Biden calls GOP holdup of Ukraine aid ‘close to criminal neglect’
President Joe Biden says Republican holdup on sending new U.S. aid to Ukraine for its war with Russia was “close to criminal neglect.”
WASHINGTON ― President Joe Biden is hoping to make Republicans pay for their decision to torpedo a border security plan they demanded in the first place.
In poll after poll, voters see Democrats in general and Biden in particular as weak on immigration and security at the U.S.-Mexico border. After the number of migrant border-crossings reached an all-time high last year, Congressional Republicans looked poised to capitalize on the situation.
They held up funding for Ukraine’s defense against Russia, in exchange for tougher border restrictions. They figured they had the president painted into a corner.
But in a stunning policy shift, the White House and Senate Democrats conceded and agreed to the most sweeping changes to immigration law in a generation.
Then this week, Republicans − at the urging of Donald Trump − scuttled the bipartisan border deal, four months in the making.
Now, Biden, moving from defense to offense, hopes to turn that legislative failure into a win for his reelection campaign.
“Every day between now and November, the American people are going to know that the only reason the border is not secure is Donald Trump and his MAGA Republican friends,” Biden said Tuesday in remarks from the White House.
The Biden campaign and Democratic allies hope independent voters will see that Biden was willing to reach across the aisle to reach a compromise, while Trump missed an opportunity to solve what he has long described as a national crisis.
“I think it goes beyond neutralizing the (border) issue; I think that Biden is taking control of the issue by really calling Republicans’ bluff,” said Democratic pollster Matt Barreto, who advised Biden’s 2020 presidential campaign on Latino issue. “He’s saying I’m ready to act. Now Republicans are on the defensive. They have to explain why they don’t want to take action on the border. And so far, I haven’t heard any good rationale.”
Biden says he will take collapse of border deal ‘to the country’
Trump, the frontrunner to win the Republican nomination, has long pushed hardline border policies, promising to build a wall at the U.S.-Mexico border and now campaigning on the mass deportation of undocumented immigrants.
Republicans, who for years have hammered Democrats as soft on border security, are overwhelmingly viewed more favorably on the issue. An NBC poll this week found more voters view Trump, by 57% to 22%, as the better candidate than Biden to secure the border and control immigration.
During negotiations for the $118 billion bill, most of which was destined for Ukraine and Israel, Biden embraced new, tougher rhetoric on the border. He called on Congress to give him the power to “shut down the border” to tackle what he started calling “the border crisis.” He acknowledged the border is not secure.
After the bill’s failure Biden said he “never thought I’d see something like I’m seeing now.” Speaking Wednesday to supporters at a New York fundraiser, he accused congressional Republicans of “walking away because they’ve got Donald Trump calling and threatening them.”
‘Political camouflage for Democrats,’ Republican senator says
Republicans scoffed at Biden’s finger-pointing over the border, which they were quick to note has seen record numbers of migrants during Biden’s presidency. Congressional Republicans who opposed the bill said it didn’t go far enough, insisting on passage of their hardline immigration bill, H.R.2., which the Republican-controlled House approved last year.
“Understand that this border crisis is deliberate. Joe Biden caused it. He caused it by his own unilateral decisions,” Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, told reporters, adding that the purpose of the bipartisan border bill was to “give political camouflage for Democrats running in November.”
Cruz said the…
This article was originally published by a www.usatoday.com . Read the Original article here. .