next year."

Democratic voices against this Trump-MAGA obstruction have also been broadcast. 

A few examples from Arizona candidates. 

House Representative and Senate Candidate Ruben Gallego said in an interview with MSNBC:

"Well, I mean, you're essentially abdicating your duty. There is a problem at the border. We need to come together for a solution that brings more border security. The voters are demanding this. This surge is unlike anything I've seen here in Arizona, and I've been a member of Congress for ten years. I voted for $92 billion for border security in the past, and still, it is not helping.

"And the fact that this is being used as a political tool by Republican senators and other politicians. You know, I'm running against Kari Lake, who claims to be the biggest Trump supporter in the world. Does she agree with Trump that we should not do this, we shouldn’t fix the border so it helps him and her politically? I think that's a question that has to be asked about all Republicans, but this is dangerous territory we are in. We need to be treating this as a serious situation, not as a political opportunity, and it is shameful that Republicans are doing that just so they could get Donald Trump, of all people, back into office.”

House Candidate Kirsten Engel, who is running against vulnerable Republican incumbent Juan Ciscomani in Arizona Congressional District (CD) Six, posted on social media:

https://twitter.com/EngelForArizona/status/1747342142551601650

Conor O'Callaghan, who is running to oust vulnerable Republican incumbent David Schweikert in Arizona CD One, provided a statement to Blog for Arizona, offering:

"President Biden has been negotiating with a group of bipartisan senators to find a deal that would strengthen immigration restrictions in exchange for passage of more than $100 billion in emergency aid for Ukraine, Israel, Taiwan, and U.S. border security. But Republicans like David Schweikert are more focused on appeasing Trump and getting sound bites than actually legislating. It is party before country for them. Consequences be damned. Arizona is sick of it. It's imperative that we regain control of the House and keep the Senate and the White House. Otherwise, nothing gets fixed."

Engels, Gallego, O'Callaghan, and the Senate Republicans that still have spines are all right. 

Trump-MAGA Republicans are, as Ms. Engel said, 'failing border communities."

Trump-MAGA Republicans like Kari Lake are, as Representative Gallego said, treating the border crisis as "a political opportunity" so they could get the most disgraced person in Presidential History back into office. 

Trump-MAGA Republicans are, as Mr. O'Callaghan wrote, making Arizonans (and many across the country) sick of them because they are putting "party over country and consequences be damned."

If Trump and his MAGA apostates in Congress do prevail in halting this immigration reform legislation and the other provisions designed to promote Democracy in Ukraine and protect global stability in the Middle East and Asia, President Biden needs to take a page from President Harry Truman's 1948 Presidential Campaign and run against the Do Nothing Trump MAGA Republican House and Members of Congress. 

The President needs to hang around their necks at every campaign stop and speech that these Trump-MAGA Do Nothing Republicans were the ones that allowed the southern border to be porous. 

He should also make the case that this Republican position is nothing new. Remember it was House Republicans that thwarted comprehensive immigration reform as an election gimmick in 2014 and let the border conditions continue to fester for the next decade. 

He needs to call out these Trump-MAGA Do Nothing Republicans for not doing their part to protect Democracy and global stability. 

President Biden needs to make the case that it is the Democrats and like-minded Republicans who are the ones with the right policy prescriptions to solve the immigration crisis, not alt-reality Trump-MAGA world. 

Most voters in the country will favorably respond to that message...If President Biden, like Truman before him, and his supporters, makes it. 

Editorial Cartoons of the Week

 

On the Anniversary of Roe v Wade, the Biden/Harris Campaign Comes Out in Full Force Defending Reproductive Freedom

With the Biden/Harris Team and their surrogates across the country launching events this weekend and next to commemorate the 1973 Supreme Court Roe v Wade ruling and the need to restore the reproductive freedom taken away by Donald 'I killed Roe v Wade' Trumps packed court, the President's campaign has released the ad, called "Forced" highlighting how a woman's choice and health care have been imperiled. 

