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Senate GOP campaign chief challenges McConnell over Ukraine, border strategy
BY ALEXANDER BOLTON - 02/09/24 5:30 AM ET

Senate GOP campaign chief Steve Daines (R-Mt.) challenged Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) several times behind closed doors this week over the political wisdom of moving forward with a Ukraine and Israel funding package without border security reforms, a path McConnell endorsed Tuesday.
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“As we listen to the American people, listen to my constituents, they tell us that the highest priority needs to be securing the southern border. So if we’re doing what the folks back home are asking to do, that has to remain our highest priority,” he said.

Asked about McConnell’s argument that there’s “no real chance” to pass border security law given the gulf between the White House, Senate Democrats and House Republicans, Daines said: “I think it’s very important you don’t give up this fight.” “This is not an immigration fight. This is a border security battle. This is a national security battle,” he said.

Chris Murphy 🟧 @ChrisMurphyCT wrote: the speaker said he wouldn’t pass ukraine funding without a border deal and we got a deal and then he killed the deal because he said we didn’t need a deal and now he says he won’t pass our ukraine funding bill bc it doesn’t include a border deal

honestly

wtf

Burgess Everett @burgessev wrote: Speaker Johnson dings Senate foreign aid bill

“in the absence of having received any single border policy change from the Senate, the House will have to continue to work its own will on these important matters. America deserves better than the Senate’s status quo.”

Biden’s Wins @BidensWins wrote: BREAKING: This is absurd. Rick Scott complains that his voters want border security right after he and his Republican colleagues shot down the strongest border security legislation in decades. Retweet to show off this Republican hypocrisy.

Republicans against Trump @RpsAgainstTrump wrote: Fox News host Steve Doocy calls out Speaker Johnson for blocking the foreign aid bill:

“He says that the reason the House isn't going to bring it up is because it needs border security stuff, which ironically was in the Senate bill last week, but it was kicked to the curb…because Donald Trump didn't like it.”

Aaron Rupar @atrupar wrote: "I'm a member of Congress, you're cutting me off. And you're the arbiter of truth. I realize that CNN has a great track record on that." -- GOP Rep. Brandon Williams throws a fit at the end of this clip over some very mild pushback

UP IS DOWN
An Infuriating Poll Finding About Trump Should Galvanize Democrats
Trump killed the border deal, but Biden is getting blamed. Here’s what Democrats need to do to turn that around.

You’ve probably heard that Donald Trump has “tightened his grip on the Republican Party,” or that he’s “bent the party to his will.” Pundits repeat such formulations constantly, because, well, it’s true: Trump is exerting a level of influence over his party in a way that’s unprecedented in a former president.

That’s one possible takeaway from a new ABC News-Ipsos survey, which has a maddening finding: Trump gets substantially less blame for killing the bipartisan border security deal last week than any other major actor in that drama:

Americans find there is blame to go around on Congress’ failure to pass legislation intended to decrease the number of illegal crossings at the U.S.-Mexico border—with about the same number blaming the Republicans in Congress (53%), the Democrats (51%) and Biden (49%). Fewer, 39%, blame Trump.

Biden strongly supported the deal, while Trump explicitly and repeatedly called on Republicans to kill it. He expressly asked for the blame for its death to be directed at him. As the measure appeared to be dying, numerous Republicans said openly that Trump was the reason for it, even suggesting that he demanded its demise to give himself an issue against President Biden. Trump himself didn’t bother trying to hide this motive.

What’s more, Democrats get almost identical blame to Republicans, even though virtually all Senate Democrats voted for the deal, while virtually all Republicans opposed it. That’s after Democrats made the bulk of the concessions required to broker the compromise, which would have made it much harder to apply for asylum, channeled vast expenditures into fortifying the border, expanded detention of migrants, and expedited processing of asylum-seekers, including faster removal of those who don’t qualify.

President Biden @POTUS wrote: We’ve worked with a bipartisan group of Senators for months to put forward the toughest and fairest border deal in history.

Congressional Republicans took one look, killed it, and left town.

For them, it was never about the border. It was about playing politics.

Biden-Harris HQ @BidenHQ wrote: Here is a compilation of Republicans pointing out that the border is not solved because Donald Trump killed the border deal

Acyn @Acyn wrote: Biden: So here's what I would say to Mr. Trump. Instead telling members of congress to block this legislation, join me or I’ll join you in telling the congress to pass this bipartisan border security bill. We can do it together. Instead of playing politics, let’s get it done

Justin Baragona @justinbaragona wrote: Neil Cavuto: It was your GOP colleagues who didn't get the facts right that torpedoed your border bill, not Democrats.

Sen. James Lankford: It was, and it was painful to watch.

Cavuto: That's on Donald Trump, Senator.

Lankford: He's got an office he's running for.