Biden goes head-to-head with Trump at the border

March 1, 2024

President Biden appeared at the US southern border to make his case to the American people for passage of border security and immigration reform. Meanwhile, Trump appeared at a different location at the southern border to make his case for blaming Joe Biden for border security issues.

President Biden blamed Trump for the legislative impasse but then invited Trump to join President Biden in crafting a solution:

The truth is, Donald Trump doesn’t want to secure the border. He prefers chaos and cruelty because he’s betting it helps him politically. Last time he was in office, kids were held in cages, families were ripped apart, and violent crime skyrocketed. It’s a bad bet — one that he will pay for at the ballot box this November.

I understand my predecessor’s in Eagle Pass today. So here’s what I would say to Mr. Trump: Instead of playing politics with the issue, instead of telling members of Congress to block this legislation, join me, or I’ll join you in telling the Congress to pass this bipartisan border security bill. We can do it together.

As President Biden was speaking, his campaign released an ad that consisted only of congressional Republicans blaming Trump for border security issues because he opposed the bipartisan reform bill negotiated in the Senate.  

Trump, for his part, babbled nearly incoherently at times but managed to repeat that immigrants crossing the border were a “Biden invasion.” But when he wasn’t repeating his five-second sound bite, he also unleashed incoherencies like the following:

People who don't speak languages. We have languages coming in to our country, nobody that speaks those languages. They're truly foreign languages. Nobody speaks them.

Trump's reference to “languages nobody speaks” may have been a reference to “Spanish”—a language spoken by 536 million people worldwide, 57 million of whom reside in the US. It is also possible he was referring to Slovene, the language Melania uses when yelling at Trump. But even Slovene has 300,000 speakers in the US—so it is hardly a “language the nobody speaks.”

Biden and Trump were making political appeals to their bases and persuadable independents. That dynamic is likely to continue for the remainder of the campaign. For Democrats, the fact that Joe Biden has finally engaged Trump on border security and immigration reform is a good sign.

While Trump blames Biden for an “invasion,” Biden is using a video of congressional Republicans blaming Trump. Indeed, Trump previously bragged, “Blame me” for killing the bipartisan border bill. In that dynamic, Biden wins.

And, as a subsidiary note, Fox News and Trump are pushing the narrative that “migrant crime” is spiraling out of control. But reality proves otherwise. See NBC News, Trump's claims of a migrant crime wave are not supported by national data.

Per NBC,

But despite the former president’s campaign rhetoric, expert analysis and available data from major-city police departments show that despite several horrifying high-profile incidents, there is no evidence of a migrant-driven crime wave in the United States. [¶]

An NBC News review of available 2024 crime data from the cities targeted by Texas’ “Operation Lone Star,” which buses or flies migrants from the border to major cities in the interior — shows overall crime levels dropping in those cities that have received the most migrants.

See also, Scientific American, (12/7/20) Undocumented Immigrants Are Half as Likely to Be Arrested for Violent Crimes as U.S.-Born Citizens.

For Democrats worried about border security and immigration reform as a political liability in the 2024 election, the facts are on Joe Biden’s side, and he has the high ground in the political fight to come. And he is starting to go on offense—with 248 days to go. That’s plenty of time to shape the narrative.

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Don’t invest unnecessary energy in calculating possible trial dates.

For understandable reasons, pundits and commentators are trying to calculate possible trial dates for the federal election interference and defense secrets cases. The on-air efforts to calculate dates began after the Supreme Court granted review of Trump's presidential immunity case on Wednesday.

Those efforts kicked into overdrive on Thursday when Jack Smith requested a trial date of July 8, 2024, for the trial of the defense secrets case before Judge Aileen Cannon. See Government’s Proposed Schedule | Doc. No. 356.

Most commentators agree that Jack Smith has resigned himself to a low probability of trying the election interference case before Judge Chutkan prior to November 2024. He has, therefore, (presumably) decided to fast-track the defense secrets case before Judge Cannon to July 8. (Trump asked for an August start date at the earliest.)