In the ad, Dr. Austin Dennard, an OBYGN from Texas and mother of three, recounted how a fourth pregnancy (one she "desperately wanted) revealed that the fetus she carried would not live long after delivery with "no chance for survival." Unfortunately, thanks to the overturning of Roe v Wade and Texas's Handmaid Tale prohibitive abortion statutes, Dr. Dennard was denied access to an abortion because the law "forced" her to carry the fetus to term despite the prognosis and the potential danger to the mother's health. 

In the ad, Dr, Dennard said the reason she had to endure this tragedy was:

"Because of Donald Trump overturning Roe v Wade. The choice was completely taken away. I was to continue my pregnancy, putting my life at risk."

Saying "It's every woman's worst nightmare and it was absolutely unbearable," she called for leaders, like Joe Biden and Kamala Harris, who "will protect our rights and not take them away."

Speaking on the "Forced Ad," Biden/Harris Campaign Manager Julie Chavez Rodriquez commented in a campaign press release:

“No woman in America should have to risk their life or flee their home to receive life-saving care, but because of Donald Trump, too many have been forced to do exactly that. This ad serves as a sobering reminder to women across the country of the devastating legacy of Donald Trump’s presidency – and a warning of his plans, if elected, to take this anti-abortion crusade even further by using every agency and tool of the federal government to limit women’s access to reproductive health care. Additionally, this ad flight will meet voters where they are and remind them of the stakes of this election for women's reproductive rights. President Biden and Vice President Harris are the only candidates in this race fighting to protect a woman’s right to choose and ensure Americans have more rights, not fewer.”

Earlier in the week, Vice President Harris commented on Wisconsin Republican Legislators proposed move to reduce access to abortion from 20 to 14 weeks except in the case of the health or life of the mother, stating:

“Extremists in Wisconsin just introduced a new abortion ban – the latest in their long string of attacks on reproductive freedoms. Women in Wisconsin have lived in a state of chaos and uncertainty ever since Donald Trump paved the way to overturn Roe v. Wade. If Donald Trump is reelected, he’ll try to gut abortion care in every state across the country and he has the plans to do it. Don't forget: this is the same person who said women who get abortions deserve to be punished. Make no mistake, President Biden and I will never stop fighting to make sure that Wisconsin women, and women across this country, never have to worry about the status of their fundamental reproductive rights again.”

The Vice President also appeared on The View to express the Administration and Campaign's concerns about what Trump and MAGA Republicans' return to power would mean for American Democracy, Reproductive Freedom, and basic civil liberties like being able to love who you want to love and access to the voting booth. 

In her comments, Vice President Harris said:

"These are fundamental freedoms that are at stake right now...I travel our country and I have been in states that have banned access to reproductive freedom to abortion, even in the case of rape or incest...The idea that in some of these states a ban on abortion includes denying a survivor of rape or incest the ability to make a decision about what happens to their body next is a big, big deal...We will not have the kind of quality of life that I think most people want without fundamental freedoms and the rights that are guaranteed in our Constitution and in the ideals in which we were founded. All of that is very much at stake. We've got a guy right now, the former President, running for office, openly saying that he promises to essentially be a dictator...who is proud that he stripped America's women of the right to make decisions about their own bodies. A person...who is admitting he would weaponize the Department of Justice..."

Editorial Cartoons for the Week

 

While MAGA World Dukes it Out in the Hyped Up Iowa Caucus, the Biden/Harris Campaign Brings in Almost $100 Million at the End of 2023

Photo from A.P.

It is very amusing to watch political commentators and the news channels fawning over the Republican Presidential candidates competing in the Iowa Caucuses. The hype surrounding them is almost nauseating because, unlike the Democratic ones, the Republican Iowa events have only picked the non incumbent Presidential Nominee twice in its 48 year history. The first time was 28 years ago when Robert Dole, from neighboring Kansas, won the 1996 caucus. The last time was 24 years ago when George W. Bush, after declaring Jesus Christ as the person most important influence in his life, prevailed. 

