Sen. Markwayne Mullin, R-Okla., claimed on Friday that the Biden administration was responsible for killing the border security bill, not former President Donald Trump.
During an appearance on CNN, Mullin disputed the idea that Trump publicly and privately attempted to quash the bill before it was even introduced.
Mullin disagreed with anchor Manu Raju, who suggested that Trump lobbied Senate and House members to prevent the bill from passing.
The Oklahoma senator claimed that Trump only became involved after the Biden administration refused to negotiate with Republicans.
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“Chuck Schumer didn’t one time reach out to Republicans and try to talk to us. They never had a working group together—,” Mullin said before he was cut off by Raju.
Raju asked about Sen. James Lankford, R-Okla., the lead GOP negotiator for the Senate border security bill. Lankford, in February, urged critics to read the bill, arguing it would create a “faster and stronger system” of deportation and “flip the script” on Biden’s immigration policy.
However, he later called for open discussions and criticized Democrats for “politicizing” the bill.
Mullin said that Lankford had also expressed frustration about the bill because Democrats were doing “everything they could to kill it.” He also claimed that Democrats had closed discussions on the bill and turned it into a “take it or leave it” scenario.
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“What the left media has done, including yourself, they said it’s ‘The Lankford Bill.’ It wasn’t the Lankford Bill. Lankford was trying to negotiate on behalf of Republicans. The Democrats not one single time tried to actually negotiate with Republicans,” he said.
“So, President Trump didn’t kill it; the Biden administration killed it because they knew they wanted to try doing something because the administration has been awful on the border, and that hasn’t changed,” Mullin continued.
In February, Biden claimed Trump was sabotaging the border bill.
“Now, all indications are this bill won’t even move forward to the Senate floor. Why? A simple reason: Donald Trump. Because Donald Trump thinks it’s bad for him politically,” Biden said at the tiime. “So for the last 24 hours, he’s done nothing, I’m told, but reach out to Republicans in the House and the Senate and threaten them and try to intimidate them to vote against this proposal. And looks like they’re caving.”
The border bill backed by Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., failed test votes in February and May.
Senate Republicans previously called the bill a “sham” and criticized their Democratic counterparts for failing to take up a House-backed border bill that addresses Republican priorities, known as H.R. 2.
The White House did not respond to request for comment in time for publication.
