Sen. Chris Murphy (D-CT) feels frustration — but sees electoral gold — in the GOP’s recent refusal to legitimately consider the bipartisan border security bill negotiated in the Senate. The top Republican Senate negotiator, James Lankford (R-OK), watched his earnest reform efforts evaporate soon after House Speaker Mike Johnson — ostensibly following orders from Donald Trump — said the bill would be “dead on arrival” in the House.
Lankford openly questioned the sincerity and wisdom of his own party’s legislators, saying: “Are we as Republicans going to have press conferences and complain the border is bad and then intentionally leave it open?”
Lankford: The key aspect of this again is are we as Republicans going to have press conferences and complain the border is bad and then intentionally leave it open? pic.twitter.com/Yk48ePjziO
— Acyn (@Acyn) February 5, 2024
Yesterday Johnson was again questioned about his intransigence in the face of the border fixes in the Senate proposal, and he responded that the bill didn’t “meet the moment.”
Reporter: You yourself were part of killing the senate compromise bill. You say there need to be solutions, what are house Republicans doing to get to a solution on the border and on Ukraine? Or are you going to actually do nothing? pic.twitter.com/3CjaN9BCx0
— Acyn (@Acyn) February 14, 2024
Murphy frames the “moment” differently, though he agrees it wasn’t met. The Connecticut Senator says the critical moment is when Republicans willfully and publicly killed off legislation that would have delivered major changes and big funding for border fixes, including the increased deportation flights and border closings — as Lankford attested.
Murphy characterizes the action — or lack of action — by GOP legislators as the moment Republicans exposed themselves in public as a party that put scoring “political points” ahead of doing what’s right and securing the border.
And Murphy wants to make sure that the next news cycle doesn’t just flow through and wash away the moment “the country found out” about the real GOP priorities. Instead, Murphy is working to memorialize the day that he says Republicans, given a chance to make major progress in fixing a real problem for America, instead exercised duplicity, played politics, and betrayed the American people.
Welcome to Thursday. The 8th day since the country found out Republicans don’t actually want to secure the border; they just want to keep it a mess to score political points. pic.twitter.com/utPuAYRriF
— Chris Murphy 🟧 (@ChrisMurphyCT) February 15, 2024
“Welcome to Thursday,” Murphy writes. “The 8th day since the country found out Republicans don’t actually want to secure the border.”
