Senator Markwayne Mullin refutes accusations that former President Trump played a role in the failure of a border security bill, blaming the Biden administration's refusal to negotiate with Republicans.
Republican Senator Markwayne Mullin of Oklahoma has vehemently denied claims that former President Donald Trump was responsible for the failure of a border security bill, asserting that it was the Biden administration's unwillingness to negotiate with Republicans that ultimately led to its demise.
In an interview with CNN, Mullin disputed allegations that Trump had publicly and privately attempted to quash the bill before it was even introduced. He strongly disagreed with anchor Manu Raju's suggestion that Trump had lobbied Senate and House members to prevent the bill from passing.
Republican Senator Counters Claim of Trump Interfering with Border Bill
Mullin contended that Trump only became involved after the Biden administration refused to engage in meaningful negotiations with Republicans. "Chuck Schumer didn't one time reach out to Republicans and try to talk to us. They never had a working group together—," Mullin said before he was interrupted by Raju.
Raju then inquired about Senator James Lankford, the lead GOP negotiator for the Senate border security bill. Lankford had previously urged critics to read the bill, arguing that it would create a "faster and stronger system" of deportation and "flip the script" on Biden's immigration policy.
Republican Senator Counters Claim of Trump Interfering with Border Bill
However, Mullin claimed that Lankford had also expressed frustration about the bill because Democrats were doing "everything they could to kill it." He also alleged that Democrats had closed discussions on the bill and turned it into a "take it or leave it" scenario.
"What the left media has done, including yourself, they said it's ‘The Lankford Bill.’ It wasn't the Lankford Bill. Lankford was trying to negotiate on behalf of Republicans. The Democrats not one single time tried to actually negotiate with Republicans," Mullin asserted.
Republican Senator Counters Claim of Trump Interfering with Border Bill
He further stated that "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."
In contrast to Mullin's assertions, President Biden had claimed in February that Trump was actively sabotaging the border bill. "Now, all indications are this bill won't even move forward to the Senate floor. Why? A simple reason: Donald Trump. Because Donald Trump thinks it's bad for him politically," Biden said at the time. "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."
Republican Senator Counters Claim of Trump Interfering with Border Bill
The border bill backed by Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., failed test votes in February and May. Senate Republicans previously called the bill a "sham" and criticized their Democratic counterparts for failing to take up a House-backed border bill that addresses Republican priorities, known as H.R. 2.
The White House did not respond to a request for comment prior to the publication of this article.
