Schumer: GOP Is Bad for Tanking Border Bill, Refuses to Say If He’ll Support It if Harris Wins

During an interview with ABC News on Wednesday, Senate Majority Leader Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY) declined to say whether he’d support the border bill that 2024 Democratic presidential candidate Vice President Kamala Harris has vowed to sign if elected and Democrats have criticized Republicans for opposing and responded to a question on if he would support the bill by saying, “Republicans have voted no. That spoke for itself. I don’t think that’ll serve them well in November.”

Host Kayna Whitworth asked, “Let’s talk a little about the [Senate], there was this bipartisan border bill that was crafted. We know it was ultimately sunk by House Republicans at the urging of Donald Trump. But, today, more than 80 organizations have written a letter to President Biden and Vice President Harris opposing that border act. If Democrats win the House, the Senate, and presidency, would you continue to support this bipartisan legislation, or would you urge Democrats to go back to the drawing board on it?”

Schumer responded, “Look, the bottom line is, let’s look at what happened here, Democrats put together a really tough bill that was supported by Republicans initially. Sen. John Thune (R-SD), Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX) had said this is a good bill. The Wall Street Journal editorial page — one of the most conservative editorial pages in the country — said it’s a good bill because it really dealt with the crisis at the border. And all of a sudden, Donald Trump says, I don’t want to pass the bill because I want chaos, I want chaos for the election. And so, that’s why on the border issue, now, Democrats are on offense and Republicans are on defense, to follow Donald Trump because he wants chaos, to win an election, that’s not what the American people want, they want a strong border bill, and we put it before the Republicans in the Senate twice, being afraid of Donald Trump, even though they initially said many good things about it and it was a bipartisan bill to begin with, shows you where they’re at. So, we’re going to remain very strong on [the] border and try to deal with the border issues in a way that really solves that problem and deals with the immigration problems as well.”

Whitworth followed up, “But, just quickly, if I can, because I have another question I want to ask you, would you support the bill as is and would you have the president sign it as President Harris?”

Schumer responded, “We’ve had the bill twice on the floor already and Republicans have voted no. That spoke for itself. I don’t think that’ll serve them well in November.”

Follow Ian Hanchett on Twitter @IanHanchett

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