GOP Senator Blasts ‘Immoral’ Republican Colleagues Scuttling Border Deal on Behalf of Trump
(AP Photo/Eric Gay)
Senator Thom Tillis blasted his fellow Republican members of Congress who appear eager to scuttle a bipartisan negotiated border deal on behalf of former President Donald Trump.
Trump has reportedly directed his congressional surrogates to kill a border funding deal as it would be viewed as a win for President Joe Biden, which even the conservative Wall Street Journal called out for its cynicism.
The North Carolina Republican Senator sees this nakedly political play as harmful to the nation and his own party’s reputation, calling his colleagues “immoral” for GOP members of Congress to have looked the other way because it’s politically beneficial to Trump. Reporting for NBC News, Sahil Kapur and Frank Thorp V wrote:
Sen. Thom Tillis, R-N.C., urged his colleagues not to make it all about politics at the behest of another candidate.
“I didn’t come here to have the president as a boss or a candidate as a boss. I came here to pass good, solid policy,” Tillis said. “It is immoral for me to think you looked the other way because you think this is the linchpin for President Trump to win.”
Their comments came one day after Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., in a private GOP meeting, outlined the political difficulties facing the emerging deal on immigration and foreign aid, including opposition from Trump as he cruises to the Republican presidential nomination. The belief among some conservatives is that preventing an agreement will cause voters to blame President Joe Biden for a chaotic situation at the border, even though he has endorsed the negotiations.
Trump appeared to confirm prior reporting that he wants this deal dead until he is elected president in a social media post directed at another senate critic, Utah Senator Mitt Romney, who said he found it “really appalling” that his Republican colleagues were ostensibly putting partisan benefits over national security.
Trump wrote:
A Border Deal now would be another Gift to the Radical Left Democrats. They need it politically, but don’t care about our Border. What is currently being worked on in the Senate will be meaningless in terms of Border Security and Closure. Four years ago we had the Safest and Most Secure Border in the History of our Country, and now we have the WORST, probably anywhere in the World. In any event, if you want to have a really Secure Border, your ONLY HOPE is to vote for TRUMP2024!
The border crisis has long been an effective campaign tool for Republicans, who have prioritized the need to stop the massive influx of undocumented migrants into the country and the massive amount of fentanyl that’s coming in as well.
Now that the democrats appear to see the same problem and agreed to a compromised resource bill, the GOP, under Trump’s direction, would rather keep the border open, or at least that was the assessment of former Republican Congressman turned MSNBC host Joe Scarborough.
