President Joe Biden has blamed Donald Trump for sinking a bipartisan bill delivering billions of dollars in aid to Ukraine along with stricter immigration policies, after Republicans signalled their opposition to the deal under pressure from the former president.
The legislation worth $118bn agreed on Sunday by Democratic and Republican negotiators in the Senate could be the last chance for the Biden administration to secure new military support for Ukraine in its defence against Russia’s invasion — alongside other national security goals including aid to Israel and Taiwan.
It also marks a rare compromise on efforts to curb immigration through the border with Mexico, including restrictions on asylum, which has been a rallying cry for Republicans and a political liability for Democrats throughout Biden’s presidency.
But the bipartisan dealmaking has been trashed by Trump in recent weeks — and the frontrunner for this year’s Republican White House nomination moved to torpedo the latest breakthrough again this week.
“He’d rather weaponise this issue than actually solve it,” Biden said of his predecessor from the state dining room of the White House on Tuesday.
“For the last 24 hours, he’s done nothing at all 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 it looks like they’re caving,” the president added.
Failure to pass the bill would mean “fewer tools” for Ukraine to fight Russia’s invasion and that was “just what [Vladimir] Putin wants”, Biden added, referring to Russia’s president. “History is watching. A failure to support Ukraine at this critical moment will never be forgotten.”
On Monday, Trump had bashed the agreement on social media, calling it a “great gift” for Democrats and a “death wish” for Republicans. “It takes the HORRIBLE JOB the Democrats have done on Immigration and the Border, absolves them, and puts it all squarely on the shoulders of Republicans. Don’t be STUPID!!!”, he wrote.
Trump’s opposition to the compromise bill has led Republicans who control the majority in the House of Representatives to call the legislation a “waste of time” and “dead on arrival” in the lower chamber.
Instead of considering the bipartisan package, the House was planning to vote on a bill to only fund aid for Israel, and a vote to impeach Alejandro Mayorkas, the homeland security secretary, over his handling of immigration.
But even many Senate Republicans, who negotiated the compromise on immigration and are more sympathetic to the national security goals of the legislation, appear to have been swayed by Trump to oppose the bill, capitulating to the wishes of their likely presidential nominee.
John Barrasso of Wyoming, the third-highest ranking Republican senator, on Tuesday said: “Joe Biden will never enforce any new law and refuses to use the tools he already has today to end this crisis. I cannot vote for this bill. Americans will turn to the upcoming election to end the border crisis.”
A first procedural vote is expected on Wednesday in the Senate that would require the support of 60 of the chamber’s 100 senators.
At least 12 of the 49 Republican senators in total would have to back the bill for it to move forward as some Democrats are also expected to vote against it because they consider the border measures too draconian.
Some of the criticism from Republican lawmakers has been brutal — and appears to doom its prospects — while others are wavering.
Mike Lee, a Utah senator, called it “a betrayal of the American people” on X.
“Now that I have seen the text, I have questions and serious concerns,” said John Cornyn, the Texas Republican senator who had previously encouraged the negotiations. Katie Britt, a Republican senator from Alabama, said the bill “would not stop President Biden from continuing his radical mass migration agenda”.
Speaking from the White House, Biden said he hoped Senate Republicans would “reconsider” their opposition. “It’s time for Republicans in the Congress to show a little courage, to show a little spine, to make it clear to the American people that you work for them, not for anyone else,” he said.
But the likely defeat of the bill would be another sign of the growing influence of isolationist hardliners on Capitol Hill as Trump extends his dominance over the party.
It marks the latest blow to traditional Republican foreign policy hawks and political pragmatists who backed the bipartisan breakthrough, including Mitch McConnell, the party’s Senate leader. His future as leader could now be in jeopardy.
McConnell on Tuesday appealed for Republicans to come around and back a package even though he has privately conceded that it might fail, according to aides familiar with a closed-door meeting of senators on Monday night. “It is in America’s direct interest to take growing threats seriously, to invest even more urgently in our capabilities to meet them, and to support our allies and partners on the front lines,” he said.
Democrats and the White House have been increasingly downbeat about the legislation’s prospects. “Today is a gloomy day here in the United States Senate,” Chuck Schumer, the Senate majority leader, said on Tuesday. “Tomorrow, the American people will find out whether Senators seek border security and oppose Russian expansionism, or whether they stand with former president Trump in support of chaos and Vladimir Putin,” he added.
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