On Thursday’s broadcast of MSNBC’s “Andrea Mitchell Reports,” Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-OR) stated that “we really do have to bring to bear the framework here that the Democrats want to implement the Biden plan to solve the problems at the border, but if open border Republicans want to go a different direction, well, we need 60 votes to pass a bill.” And “if the story is that President Trump wants an open border, does not want this problem to be solved, and he’s going to be backed up by open border Republicans to try to keep this open as an election issue, that is not serving America well.”
Merkley said, “[T]he Republican caucus is in complete chaos right now, with McConnell, the leader, being attacked both from his Republican right and his Republican left. And so, the options on the table are to go forward with the full package, of course, we have not seen the text of a bill at this point, but Democrats have wanted to implement the $14 billion that President Biden has proposed to solve the problems at the border and work out a deal. And Sen. Chris Murphy (D-CT) on the Democratic side and Sen. James Lankford (R-OK) on the Republican side have been locked in negotiations…for more than a month and are close to a deal. We were looking forward to see[ing] it. But, listen, if the story is that President Trump wants an open border, does not want this problem to be solved, and he’s going to be backed up by open border Republicans to try to keep this open as an election issue, that is not serving America well. And so, we really do have to bring to bear the framework here that the Democrats want to implement the Biden plan to solve the problems at the border, but if open border Republicans want to go a different direction, well, we need 60 votes to pass a bill.”
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