Political Quotes

“Thank you for the question, Senator Durbin. As I mentioned, we negotiated this bill in good faith. We negotiated it with the appointed representatives by the Republican conference. Senator Graham was amongst those in those conversations. We thought we had achieved a product that could get the broad support of the Republican conference because they ticked off to us their priorities. And they were legitimate priorities. We heard them loud and clear. They said: We want to reform the asylum system. We want to raise the standard for a credible fear. We want more detention beds. We want to reform parole. We want to give the President a new authority to shut down the border at times of emergency. Obviously, Democrats came to that conversation with priorities as well. We wanted to expand the number of family visas and work visas. We wanted to make sure that immigrants can exercise their legal rights. We achieved a compromise, an old-fashioned compromise. The night we released that bill, Senator Durbin, I thought that we were on a path to passage. But it was President Trump who intervened and said, plain and clear, as Senator McConnell has admitted: I want nothing to pass before the election. He said I want nothing to pass before the election, because President Trump's team decided that it would be better for the border to be a mess to help his political prospects instead of solving the problem. I hear Senator Graham when he says: Well, we don't trust the Biden administration.…”