Speaker Mike Johnson and his leadership team are sending signals that the Senate deal on border security and immigration is DOA in the House.
On a House GOP conference call Sunday night, Johnson said Congress can’t solve the crisis at the border until Donald Trump or another Republican is in the White House. And Johnson reiterated that his position is that H.R. 2 is the House Republicans’ negotiating position.
Left-wing Punchbowl News called H.R. 2 “hardline,” but it’s completely in line with immigration law.
House Majority Leader Steve Scalise also said the Senate border deal goes in a different direction than H.R. 2 and is a non-starter in the House.
As Punchbowl said, they are not on Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell’s wavelength.
As Punchbowl scooped Thursday, McConnell told GOP senators during a closed-door meeting that they need to “take the deal” that Sen. James Lankford (R-Okla.) is negotiating with Democrats.
McConnell also explicitly said there’s no way a border deal materializes with Trump in the White House. The time for action is now, with Democrats at the negotiating table willing to accept serious border restrictions in exchange for foreign aid.
McConnell needs to retire. He’s daft. The Senate leadership thought that they could pressure the House to take up their horrendous bill.
H.R. 2 would never get the 60 votes needed to pass.
Biden will now say Republicans blocked the best shot to address border security and immigration reform even though the bill was awful.
According to Punchbowl, this could throw Biden a lifeline.
Here’s what a Senate GOP aide told Punchbowl late last night:
“After congressional Republicans spent years elevating the border crisis, calling it an invasion and rightfully pushing for immediate action, the House Republican position is now basically ‘Let’s wait for Trump’ — even though he may not get elected and definitely couldn’t pass a border bill.”
For now, there is no aid for Taiwan, Israel, and Ukraine.
Conservatives also don’t want the stopgap spending bills and are calling for Johnson to shut down the government to close the border.
Republicans are in an impossible position, but the border presents an existential crisis with anonymous people pouring through and our enemies closing in, sensing Biden’s weakness with everyone but Republicans.
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