Senator Chris Murphy (D-CT) said Sunday on CNN’s “State of the Union” that former President Donald Trump wanted “to preserve chaos” at the U.S.-Mexico border because he thought it was a winning political issue.
Anchor Dana Bash said, “Do you have a deal?”
Murphy said, “Well, we do have a bipartisan deal. We’re finishing the text right now. The question is whether Republicans are going to listen to Donald Trump, who wants to preserve chaos at the border, because he thinks it’s a winning political issue for him, or whether we are going to pass legislation which would be the biggest bipartisan reform of our border immigration laws in 40 years and would give the president of the United States, whether that president is a Republican or a Democrat, new, important power to be able to better manage the flow of people across the border.”
He added, “We are sort of finalizing the last pieces of text right now. This bill could be ready to be on the floor of the United States Senate next week. But it won’t be if Republicans decide that they want to keep this issue unsettled for political purposes. I was glad to hear the president speak forcefully in favor of the bill. I am hopeful we will have enough Republicans in the Senate who want to fix the problem at the border rather than just do Donald Trump’s bidding. wWe will see over the next 24 to 48 hours whether that’s true.”
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