Senator Chris Murphy (D-CT) said Sunday on CBS’s “Face the Nation” that former President Donald Trump wanted to keep the U.S.-Mexico border a “mess.”
Partial transcript as follows:
MARGARET BRENNAN: You’re talking about the bill you helped author, and- and it was put up for a vote, which, they knew it was going to fail, it- this was about messaging. But, like, Senator Gary Peters, who’s trying to help Democrats defend the majority in the Senate, was on this program last week, and he said absolutely, the president should be talking about the border more. Why isn’t he?
MURPHY: I agree that the American people want to talk about border security. And right now, the president has the opportunity to go out there and talk about a Democratic Party proposal negotiated with Republicans that would get the border under control. And a opponent President–
BRENNAN: Or he could’ve spent months and weeks whipping support for it.
MURPHY: Or- and- President Trump’s desire to keep the border a mess because he thinks that it helps him politically. This is as clear a contrast as has ever been available to the Democratic Party on the issue of the border. Democrats support bipartisan border security, Republicans want the border to be a mess, because it’s good politics for them. And the President and every Democrat running for office should be talking about that.
BRENNAN: But- but you know, and we really dug in deep on this bill that you helped author on this program, but for Americans who just want something done, you know, the ifs and buts really don’t matter much. The president could take executive action and has been talking about it since back in February, when the Homeland Security Secretary mentioned it was being considered. Should he just get caught trying? Pull the trigger, do something on executive action?
MURPHY: The president has such limited ability to issue executive orders that would have an impact on the border. He can’t conjure resources out of thin air. If he were to try to shut down portions of the border, the courts would throw that out, I think, within a matter of weeks. The only thing that will bring–
BRENNAN: 212(f) authority that’s being mulled here.
MURPHY: Yeah, I- I think the only thing that will bring order to the southwest border is bipartisan legislation. We have a bipartisan border bill. If Republicans decided to support it, it would pass. We could get it to the president’s desk. It is up to Donald Trump and Republicans as to whether they want to solve the problem at the border, or whether they want to keep the border a mess because it helps them politically in this upcoming election.
Follow Pam Key on Twitter @pamkeyNEN
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