Brunswick Beacon, 03.14.24
Republican politicians like David Rouzer specialize in pearl-clutching—acting more shocked than he really is. His latest e-mail dialed the phony outrage to eleven.
Rouzer falsely accused President Biden of ignoring border security, hoping you’d forget that Biden and others negotiated a deal with Senator James Lankford (R-OK), who Trump endorsed as “strong on the border.” Biden’s deal was backed by the Wall Street Journal, which asked: “Do Republicans want to secure the border, or keep an open sore festering another year as an election issue?”
Republicans chose the latter and Rouzer was included. He voted against the solution to our Border crisis. “Trump wants to kill it because he doesn’t want Biden to have a victory,” admitted one Republican senator. Senator Thom Tillis (R-NC) warned Republicans not to kill “good, solid policy” to please Trump: “To lose this opportunity is malpractice. It’s immoral to look the other way because you think this is the linchpin for President Trump to win.” Trump replied: "Senators are blaming it on me. I say, that’s okay. Please, blame it on me.” Rouzer plays politics instead of compromise and solutions.
Rouzer bragged about filing legislation urging border states to stack cargo containers like giant Lego blocks as a barricade! Rouzer didn’t mention that Arizona pulled the same stupid stunt before a costly lawsuit forced it to remove them. When Texas tried the identical idiocy with barbed wire, the US Supreme Court ordered that removed, too. Rouzer’s empty gesture isn’t merely meaningless, it’s unconstitutional!
It's also badly timed, coming after Biden and Trump visited Texas, where Biden invited Trump to help solve the problem: "Instead of telling members of Congress to block this legislation, why don't we just get together and get it done?"
Trump just waved and pumped his fist at migrants across the Rio Grande. "They like Trump, can you believe it?" he bragged, preening for the cameras. If Biden did that, Rouzer would have jacked the phony outrage up to twelve!
Biden delivers bipartisan solutions, like the Safer Communities, Infrastructure, PACT, and CHIPs acts. Republicans deliver hissy fits and empty gestures.
Rich Cooper
Leland