CNN's Jake Tapper pressed Rep. Mike Lawler (R-NY) on former President Donald Trump's stated intent to block a border bill compromise, alongside Lawler's bipartisan friend Rep. Jared Moskowitz (D-FL), in a segment on Wednesday.
"You just said you haven't seen the legislation, the speaker is describing it and saying it is dead on arrival," said Tapper.
"The bottom line is we have to secure the border," said Lawler. "President Biden and the Biden administration actually has authority right now to start to enforce our laws. And they're choosing not to. That is a big part of the problem here." (This is not actually true.)
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"Jake, by the way, the speaker said no because Donald Trump said no," said Moskowitz. "The speaker is Donald Trump's no boy on this subject. I'll give Republicans credit for a second. They have been highlighting the border for a long time. And we were late — we were late to start addressing it. But now that we want to address it, now that we want to lower the amount of fentanyl coming in, now we want to deal with nondocumented folks, now we want to deal with supposed terrorists potentially coming into the country, now the Republicans, controlled by one man, are saying, no, no, no, we need this for next ten months, we need more of it for next ten months so we can use it in election. Both things are true here. This is why people hate Washington. Both things are true. Now that we're here at the table, Republicans are like, no, no, let's walk away."
"The question is what is in the actual bill," said Lawler.
"The bill is dead," cut in Moskowitz. "The bill is dead. Donald Trump said the bill's dead. The bill's dead."
"As Congressman Moskowitz said, both can be true," interjected Tapper.
"For me, Jake, for me, it is very simple," said Lawler. "We have a responsibility to secure the border. Congressman Moskowitz is 100 percent correct that House Republicans have been focused on this for a very long time. Senate Democrats chose not to do anything. Chuck Schumer, despite the fact that New York was being inundated ... they chose not to do anything until we said that we weren't going to pass this supplemental without border security."
Watch the video below or at the link here.
Jake Tapper and Jared Moskowitz clash with Mike Lawler on borderwww.youtube.com
