This theory is born out by the actions of Republican lawmakers on Capitol Hill, who should theoretically be motivated to pass legislation to address a crisis that they often bring up. But that motivation is suddenly lacking. On Wednesday night, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell reportedly told his fellow Republican senators that the time for a bipartisan package on Ukraine aid and immigration reforms had passed. “We don’t want to do anything to undermine him,” McConnell reportedly told his caucus, referring to Trump and his re-election chances.
Lawmakers had been negotiating for months in hopes of reaching a compromise that could pass both the GOP-led House and the Democrat-led Senate. But Republicans apparently scuttled those efforts to bolster Trump’s re-election chances, refusing to give anything resembling a political win to Biden. Utah Senator Mitt Romney, a frequent Trump critic, told reporters that his fellow Republican senators were effectively worsening the border crisis for partisan political gain.
I think the border is a very important issue for Donald Trump. And the fact that he would communicate to Republican senators and congresspeople that he doesn’t want us to solve the border problem because he wants to blame Biden for it is really appalling. But the reality is that we have a crisis at the border. The American people are suffering as a result of what’s happening at the border. And someone running for president ought to try and get the, you know, the problem solved, as opposed to saying, ‘Hey, save that problem. Don’t solve it. Let me take credit for solving it later.’
This is not to say that Abbott’s actions should be ignored or overlooked. As I noted yesterday, some of his fellow Republicans have actively (and mistakenly) encouraged him to defy the Supreme Court—an opportunity that hasn’t arisen here so far, but may yet present itself in future litigation. That would raise the risk of a confrontation between federal and state officials that could amount to a constitutional crisis, bloodshed, or worse. While the Framers worried about foreign invasions, those provisions show they also feared reckless demagogues who would try to subvert the American constitutional order for personal gain.