In almost a quarter century, the Iowa caucus has struck out in selecting the eventual non incumbent Republican Presidential nominee. 

While this year may be an exception, expect a potential intra party blood bath if Nikki 'Was Slavery a Cause of the Civil War?' Haley's momentum, if true, carries her to a strong finish in Iowa and New Hampshire. 

Donald 'I killed Roe v Wade' Trump, has alway unleashed his famed attacks on his one time United Nations Ambassador. 

Expect the vitriolic venom to continue flying at the former South Carolina Governor and the other remaining credible (for today, at least) Republican Candidate, Florida 'six week abortion ban' Governor Ron DeSantis until potential primary losses dictate that they both bow out.

However, if Haley's momentum picks up (a strong possibility) or DeSantis makes a surprising comeback (do not bet on it,) do not expect the twice David Duke endorsed and enabler of the January 6 Domestic Terrorist Attack to go quietly into the night and fade away.

If Haley or DeSantis somehow pulls off an electoral upset, expect the twice impeached and 91 time indicted former American Duce wannabe to fracture the former Party of Lincoln into several pieces, forever declaring the establishment Republican wing stole the election from him and his followers from the alternate reality MAGA world. 

All of these scenarios should bring smiles to the Biden/Harris Campaign who just announced that the holidays were good to them at the end of 2023 with a reported $97 million in donations. 

In a campaign press release, the Biden/Harris team relayed they had $117 million cash on hand, the highest in Democratic Presidential campaign history. 

Think of the ads showing all of Donald Trumps sins or Nikki Haley's Reproductive Freedom and Civil War Gaffes or DeSantis Hand Maid Tale society he is creating in Florida those millions will buy. 

Think of the staff and ground game operations some of that cash will buy in the battle ground states.

Speaking to CNN, Biden/Harris Campaign Communications Director Michael Tyler offered:

“If you want to talk about the enthusiasm from the Democratic base for this president, you should look no further than today’s fundraising announcement. We announced that we raised $97 million in the fourth quarter, that's $235 million since the launch of this campaign largely driven by grassroots donations. About 97% of the contributions that we got in the fourth quarter were under $200. Right? Those are folks like teachers and nurses who are giving $5, $10 at a time by going to Joebiden.com. They're doing so because they understand A) what the president has done to fight on behalf of them, but they also understand what's at stake in this election, whether or not we're going to hold on to what the president referred to as a ‘sacred cause’ of America, which is our democracy. We're excited about the enthusiasm we have seen thus far in the race. We're excited for the fight ahead. We'll be watching closely to see who emerges tonight in Iowa. We're ready to provide the American people with a stark contrast between the president fighting for more freedom and democracy, and MAGA extremists led by Donald Trump who want to tear down the fabric of American democracy.”

Commenting on the $97 million haul, Biden/Harris Advisory Co-Chair and Hollywood mogul Jeffrey Katzenberg stated on MSNBC:

“When you listen to the pundits and the polls and then you actually see the results of fundraising, it could not be more disparate. You have $97 million, $235 million raised in a pre-election year. I say that again, $235 million and having the resources and the sense of urgency that we have to go out and run a great campaign and win this election, you know you need this. Now one of the things I find really interesting about this is that 97% of the donations have come from small donors and that support - so literally over one million people have contributed to Joe Biden’s campaign - so that is a level of enthusiasm and commitment and grassroots support which was essential in his 2020 campaign, which I just dont think is being reflected in the beltway gossip.”

Today marks the beginning to save American Democracy from the MAGA-Fascists that would destroy it. 

On this Martin Luther King Day, the people should rise up and send the message to the MAGA-Fascists, 

"This Republic will NEVER be yours."

Editorial Cartoons for the Week