President Joe Biden has been upping the stakes in the partisan fight over funding for the war effort in Ukraine and securing the southern border.
While Mr Biden wants to further arm Ukraine, Republicans are refusing to back any new funding unless they get investments in border security in exchange. Or at least those were the rough contours of a deal until former President Donald Trump chose to enter the fray.
The ex-president and frontrunner for his third GOP nomination in a row came out against any deal in any shape or form, seemingly unwilling to hand his likely opponent a political win and yet another bipartisan deal, pulling many congressional Republicans along with him and making a deal a lot less likely.
Mr Trump said on 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.”
“A bipartisan bill would be good for America and help fix our broken immigration system and allow speedy access for those who deserve to be here, and Congress needs to get it done,” Mr Biden said at the weekend, according to the AP. “It’ll also give me as president, the emergency authority to shut down the border until it could get back under control. If that bill were the law today, I’d shut down the border right now and fix it quickly.”
