Haste of the Avenging Hound

A serial groper and convicted fraudster, the twice-impeached, multiply indicted, former "president" Donald Trump has long sympathized with Vladimir Putin, even publicly taking Putin's version of events over the counsel of American intelligence officials.  He opposes helping Ukraine in their fight against Russia’s invasion and has indicated not only support, but encouragement, of Russia invading NATO countries. 

Under his orders, MAGA Republicans have stalled a national security bill which contains Ukrainian aid, as well as aid to Israel, the Indo-Pacific, and humanitarian aid to Gaza. The measure had already passed the Senate with bipartisan approval, and would likely pass the House if MAGA Speaker Mike Johnson allows a vote, but so far he hasn't. Several House Republicans are willing to sign a petition to force Johnson to bring the measure to the floor. A simple majority can force a vote on a bill, but that rarely happens because it undermines the authority of the House speaker.

Representatives of 23 nations wrote Johnson urging him to take up the Senate measure, saying that the Russian invasion of Ukraine has “challenged the entire democratic world, jeopardizing the security in the whole European and Euro-Atlantic area,” and that “the world is rapidly moving towards the destruction of the sustainable world order.”  

But Johnson has said that no foreign aid bill will be considered unless it contains strict provisions for border security, but it's clear that it's the Republicans, not Democrats, who are preventing new border security legislation.

Both Trump and Biden agree that the influx of migrants at the southern border of the United States needs to be better managed. But Trump blames Biden for an “invasion” of what he calls “fighting-age" criminal  men pouring over the border. NBC News has noted that “there is no evidence of a migrant-driven crime wave in the United States” and that, in fact, the data ”shows overall crime levels dropping in those cities that have received the most migrants.” 

Trump is campaigning on promises to solve immigration issues instantly through executive orders, although his orders during his term faced legal challenges. He famously said that if elected he would be a "dictator for a day" to enforce his immigration policies without legislative support or judicial review.  

In contrast to Trump’s promise to dictate a solution, Biden has repeatedly asked Congress to pass laws to address the border issues. Biden has urged Congress to pass a bipartisan border bill that is tilted so far to the right that it drew the support of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the Wall Street Journal editorial board, and the U.S. Border Patrol union. The bill would give provide 1,500 more border agents, 100 cutting-edge machines to detect and stop illegal fentanyl, 100 additional immigration judges to deal with the backlog of cases, 4,300 more asylum officers, more immigrant visas, and emergency authority for the president to shut the border when it becomes overwhelmed. Senators from both parties had spent four months hammering out the bill, but then House Republicans killed the bill when Trump, apparently hoping to keep the issue open for his campaign, told them to. 

For the record, I don't like the bill.  It offers no pathway to citizenship and doesn't address the "dreamers," the children brought to the U.S. without documentation. But House Speaker Johnson has said that no aid can be approved for Ukraine unless we first address the border, and the bipartisan bill shows how far Biden is willing to go to obtain that important aid. 

In a televised address from the border, Biden spoke directly to Trump: “Instead of playing politics with the issue, instead of telling members of Congress to block this legislation, join me, or I'll join you, in telling the Congress to pass this bipartisan border security bill. We can do it together…. Instead of playing politics with the issue, why don't we just get together and get it done. Let’s remember who the heck we work for. We work for the American people, not the Democratic Party or the Republican Party. We work for the American people.”