GOP senator goes toe-to-toe with CNN anchor over border bill lie: ‘Trump’s not in office’ (2024)

Republican Sen. Markwayne Mullin pushed back against the Democrat- and media-concocted lie that former President Donald Trump had lobbied against the so-called “bipartisan” border bill to prevent President Joe Biden from securing a political victory.

Appearing on CNN Friday, he was immediately confronted by interviewer Manu Raju, who outright accused Trump of having lobbied House and Senate Republicans into not passing the border bill.

Watch:

Right from the get-go, Mullin cried foul.

“No, it wasn’t Trump that killed that bill — Trump’s not in office,” he calmly asserted.

“He lobbied senators to kill it,” Raju pushed back without any evidence. “He lobbied House members to kill it.”

Mullin staunchly disagreed with that assessment.

“No, no, no — that was after the fact that the Biden administration refused to actually negotiate with the Republicans,” he said. “Chuck Schumer didn’t one time reach out to the Republicans to try to talk to us. They never had a working group together.”

This is true. As a result of Democrats refusing to negotiate with Republicans, their so-called “bipartisan” border bill lacked all the tough border enforcement mechanisms contained in H.R. 2, a separate Republican border bill that the White House and congressional Democrats purposefully chose to dismiss.

Unlike the “bipartisan” bill, H.R. 2 would have actually resolved the border crisis by purging the workforce of criminal aliens, tightening asylum eligibility requirements, building additional border fortifications, and much, much more.

SOTU FACT CHECK:

Biden says “send me the border bill now.”

Fine Mr. President, tell Chuck Schumer to take up H.R. 2 tonight.

It can be on your desk before the weekend! pic.twitter.com/LNE0MYZm7y

— Wesley Hunt (@WesleyHuntTX) March 8, 2024

The discussion between Mullin and Raju continued with the host bringing up Sen. James Lankford, the Republican who’d worked with Democrats to craft the “bipartisan” bill, but Mullin was ready with a rebuttal.

“James Lankford said the same thing!” he noted. “James Lankford was frustrated because the fact that the Biden administration, the Democrats who started saying they wanted a border deal, did everything they could to kill it.”

In fact, speaking on the Senate floor back in May, Lankford vociferously slammed Democrats for blocking Republicans’ every attempt to amend the “bipartisan” bill to make it as strong as H.R. 2.

“When [Senator] Marco Rubio and Senator Graham brought bills to enforce the Remain in Mexico Program that President Biden’s walked away from, Democrats blocked that vote,” he said. “When Senator Cotton brought up a vote to stop aid for sanctuary cities that incentivize more people coming into the country and disappear, Democrats blocked that vote.”

“When Senator Grassley brought up a bill to deport criminal illegal aliens, Democrats blocked that bill. When Senator Hagerty brought up a bill to deal with increasing funding for ICE and deport more criminal aliens that have already been designated criminal aliens in the United States, Democrats blocked that bill,” he added.

Listen:

Mullin continued on CNN by providing additional examples of Democrats refusing to negotiate on the bill.

“Tell me one single meeting that we had,” he said. “Tell me one debate that we actually had about on the floor. Tell me how Chuck Schumer one time allowed it to be open for amendments. He didn’t. He absolutely closed it, and at the end of the day, it was a take it or leave it.”

“The Democrats, not one single time, try to actually negotiate with Republicans. And so, President Trump didn’t kill it. The Biden administration killed it because they knew they wanted to try doing something because the administration has been awful on the border and that hasn’t changed,” he added.

Mullin’s fierce, factual rebuttal comes months after President Biden spuriously claimed Trump was lobbying against the bill because its passage would have made the Biden-Harris administration look good.

“Now, all indications are this bill won’t even move forward to the Senate floor. Why? A simple reason: Donald Trump,” he said. “Because Donald Trump thinks it’s bad for him politically.

“So 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. And looks like they’re caving,” he added.

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