Biden Urges Republicans to Defy Trump and Back Bipartisan Border Deal: ‘Show Some Spine’

President Joe Biden addressed the nation on Tuesday to inform Americans of the contents of the bipartisan border bill that is likely to be scuttled by Republicans in the House.

Biden placed the blame on former President Donald Trump, noting that he was spending his time placing calls to Republicans in the House and Senate to “intimidate” them into opposing the bill, which has support from the union representing the Border Patrol, the United States Chamber of Commerce, and The Wall Street Journal, just to name a few.

Here is part of his speech:

[M]onths ago, I instructed my team to begin negotiations with a bipartisan group of senators to seriously and finally fix our immigration system. For months now, that’s what they’ve done, working around the clock, through the holidays, over the weekends. It’s been an extraordinary effort by Senators [James Lankford (R-OK), Chris Murphy (D-CT), and Kirsten Sinema (I-AZ)]. The result of all this hard work is a bipartisan agreement that represents the most fair, humane reforms in our immigration system in a long time and the toughest set of reforms to secure the border ever.

Now, all indications are this bill won’t even move forward to the Senate floor. Why? A simple reason: Donald Trump. Because Donald Trump thinks it’s bad for him politically, therefore he doesn’t, even though it’ll help the country, he’s not for it. He’d rather weaponize this issue than actually solve it. So for the last 24 hours, he’s done nothing, I’m told, but reach out to Republicans in the House and the Senate and threaten them and try to intimidate them to vote against this proposal. And it looks like they’re caving.

Frankly, they owe it to the American people to show some spine and do what they know to be right. So I want to tell the American people what’s in this bill and why everyone from The Wall Street Journal to the Border Patrol to the Chamber of Commerce, the United States Chamber of Commerce, support this bill. Because it’s going to make the country safer, make the border more secure, treat people more humanely and fairly, and make legal immigration more efficient and consistent with the values of our nation and our international treaty obligations.

Watch the video above via CNN.