Immigration is an ongoing hot-button issue in the 2024 presidential election, as Donald Trump and his followers claim that illegal border crossings have worsened under Biden, using often inflammatory and racist rhetoric to make the point. However, according to several Republican lawmakers, Trump himself stymied efforts to reform border policy.
In a July 2024 post on X, podcaster Brian Krassenstein shared a series of GOP politicians including Utah Republican Senator Mitt Romney and Texas Republican Dan Crenshaw and others admitting Trump that Trump had instructed them to vote no on a bipartisan border bill in February 2024. Krassenstein captioned the post “The border is a problem because of Donald Trump. Not my words. Republican words.”
In a Truth Social post, Trump called the bill a “great gift to the Democrats, and a Death Wish for The Republican Party,” adding, “Only a fool, or a Radical Left Democrat, would vote for this horrendous Border Bill, which only gives Shutdown Authority after 5000 Encounters a day, when we already have the right to CLOSE THE BORDER NOW, which must be done [sic].”
“Those aren’t Republicans, those are RINOs”
With Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson announcing the bill “dead on arrival,” Biden’s border bill never advanced from the Senate. In Krassenstein’s post, using CNN footage of several Republican politicians, however, Representative Crenshaw said, “I’m extremely disappointed by very strange maneuvering by many on the right to torpedo a potential border reform bill.”
Romney added, “The fact that [Trump] would communicate to Republican senators and congresspeople he doesn’t want to solve the border problem because he wants to blame Biden for it is really appalling.” Meanwhile, Krassenstein’s post used the words of several other Republican lawmakers to illustrate that even GOP politicians are aware that while Trump uses the border for political gain, he seems disinterested in solving the problem.
“This is clickbait?!”
Despite the evidence of their own eyes and ears, Trump faithful in Krassenstein’s comments remained unconvinced Trump was to blame, calling Krassenstein’s post “clickbait.” According to one comment, “Those people are not Republicans. They’re despicable RINO’s Trump wants to blame Biden because that’s where they blame needs to be placed! Biden reversed every [executive order] Trump had, even remain in Mexico. Biden did that out of spite and invited the invasion to happen [sic].”
Another said, “The Border was under Control the day Trump left office. Joe literally told the people to come.” But, another added, “That’s right. Look at the situation right now and how much have improved since Biden issue a very limited executive order and imagine how much better it would be with the comprehensive bill that @SpeakerJohnson refused to take to the floor [sic].”
The Center for Immigration Studies, a Trump-affiliated anti-immigration think tank designated a “hate group” by the Southern Poverty Law Center, wrote the bill did not go far enough to solve immigration. But Arizona Senator Mark Kelly, who is on Kamala Harris’ short list for VP, said the immigration bill met Republicans on the 10-yard line, “on their side of the field … [W]e’ve got to get operational control over the border. I realized this, Kamala Harris realizes this, and this legislation was going to do that,” Kelly told MSNBC’s Morning Joe in late July.
” … [O]ur goal here was to get this legislation passed and then start working on comprehensive immigration reform. But this was stopped dead in its tracks by Donald Trump because he wanted to have this as an election issue. Like a lot of other Republicans, they don’t actually want to solve this problem,” Kelly added.
Published: Jul 31, 2024 02:41 pm