The White House’s new counteroffensive included launching Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, whom House Republicans are trying to impeach, in a series of television interviews. In recent days, Mayorkas has pushed back against criticism of Biden’s handling of the border and even turned to conservative-leaning Fox News to make his point.
Beyond Mayorkas, Biden aides have begun publicly criticizing House Republicans as hypocrites, while the president himself has chastised the Republican Party for denying him funding needed for the border protection in his first remarks to reporters this year.
“It’s a change,” said Maria Cardona, a Democratic strategist. “I think (the White House) has always had that in its back pocket when needed. And the need arose.
It remains to be seen whether the White House and the Biden campaign or the president himself will support this argument; In the past, the president and his allies have struggled to maintain a steady pace of criticism of the Republican Party over its policies in a chaotic political environment.
Yet Biden administration officials believe they’ve been given fodder in recent days with several conservative members of the House of Representatives — including the Republican representative from Texas. Keith himself – linking border closures to a government funding impasse that is quickly becoming visible. Another Texas Republican, Rep. Troy Nehlssuggested he would not vote for a border deal that could strengthen Biden’s political position before November.
All of this happened amid ongoing discussions between the White House, Mayorkas and Senate negotiators over border policy changes that could unblock the president’s request for aid to Ukraine and Israel. The aggressive stance comes as a deal remains elusive, with one person close to the talks saying there had been no new progress in recent days.
It also comes as House Republican leaders visited the southern border this week to put migration numbers there back in the spotlight. The White House’s effort to portray these lawmakers as more interested in photo ops than policy solutions is a long-shot attempt heading into an election year to shift the blame for the crisis to voters. border from Biden to the Republicans before November.
It’s a measure that Republican leaders say won’t work.
Speaker Mike JohnsonThe Friday office published
a detailed memo disputing the administration’s claims, notably arguing that House Republicans never voted to cut thousands of agents.
“Since the beginning of President Biden’s term, his administration has implemented policies that have undermined security and created a humanitarian crisis at the southern border,” wrote Johnson spokesperson Raj Shah. “Now, in a desperate attempt to shift blame for the crisis caused by their policies, they claim it is a funding problem. Clearly, they have no facts to support their claims.
White House officials seemed eager to enter the fray.
“Today’s memo proves that we have struck a nerve by highlighting the actions of House Republicans to eliminate 2,000 Border Patrol agents and weaken our crackdown on fentanyl,” the president replied. White House deputy press secretary Andrew Bates highlighting a 2023 debt limitation bill.
So far, few public polls suggest that the president’s team should have confidence in its ability to turn the tide of this particular debate. The numbers continue to show Biden getting poor marks in handling historic levels of migration to the southern border. But White House officials say the House vote last year on the Republican Party’s debt ceiling bill helps illuminate the broader point they’re making.
This is not an argument the White House has made with force or consistency in the months since House Republicans voted overwhelmingly for the proposal. They compose the message now, but late.
“We have lost count of the number of people who are now openly calling for a government shutdown, which would harm the country’s economy and national security,” Bates said. “The bottom line of their record is that they continue to put extreme politics above the needs of the American people – from threatening government shutdowns that would cost jobs to delaying border security funds which are essential to our national security.”
Cardona said the Biden administration has proposed “very reasonable policies and demands that would frankly address what Republicans want if Republicans were serious — $14 billion in additional border security that would go to new border patrols, asylum processes, immigration judges and smart border security. »
She added: “And frankly, a lot of money to try to detect fentanyl coming in at the border. »
The increasingly aggressive posture from Biden aides comes as the border threatens to absorb much oxygen in the presidential race and any legislative battle at the Capitol in the months to come. Republicans are laying the groundwork to impeach Mayorkas over his handling of the crisis, even as he plays a key role in border policy negotiations in the Senate.
Further complicating matters is the government funding fight. Johnson did not embrace the idea of linking border closures to government funding. But he said HR 2 — the House GOP bill criticized by Senate Republicans as dead on arrival in their chamber — should be part of a supplemental national security bill or government funding.
The influx of migrants at the border is “an absolute disaster.” A disaster… of the president’s own design,” Johnson said Wednesday alongside dozens of House Republicans during a visit to a border crossing in Eagle Pass, Texas.
Celinda Lake, a Biden 2020 campaign pollster and president of Lake Research Partners, argued that there is an opportunity for Biden to convince voters that he is a problem solver who seeks “common sense solutions” in matters immigration, especially if the Republicans exaggerate. .
She recently conducted a poll for the American Business Immigration Coalition and other groups and found that Americans view the current immigration system as “broken.”
Voters, she added, respond most positively to solutions – working with Mexico and its allies, changing current immigration laws, providing a path to citizenship for recipients and DACA dreamers and granting work permits to migrant farm workers to address shortages, among other policies. Many voters surveyed also largely reject the idea of tying immigration policy changes to foreign aid because they see it as a political tactic that ultimately will not lead to progress.
“This idea of shutting down the government, shutting down the border, is extremely unpopular,” Lake said. “So I think, ironically, the Republicans, in an attempt to dramatize this to their base, are making this an issue that has more legitimacy than an issue that just seems like a political stunt.”
