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:
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.
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