Some commentators were upset that the first Jack Smith trial against Trump might take place before Judge Cannon rather than Judge Chutkan. Here’s my advice: Don’t waste a second trying to predict when any trial against Trump will begin. As a litigator, I learned that the best time to schedule a two-week vacation was the day a major trial was scheduled to begin—because unexpected events always intervened to delay the start date.

If a trial before Judge Cannon begins at any time before the election, we should say, “Thank you, your Honor,” and trust that Jack Smith will put on a damning case against Trump.

But none of the above changes my advice from yesterday: The only way to hold Trump accountable for his crimes is to beat him at the ballot box in 2024. Conversely, we can’t count on the courts to save us by holding criminal trials of Trump before the election. Or, as fellow Substack writer Lucian K. Truscott IV put it, “Beat his ass”.

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Speaker Mike Johnson relies on Democrats (again) to pass short-term funding bills.

When former Speaker Kevin McCarthy relied on Democrats to pass a short-term funding extension, his GOP colleagues in the House fired him from his job as Speaker. McCarthy’s successor, Mike Johnson, has now made his third deal with Democrats to extend federal spending authority. And yet, he seems to be secure in his job--for at least a week.

Johnson is facing two problems. First, he continues to rely on majority Democratic support to pass short-term spending extensions. See Daily Beast, Republicans Are Tired of Mike Johnson ‘Kicking the Can Down the Road’.

Worse, many of his members learned of the deal on Twitter. When Johnson did hold a conference call with the GOP caucus to discuss his plan for a permanent funding agreement (a.k.a. a “budget”), he had no plan. Per the Daily Beast,

 Rather than offer a firm vision on the call, Johnson was wishy-washy, according to multiple sources. His murky potential paths forward came with built-in wiggle room. Lawmakers left the call questioning why Johnson wasted his breath.

“This is pointless,” the GOP lawmaker texted The Daily Beast during the call.

Johnson’s enigmatic communication style has been a consistent complaint for Republicans.

At a Florida leadership retreat last week, GOP members expected Johnson to provide the team with his plan to keep House Republicans in the majority next year. Instead, Johnson’s presentation for electoral success amounted to him quoting the Bible, according to two sources familiar with his comments.

Mike Johnson’s fate is intertwined with the 2024 budget. Both hang in the balance. The only reason Johnson’s speakership may survive is because no one else wants the job of Speaker in Name Only.

Democrats are the only functioning party in Congress.

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Senate Republicans block legislation to protect IVF

Despite lip service claiming they support IVF, Senate Republicans refused to give unanimous consent to a bill proposed by Senator Tammy Duckworth to protect IVF. See WaPo, Senate Republican blocks bill to protect IVF after Alabama ruling (Accessible to all.)

Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith of Mississippi blocked unanimous consent, claiming that the Alabama Supreme Court’s decision did not “ban” IVF and that Senator Duckworth’s bill was a “vast overreach.”

Of course, Hyde-Smith ignores the fact that three major IVF centers in Alabama ceased operations because they reasonably feared liability for wrongful death claims after the Alabama court’s decision. It is not necessary to ban IVF if service providers can be sued for conducting IVF in a standard manner.

Senator Duckworth’s bill would do the following:

Establish a statutory right for an individual to access to IVF and require health care providers to provide IVF without unreasonable limitation or interference,

Establish an individual’s statutory right regarding the use or disposition of their reproductive genetic materials, including fertilized embryos.

The bill also authorizes the DOJ and individuals to sue government officials, individuals, or entities violating the legislation's protections. In other words, the legislation provides a mechanism for enforcement—a standard provision in most laws protecting liberties and rights.

The extreme positions adopted by the far-right religious fundamentalists are reaching their absurd logical conclusions—and women and men across the nation are rebelling against government control of their reproductive liberty and family planning.

