- Trump said he'd take the blame for the potential collapse of a bipartisan border deal.
- "There is zero chance I will support this horrible open borders betrayal," he said on Saturday.
Former President Donald Trump on Saturday said he was willing to take responsibility for the potential demise of a bipartisan border deal that's being ironed out in the Senate.
During a campaign appearance in Las Vegas, Trump spoke out against congressional efforts to broker an immigration agreement amid the former president's sustained attacks against President Joe Biden on the explosive issue.
"As the leader of our party, there is zero chance I will support this horrible open borders betrayal of America," the former president told his supporters. "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 OK," he continued. "Please blame it on me. Please."
Trump has long hammered Biden over immigration, arguing that the US-Mexico border is in a perilous state given the record numbers of illegal migrant crossings that have overwhelmed enforcement agencies. The Biden administration had sought to pivot away from many of Trump's immigration policies, but the president has repeatedly found himself in the middle of the issue, mostly due to the record crossings and the fallout from GOP governors like Greg Abbott of Texas who have sent thousands of migrants to Chicago, Los Angeles, New York, and Washington.
Biden on Friday said he would "shut down" the US-Mexico border when crossings rise to staggering levels if Congress passed the compromise bill, which he said would be "the toughest and fairest set of reforms to secure the border we've ever had in our country."
"It would give me, as President, a new emergency authority to shut down the border when it becomes overwhelmed," Biden said in a statement. "And if given that authority, I would use it the day I sign the bill into law."
But Trump, who has staked his 2024 campaign on immigration and remains the favorite to capture the Republican presidential nomination, has dismissed the proposal and wants GOP lawmakers to reject it as well.
Trump in a Truth Social post on Saturday wrote: "A BAD BORDER DEAL IS FAR WORSE THAN NO BORDER DEAL!"
The border security plan — which is tied to funding for Ukraine — is being hashed out in the Democratic-controlled Senate. However, even if a bill passes, it'll face stiff resistance among far-right conservatives in the GOP-run House. House Speaker Mike Johnson of Louisiana on Friday wrote a letter describing the proposed border bill as "dead on arrival" in the lower chamber.
Trump on Saturday said that Biden can easily secure the border and doesn't need Congress to pass additional legislation to so so.
"I did it without a bill," the former president said in his remarks.
But former Texas Democratic Rep. Beto O'Rourke blasted Trump over the issue during a recent CNN interview, arguing that the former president and his GOP allies don't want to tackle border security.
"It is very clear that Donald Trump and his Republican Party do not want a solution," O'Rourke said on Saturday. "For all of the bluster about the chaos at the border and 'invasion' that they are talking about, he and his Republican Party are tanking the best offer that they're ever gonna get from President Biden and from Senate Democrats."
Last week, the US Supreme Court voted 5-4 in backing the federal government's power to remove concertina wire along parts of the US-Mexico border. But Abbott has announced that Texas will install more wiring along the border.