Former President Donald Trump is "standing in the way of giving Border Patrol the resources it needs to stop the flow of fentanyl and secure the border," the White House claimed Wednesday.
"Donald Trump always puts himself and his dangerous pursuit of power first — even if it means defunding the Border Patrol. Donald Trump's role is clear as day: He is personally standing in the way of giving Border Patrol the resources it needs to stop the flow of fentanyl and secure the border," said Ammar Moussa, the Biden campaign's rapid response director.
Trump on Monday blasted the bipartisan border bill as "a great gift to the Democrats, and a Death Wish for The Republican Party" and said "only a fool, or a Radical Left Democrat, would vote for this horrendous" legislation.
A day later, the deal was dead.
President Joe Biden had engaged for months with Senate leaders on a carefully negotiated plan to pair policies intended to curb illegal crossings at the U.S.-Mexico border with $60 billion in wartime aid for Ukraine.
The bill was intended to exhibit American strength around the world and would have also sent tens of billions of dollars more for Israel, other U.S. allies in Asia, the U.S. immigration system and humanitarian aid for civilians in Gaza and Ukraine.
But after Republicans rejected the compromise, the president and Senate leaders are now stranded with no clear way to advance aid for Ukraine and Israel through Congress. They have run into a wall of opposition from conservatives — led by Trump — who reject the border proposal as insufficient and criticized Ukraine funding as wasteful.
Biden laid blame for the bill's demise squarely on Trump — his likely Republican opponent in the November presidential election.
"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," Biden said. "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."
Solange Reyner ✉
Solange Reyner is a writer and editor for Newsmax. She has more than 15 years in the journalism industry reporting and covering news, sports and politics.
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