See Linda Greenhouse, NYTimes, Let’s Thank the Alabama Supreme Court.

Greenhouse writes,

I never thought I’d be grateful to the Alabama Supreme Court for anything, but now I am. With its decision deeming frozen embryos to be children under state law, that all-Republican court has done the impossible. It has awakened the American public, finally, to the peril of the theocratic future toward which the country has been hurtling.

Republicans have engaged in a “vast overreach” against the American people. They will regret it in the upcoming election. The tide has turned.

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Opportunities for reader engagement.

See this note from Jessica Craven at Chop Wood Carry Water about an opportunity to help register BIPOC and young voters in North Carolina. I am working with Jessica to help raise money for this event—and your donations through Jessica or me will be matched up to $15,000. As a bonus, my long-time friend, former Governor of Massachusetts, Deval Patrick, will be one of the featured speakers! Deval is truly inspiring and not to be missed!

Please help create the largest non-partisan voter registration program in recent North Carolina history, focusing on bringing more BIPOC and young voters into the electorate. While no one act will fix our troubled democracy, this is an essential act.

White eligible voters in North Carolina are 88% registered; only 71% of eligible voters of color are registered. Reducing that gap will make NC far more representative and impact races up and down the ballot. In 2020, Trump beat Biden in NC by only 74,481 votes and incumbent Chief Justice Cheri Beasley lost by only 401 votes.

This national zoom event will feature my former co-clerk on the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, Governor Deval Patrick, and is hosted by All In for NC, Building Bridges for America Action Fund, Carolina Forward, Chop Wood Carry Water, Indivisible Mad River Valley, Lean Left Vermont, Markers for Democracy, Metro West Blue and Beyond,Register And Vote North Carolina, Saving Democracy, Senate Circle, Swing Left Peninsula, 31st Street Swing Left, and Team Min.

All donations are tax-deductible. Donate here to register Register here and you'll receive the mobilize link for the Zoom sign-up. 

As a special incentive to readers of this newsletter and my friend's Jessica Craven's Chop Wood, Carry Water, donating through either of our links will count towards a $15,000 match! For questions or to donate through a donor advised fund, a Traditional IRA, or stock, please contact David@senatecircle.org. 

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Concluding Thoughts.

Many readers are still angry and upset about the Supreme Court’s grant of review in the appeal of Trump's presidential immunity claim. There are many reasons to be angry and upset. The most unforgivable is the Court’s failure to act with urgency to resolve an issue arising from an insurrection and attempted coup where the defendant seeks reelection to the presidency. That defendant has promised to pardon his co-conspirators in the coup attempt. He has threatened to become a “dictator for a day” on his first day in office. He has vowed to use the FBI and DOJ to punish his political adversaries.

And yet, the members of the Court cannot rouse themselves to act with urgency—something they have done repeatedly to advance conservative causes. And they have remained silent in the face of Justice Thomas’s corrupt involvement in a case in which his wife is a material witness—at the very least.

My purpose yesterday was to help focus on our most urgent short-term strategic goal—defeating Trump. But achieving that goal is merely the first step of a broader effort to reclaim democracy. Reactionary extremists have captured the Supreme Court. They have engineered a hostile takeover of the Republican Party—and, with it, a substantial portion of Congress. Radical judges are salted throughout the federal judiciary. And subversive holdovers from the Trump administration remain in place three years into the Biden administration.

We have our work cut out for us. We won’t fix everything at once. But every path to success runs through the ballot box—including holding Trump to account for his crimes and reforming the Supreme Court. Trump and his hand-picked justices have grievously underestimated the American people.

We will outlast them. We need only to remain confident and maintain our faith in democracy. We cannot allow temporary setbacks to distract or dispirit us. Remain focused on our goals and channel our righteous anger toward repairing injustice and unfairness. If we can do that, we cannot fail.

Talk to you tomorrow!