Manchin slams MAGA Republicans for tanking bipartisan border deal: 'Politics rears its ugly head'

08 February 2024

Far-right House speaker Mike Johnson (R-Louisiana) has declared that if a bipartisan deal in the U.S. Senate tying enhanced security at the U.S./Mexico border to military aid to Ukraine goes to the U.S. House of Representatives for consideration, it will be "dead on arrival." But the deal, much to the frustration of centrist Sen. Kyrsten Sinema (I-Arizona), hasn't gotten that far — and has collapsed in the U.S. Senate.

Another centrist senator who is quite frustrated by the bill's fate is West Virginia Democrat Joe Manchin. During a Wednesday, February 7 appearance on CNN, Manchin described its collapse as a prime example of the dysfunction in U.S. politics.

Manchin told CNN's Jake Tapper, "What we saw on the floor today of the United States Senate…. This reaffirms why I did not run for reelection. Because I have come to the conclusion that we're not going to fix the political posturing in Washington here in Congress from Washington. It will be fixed from outside of Washington. This is absolutely unheard of what you saw happen in a reversal of absolute proportion that we've never seen before."

The West Virginia senator went on to note that "18,000 Border Patrol agents have "all said this would be the best bill they've ever seen in at least the last two decades or more."

Manchin added that although he has been critical of the Biden Administration on U.S./Mexico border policy, he applauded President Joe Biden and conservative Sen. James Lankford (R-Oklahoma) for reaching a bipartisan agreement.

"It will control the border," Manchin told Tapper. "It stops catch and release. It's changing the interpretation and definition of asylum. It holds people. It doesn't put anybody back in our country…. And politics rears its ugly head."

Watch the video below or at this link.

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