U.S. Senator Lindsey Graham (R-SC) is insisting the only way there will be a “solution” to what Republicans are calling the “border crisis” is for Donald Trump to once again become president.
For months, Democratic Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer has been working with Senate Republicans, especially Republican Minority Leader Mitch McConnell and U.S. Senator James Lankford (R-OK), to craft a bipartisan border deal that also provides funding to Ukraine, Israel, and Taiwan – a requirement of House Republicans.
Minority Leader McConnell has been adamant that funding for Ukraine is a national security priority. President Joe Biden agrees, and in a dramatic move agreed to trade concessions on border policy for Ukraine funding to help stop Vladimir Putin’s illegal war.
Earlier this month McConnell telegraphed a dire message to House Republicans, telling reporters, the “world is literally at war” and added, “in case anybody has forgotten.”
“So make no mistake about it,” McConnell continued. “This is the most serious international situation we have faced since the Berlin Wall came down,” 34 years ago in 1989. “We’ve got wars that we’re all familiar with. In the Middle East, and in Europe. Iran’s proxies in Gaza, Lebanon, and Yemen attacking Israel. The Houthis actually attacking us, directly, in addition to shutting down where they can commerce in the Red Sea. Iranian proxies attacking us – our soldiers in Iraq and Syria. Russia is stepping up missile attacks in Ukraine, while we were gone. China of course watching all of this, concerned about next year’s election in Taiwan.”
Just days ago McConnell told Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson to prepare for a Senate bill on the border, Politico reported, that includes critical funding for Ukraine, Israel, and Taiwan as soon as this week.
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That will not happen, and practically overnight, McConnell has changed his tune, specifically citing Donald Trump’s re-election platform.
“The politics on this have changed,” McConnell said, as Punchbowl News‘ Jake Sherman first reported. “We don’t want to do anything to undermine” Donald Trump.
Trump, who wants to run on the “border crisis,” is now “telling Republicans he ‘doesn’t want Biden to have a victory’ in 2024,” HuffPost reports, citing a source familiar with the bipartisan negotiations.
“Border security was a centerpiece of Donald Trump’s successful 2016 campaign,” ABC News reported Thursday, “and he is now repeating those messages (and in many cases going further than he did eight years ago, accused of echoing Hitler in saying immigrants are ‘poisoning the blood of our country’) to energize and unite his supporters against what Republicans have dubbed ‘Biden’s border crisis.'”
Senate Republicans for now are split.
Some far-right extremists, like U.S. Senator Josh Hawley (R-MO), adamantly refuse to support the bipartisan Senate border deal, which has stalled and may be dead.
Senator Graham has found something of a middle lane, telling CNN’s Manu Raju that despite Donald Trump’s insistence that the only border deal any Republican should vote for must be perfect, he would support a “good” deal to improve the border situation.
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But he also made certain to appease the ex-president.
“There will be no perfect deal,” Graham told CNN Wednesday night (video below). “There will be a good deal, or I won’t support it.”
“The solution to the border eventually will require a Trump presidency. But between now and then we can do some things that will make the border more secure.”
CNN’s Raju also spoke to hard-core conservative U.S. Senator Thom Tillis (R-NC), who declared, “Biden has failed. We are here. We’ve been elected. We have election certificates. When you have an opportunity to make this country safer you take it and you don’t play politics.”
Watch below or at this link:
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