Senate Republicans Start to Fold Under Pressure from Trump on Border

Republican Senator Mitt Romney publicly rebuked Donald Trump for pressuring the GOP to scuttle a painstaking bipartisan bill which would fund both the Ukrainian war effort and management of the southern border.

Romney, who represents Utah and is retiring at the end of his term, excoriated the former president after Trump’s increasing pressure campaign on Congressional Republicans at last impacted their Senate leader, Mitch McConnell.

McConnell, an outspoken supporter of Ukraine’s resistance against Russia and who had previously supported bipartisan efforts to address issues at the southern border, reportedly told his fellow Republicans that “the politics on this have changed.” 

Acknowledging that Trump wanted to use the border as a wedge issue against President Biden in the upcoming election, McConnell said “we don’t want to do anything to undermine him.”

When asked by reporters, Romney expressed disgust for Trump.

“The fact that he would communicate to Republican senators and Congresspeople that he doesn’t want us to solve the border problem because he wants to blame Biden for it is really appalling.” 

On McConnell’s shifting, a disheartened Romney told the press that “reading the reports this morning, and the fact that he hasn’t corrected them, suggests that he is inclined to listen to what former President Trump wants.”

This is not the first time Congressional Republicans torpedoed a bipartisan immigration bill. In 2013, a bipartisan bill passed the Senate but died in the House when Paul Ryan persuaded then-Speaker John Boehner not to forfeit the wedge issue ahead of the next election.