Biden tells Congress to 'show some backbone' against Trump over border deal
President Biden took the border fight directly to former President Donald J. Trump on Tuesday, blaming his predecessor and perceived challenger for torpedoing a bipartisan immigration deal through crass politics at the expense of national security.
After months of largely staying out of the fray, Mr. Biden strongly stepped up, calling on Republicans in Congress to “show some backbone” and stand up to Mr. Trump. But he effectively acknowledged that the deal negotiated for months was doomed and vowed to make it a campaign issue against the opposition.
“All indications are that this bill will not even go to the Senate,” Biden said in a televised speech from the White House. “Why? A simple reason. Donald Trump. Because Donald Trump thinks this is bad for him politically.”
The president said Mr. Trump would “weaponize this issue rather than actually solve it” and has leaned on Republicans to block it. “It looks like they are collapsing,” he added. “Frankly, they owe it to the American people to show some backbone and do what they know is right.”
Republicans' decision to reject a bipartisan border deal they had previously called for not only paralyzed the immigration debate, but also jeopardized security aid for Ukraine and Israel tied to the $118 billion measure, closing off what was seen as the best remaining path to help. controversial American allies.
The impasse raised questions about whether Congress could salvage the relief package, and if so, how. Speaker Mike Johnson tried to boost aid to Israel alone by pushing a separate $17.6 billion measure, but was met with strong resistance from far-right Republicans as well as Democrats and Mr. Biden, who threatened a veto.
The result was a vivid portrait of congressional dysfunction. Instead of continuing the border crackdown they once sought, Republicans in the House of Representatives spent the day impeaching Alejandro N. Mayorkas, the secretary of Homeland Security, on charges that he willfully refused to enforce the border laws. With even some Republicans calling the move a stunt, it was not clear whether Mr. Johnson had the votes to prevail.
The disorder and discord on Capitol Hill, punctuated by the president's sharp speech from the White House, underscored how much this year's presidential election has already shaped the debate in Washington nine months before the election. In fact, two presidents, one sitting and one former, are clashing over some of the most pressing issues facing the United States, each competing to determine the direction for the country before voters have their choice in November made.
Mr. Biden, who for most of his presidency has avoided even using Mr. Trump's name, calling him only “the former man” or other elliptical expressions, has seemed increasingly willing to call out the former president in recent weeks more directly, culminating in Tuesday's speech.
The president privately complained that the original version of the speech was not sharp enough to attack Mr. Trump and wanted it to be tougher, according to a senior administration official who spoke on condition of anonymity. He and his assistants then tested out harder sentences shortly before he went before the cameras to deliver it over an hour later than originally planned.
“I understand that the former president is desperately trying to stall this bill because he is not interested in solving the border problem,” Mr. Biden said. “He wants a political issue to work against me.”
“Republicans have to decide,” he added. “Who do they serve? Donald Trump or the American people?”
He called the bipartisan deal “a victory for America” because it combines the “most fair, humane reforms” to immigration law with “the toughest set of reforms to secure the border” at a time of record illegal migration. To make his point, he cited support from institutions normally favorable to Republicans, including the Wall Street Journal editorial page, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and the National Border Patrol Council, a union that Trump recruited in 2016 and 2020. supported.
“If this bill fails, I want to be absolutely clear about something,” Biden said. “The American people will know why it failed. I will take this issue to the country.”
The reason, he said, is Republican fear of their frontrunner. “They are afraid of Donald Trump,” Biden said. “Every day between now and November, the American people will know that the only reason the border is not secure is because of Donald Trump and his MAGA Republican friends.”
The president arrives late to the debate. While he has supported the bipartisan negotiations, he has largely stayed away from them personally and has not mounted a high-profile public fight for an agreement. Aides said he didn't want to complicate the conversations by making them about him. But some Democrats were frustrated that he had not taken a more prominent role so far.
The president's speech was aimed in part at some Democrats who have already criticized provisions in the border bill that would tighten rules for migrants to gain asylum in the United States. If fellow Democrats vote against the measure, it could make it harder for Biden to cast his party as the one seeking solutions in the face of Republican intransigence.
Mr. Trump has held private consultations with Mr. Johnson and other Republicans in Congress and has publicly expressed his opposition to the deal on social media.
“Only a fool, or a radical left Democrat, would vote for this horrible border bill,” the former president wrote, even though the measure was negotiated by one of the most conservative Republicans on Capitol Hill, Sen. James Lankford of Oklahoma.
Republicans have joined the ranks, including many who initially supported the bill, which includes measures to strengthen border security but none of the provisions that would provide a path to citizenship for illegal immigrants already in the country and where Democrats have pushed for in the past.
The legislation would make it harder for migrants to seek asylum and speed up the processing of their cases, which could now take years. It would also expand federal detention centers, allow for the hiring of more asylum officers and border agents, and call for effectively closing the border when encounters with migrants crossing illegally average 5,000 per day. Critics on the right complained that it nevertheless did not go far enough.
“Joe Biden will never enforce a new law and refuses to use the tools he already has today to end this crisis,” Sen. John Barrasso of Wyoming, the No. 3 Republican, said Tuesday. “I cannot vote for this bill. Americans will turn to the upcoming elections to end the border crisis.”
Senator Mitch McConnell, Republican of Kentucky and minority leader, who initially supported the deal, told reporters at a news conference that his conference had “a very robust discussion about whether this product could ever become law” and was influenced by The Mr Johnson's statement that it would be “dead on arrival” in the House of Representatives.
“It has been made quite clear to us by the speaker that this is not going to become law,” Mr. McConnell said. Asked whether he had misread his fellow Republicans, Mr. McConnell said: “I followed the instructions of my conference, which insisted that we address this in October. It is actually our side that wanted to address the border issue. We started it. With a Democratic president and a Democratic Senate, our negotiators obviously had to deal with them.”
Mr. Johnson applauded the Republican Senate's reversal on the border deal. “Maybe it's the life support in the Senate,” he told reporters. “We welcome this development.”
Mr. Biden argued that Republicans not only sacrificed a border compromise but also abandoned Ukraine during the war against President Vladimir V. Putin's Russia.
“We can't run away now,” he said, wearing a striped tie with the blue and yellow colors of the Ukrainian flag. 'That's what Putin is betting on. By supporting this bill, you are standing up to Putin. The opposition to this bill plays into his hands.”
The grim reality, however, was that the once strong bipartisan consensus on aid to Ukraine was shaking. In an unusual letter, a group of U.S. ambassadors stationed in the Indo-Pacific region urged congressional leaders on Monday to secure the legislation, which also includes aid to Taiwan. They said America's credibility with its strategic partners is at stake.
For months, many in the White House and abroad had followed the conventional wisdom and assumed that the combined will of a handful of like-minded leaders from Congress, the chairmen of the National Security Committee, and the president would be enough to get Ukraine across the finish line with new financing. .
But a restive Republican voter base is determined to send another round of taxpayer money to Ukraine, and rank-and-file Republicans, especially in the slim-majority House, have flexed their muscles to resist any real move.
After reports indicated there was no clear path for Congress to approve aid to Ukraine and Israel Tuesday morning, Rep. Matt Gaetz, Republican of Florida and a Trump ally, was elated on social media. He quoted a line from the movie “Apocalypse Now”: “I love the smell of napalm in the morning!”
Katie Rogers, Erica L. Green, Carl Hulse, Karoun Demirjian, Zolan Kanno-Youngs And Michael D. Shear reporting contributed.