Senate Democrats removed the border security part of a broader legislative package that includes military aid for Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan, after a majority of Republicans made it clear they won't support the measures negotiated by members of both parties during the past weeks.
The planned vote is set to take place on Wednesday, and it needs to get at least 60 votes to move forward to the actual vote. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, who was among the few Republicans who supported the border provisions, backed the modified initiative.
"There are other parts of this supplemental they're extremely important as well — Ukraine, Israel, Taiwan," McConnell said. "We still, in my view, ought to tackle the rest of it because it's important. Not that the border isn't important, but we can't get an outcome. So that's where I think we ought to head, and it's up to Senator Schumer to decide how to repackage this, if in fact we don't go on to it."
Congressional negotiations are in turmoil after Republicans rejected the border security bill shortly after its release on Sunday. Democrats and some Republicans blame Trump and his allies for its failure, saying they don't want to give Democrats a perceived win in an electoral year and allow the former President to continue using the issue as a talking point. Trump has said that the party shouldn't do any deal "at all, unless we get EVERYTHING."
"Just gobsmacked. I've never seen anything like it. They literally demanded specific policy, got it, and then killed it," said Democratic Senator Brian Schatz, echoing the message given by many of his party colleagues.
President Joe Biden echoed the sentiment, saying that the bill didn't move to the Senate floor for "a simple reason: Donald Trump." Because Donald Trump thinks it's bad for him politically."
In another passage of his remarks, Biden said that Trump would "rather weaponize this issue than actually solve it" and that he's been told that, during the past day, Trump has reached out to Republicans in Congress "and threaten them and try to intimidate them to vote against this proposal."
"Looks like they're caving," Biden said. "Frankly, they owe it to the American people to show some spine, and do what they know to be right." He also vowed to tell voters "every day between now and November" that Trump and his allies are the "only reason the border is not secure."
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