Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-LA) recently urged former President Donald Trump to read the Senate’s bipartisan border security bill ahead of continuing to oppose it. Cassidy and other GOP senators were asked by CNN on Wednesday to respond to remarks Trump made over the weekend, slamming any kind of border deal with Democrats, who currently control the U.S. Senate.
“As the leader of our party, there is zero chance I will support this horrible open borders betrayal of America,” Trump told supporters Saturday. “I’ll fight it all the way. A lot of the senators are trying to say, respectfully, they’re blaming it on me. I say, that’s okay. Please blame it on me. Please.”
CNN’s Manu Raju introduced his report, saying, “Top Senate GOP negotiator, James Lankford, told me earlier today that the criticisms that this bill would not clamp down on border crossings is simply wrong.”
“The former president calls this a betrayal. Is that it? What do you think of that characterization,” Raju asked Lankford in a clip from earlier in the day.
“It’s certainly not a betrayal. Actually, we’ve got to be able to deal with issues in law. That’s how we actually deal with things in America,” Lankford replied.
“Does he have access to the bill?” Raju then asks Cassidy in a separate clip.
“It doesn’t seem that way,” replied Cassidy.
“It hasn’t been released. How does he know it’s a betrayal if he hasn’t read it? I mean, don’t be ignorant. Read the bill,” Cassidy added, raising his voice.
“The last comments from Senator Cassidy, referring to a comment that former President Donald Trump made over the weekend, referring to that Senate bipartisan deal as a betrayal. But you’re hearing pushback from there,” Raju added.
“But nevertheless, that is really driving so much of the discussion, debate that is happening behind closed doors and expect that debate to continue in just a matter of minutes when Senate Republicans gather behind closed doors to figure out whether to abandon this bipartisan deal altogether because of Trump’s opposition and also the speaker’s opposition,” Raju concluded.
