A couple of weeks ago, both of South Carolina’s Republican senators, Lindsey Graham and Tim Scott, scheduled a photo-op at the U.S./Mexico border, which ordinarily wouldn’t have been especially notable. After all, GOP officials and candidates routinely make such appearances, most of which go largely unnoticed.
But what made the South Carolinians’ event unusual was the attention it received from Democrats.
“It’s very nice that Lindsey Graham and Tim Scott are taking a field trip to the border,” Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said in a written statement. “But their actions speak louder than words. Senators Graham and Scott voted to keep the status quo and against the necessary resources to secure the border. We hope their trip will make them see the light and tell Trump to support our bipartisan border agreement.”
The same afternoon, White House spokesperson Andrew Bates issued a statement of his own, admonishing Graham and Scott for having “voted against the toughest, fairest, bipartisan border security deal in decades —-turning their backs on the Border Patrol Union and instead siding with drug cartels, human smugglers, and Donald Trump. … Senator Graham and Senator Scott should go back to Washington and un-kill the landmark border security legislation that is critical to actually supporting law enforcement and halting deadly fentanyl trafficking.”
The statements stood out in large part because they were unusual. It’s been a long while since Democrats went on the offensive when it comes to border policies, but after Republicans killed a bipartisan border reform package — a compromise plan that GOP officials demanded before they rejected it — Democrats saw a rare opportunity.
In fact, the Democratic message had the benefit of being simple: “If you’re upset about conditions at the border,” the party effectively said, “blame the party standing in the way of bipartisan solutions, not the party trying to make things better.”
In President Joe Biden’s latest trip to the border, he added an element to the Democratic pitch. NBC News reported:
Biden made a direct appeal to Trump, asking him to join him in telling Congress to pass the bill, which was tanked after Trump rallied his allies in Congress against it. “You know and I know it’s the toughest, most efficient, most effective border security bill this country’s ever seen,” Biden said. “So instead of playing politics with the issue, why don’t we just get together and get it done?”
An Axios report referred to it as a “stunning moment,” and it’s worth appreciating why.
I’ve seen some suggestions that Biden’s comments signaled weakness: The Democratic incumbent can’t get the legislation through Capitol Hill, the argument goes, so he’s appealing to his Republican predecessor for help.
But there’s another way of looking at the circumstances: The Biden White House worked in good faith with congressional negotiators from both parties, and the result was a credible package of reforms that was very likely to have a dramatic impact.
At Donald Trump’s behest, GOP lawmakers balked — killing the compromise plan they demanded — in large part because Republicans hoped to deny the Democratic president an election-year victory.
With this in mind, Biden’s direct appeal to the former president was a not-so-subtle way of reminding the political world of the facts: A bipartisan border security bill was derailed, not on the merits, but because Trump demanded that his party put political considerations above all.
The pitch was about accountability, not weakness.
Of course, if the likely GOP nominee wants to take Biden’s comments at face value, and feels compelled to start taking border solutions seriously for a change, I don’t imagine the president and his team would mind if Trump gave congressional Republicans more constructive marching orders.
