Biden Urges GOP Leaders to ‘Show a Little Spine’ and Stand Up To Trump on Border Bill
President Joe Biden lashed out at Donald Trump and Republicans in Congress on Tuesday, accusing his chief political rival of sabotaging a bipartisan bill that could meaningfully address dysfunction at the border, and GOP leaders for caving to Trump's demands.
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00:00 For much too long, as you all know, the immigration system has been broken.
00:04 And it's long past time to fix it.
00:07 That's why months ago, I instructed my team to begin negotiations with a bipartisan group
00:11 of senators to seriously and finally fix our immigration system.
00:16 For months now, that's what they've done.
00:19 Working around the clock, through the holidays, over the weekends, it's been an extraordinary
00:23 effort by Senators Lankford, Murphy, and Sinema.
00:26 The result of all this hard work is a bipartisan agreement that represents the most fair, humane
00:33 reforms in our immigration system in a long time, and the toughest set of reforms to secure
00:39 the border ever.
00:41 Now, all indications are this bill won't even move forward to the Senate floor.
00:47 Why?
00:48 A simple reason.
00:50 Donald Trump.
00:51 Because Donald Trump thinks it's bad for him politically.
00:54 Therefore, he doesn't -- even though it helps the country, he's not for it.
00:59 He'd rather weaponize this issue than actually solve it.
01:02 So for the last 24 hours, he's done nothing, I'm told, but reach out to Republicans in
01:07 the House and the Senate and threaten them and try to intimidate them to vote against
01:12 this proposal.
01:13 And it looks like they're caving.
01:16 Frankly, they owe it to the American people to show some spine and do what they know to
01:21 be right.
01:22 The bottom line is this bipartisan bill is a win for America because it makes important
01:27 fixes to our broken immigration system.
01:29 And it's the toughest, fairest law that's ever been proposed relative to the border.
01:35 The clock is ticking.
01:37 Every week, every month that passes without new aid to Ukraine means fewer artillery shells,
01:44 fewer air defense systems, fewer tools for Ukraine to defend itself against this Russian
01:49 onslaught.
01:51 Just what Putin wants.
01:52 For those Republicans in Congress who think they can oppose funding for Ukraine and not
01:56 be held accountable, history is watching.
02:01 History is watching.
02:02 A failure to support Ukraine at this critical moment will never be forgotten.
02:08 This bipartisan agreement also provides Israel with what it needs to protect its people and
02:13 defend itself against Hamas terrorists.
02:15 And it will provide the necessary life-saving humanitarian assistance for the Palestinian
02:20 people.
02:22 By opposing this bill, they're denying aid to the people who are really suffering and
02:27 desperately need help.
02:29 So I'm calling on Congress to pass this bill.
02:31 It gets to my desk immediately.
02:34 But if the bill fails, I want to be absolutely clear about something.
02:37 The American people are going to know why it failed.
02:41 I'll be taking this issue to the country.
02:43 The Republicans have to decide, who do they serve, Donald Trump or the American people?
02:49 Are they here to solve problems or just weaponize those problems for political purposes?
02:57 I know my answer.
02:59 I serve the American people.
03:02 I'm here to solve problems.