June 30, 2018: Republicans Bumble Effort to Pass Immigration Reform Bill

 

6/30/18: While the Trump administration tries to figure out how to get the more than 2,000 children that they locked up in camps back to their parents, who they locked up in other camps, hundreds of thousands of protesters gather across the nation calling for an end to such cruel policies. 

Trump decides this would be a perfect time to head for his Bedminster, N.J. golf club for the weekend. 

Before he goes, he takes time out of his busy day to tweet another whopper. Knowing that a Republican compromise bill on immigration, drafted without input from Democrats, went down in flames Friday, he claims he was always against it. “I never pushed the Republicans in the House to vote for the Immigration Bill, either GOODLATTE 1 or 2,” he tweets, “because it could never have gotten enough Democrats as long as there is the 60 vote threshold. I released many prior to the vote knowing we need more Republicans to win in Nov.” 

That “compromise” bill, which Trump said he didn’t want Republicans to pass, even though Republicans wrote it, and even though Republicans control both houses of Congress, and even though he has a crayon he can use to sign any bill that reaches his office, Goodlatte 2, failed miserably. The vote in the House of Representatives was 121-301. More than a hundred Republicans voted no, along with every Democrat in attendance.

Told Republicans to pass Goodlatte 2. Says he didn't.

 

As for telling Republicans to vote for it, Mr. President, you did. In fact, you told them in capital letters in a tweet three days before: 

HOUSE REPUBLICANS SHOULD PASS THE STRONG BUT FAIR IMMIGRATION BILL [emphasis added] KNOWN AS GOODLATTE II, IN THEIR AFTERNOON VOTE TODAY, EVEN THOUGH THE DEMS WON’T LET IT PASS IN THE SENATE. PASSAGE WILL SHOW THAT WE WANT STRONG BORDERS & SECURITY WHILE THE DEMS WANT OPEN BORDERS = CRIME. WIN!

 

* 

THE PRESIDENT is telling everyone who cares to listen he’s thinking seriously about how to be sure he picks a great candidate for the U.S. Supreme Court. Leonard Leo, on leave from the Federalist Society, is helping him come up with the right person. That means picking from a list of 25 names submitted by…the Federalist Society. 

Leo tells the Washington Post, how impressed he is with Trump’s grasp of the issues. He’s asking a lot of questions, Leo says. “I have been really impressed with how he conducted this process. He’s in control of it.” 

The Post explains: 

Trump has told advisers he is looking for three overarching attributes in a replacement for Kennedy. First, one adviser said, Trump insists upon an “extraordinarily well qualified” nominee with a superlative résumé. The president is especially drawn to contenders with name-brand degrees, such as from Ivy League universities such as Harvard or Yale.

 

In addition, the adviser explained, Trump “wants to see a portfolio of solid academic writing.” 

Well, I’ll be hornswoggled!  If I didn’t know better, I’d say Trump sounded like a real president. 

That same adviser immediately dashed any hope with a bucket of ice water. Trump wouldn’t really read any of that “solid academic writing.” The president simply “wants to know it exists.”