“He preferred to run on a problem instead of fixing a problem,” Harris said of Trump’s opposition to the bill.
Topline
Vice President Kamala Harris criticized former President Donald Trump for lobbying GOP lawmakers against passing a bipartisan border bill at Tuesday night’s debate, as the debate over the bill that Trump opposed earlier this year has been revived ahead of the election, with Harris calling for the legislation to be resurrected.Key Facts
Harris touted the bipartisan border bill that lawmakers introduced earlier this year at Tuesday night’s debate and criticized Trump for killing it to boost his own campaign, claiming, “He preferred to run on a problem instead of fixing a problem.”
Harris has frequently said ahead of the debate that her main priority on immigration if elected would be to pass the bipartisan border bill that failed to pass earlier this year—after a surge in border crossings in recent years became a political vulnerability for Democrats.
The Border Act of 2024 was originally introduced in February by Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn., following months of negotiations with Sen. James Lankford, R-Okla., and Sen. Kyrsten Sinema, I-Ariz., and Murphy said the bill was also authored with the help of the White House and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky.
The bill quickly fell apart, however, as Trump vocally denounced the bill and urged Republicans not to pass it, calling it a “gift” to Democrats and writing on Truth Social, “A BAD BORDER DEAL IS FAR WORSE THAN NO BORDER DEAL.”
While Murphy told Politico lawmakers behind the bill initially believed they could get support from 20 to 25 Republicans, the legislation ultimately failed to advance in the Senate in a 49-50 vote.
Murphy then reintroduced the bill in May, but it failed again in a 43-50 vote—with even Lankford now voting against it, as Sen.
