The White House statement comes after a week of frantic negotiations in the Senate.
President Joe Biden on Friday urged Congress to pass a bipartisan bill to address the immigration crisis at the nation’s southern border, saying he would shut down the border the day the bill became law.
“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,” Biden said in a statement. “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.”
Biden’s Friday evening statement resembles a ramping up in rhetoric for the administration, placing the president philosophically in the camp arguing that the border may hit a point where closure is needed. The White House’s decision to have Biden weigh in also speaks to the delicate nature of the dealmaking, and the urgency facing his administration to take action on the border — particularly during an election year, when Republicans have used the issue to rally their base.
The president is also daring Republicans to reject the deal as it faces a make-or-break moment amid GOP fissures.
And if Republicans operated with logic and fairness, that would work.
Unfortunately, they don’t. Trump could just claim the entire thing was deepfaked and his little cult would dutifully believe it without even knowing what a deep fake was.
They will accept literally any excuse, no matter how bad, to hold on to the opinions they want to have.
He was never going to win the type of voter who would believe Trump no matter what. But almost 50% of Americans consider themselves independent. There is a cohort who wants action taken on the border and also abortion rights and this swings them from 50/50 to Biden. Or whatever the specifics are, this is popular with some number of independent voters who might otherwise vote for Trump.