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Epic Senate Border Bill Post-Mortem/Wraithing Update

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February 6, 2024 12:51 p.m.
WASHINGTON, DC - JANUARY 16: Sen. James Lankford (R-OK) speaks with reporters after meeting with Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) at the U.S. Capitol January 16, 2024 in Washington, DC. The Senate retur... WASHINGTON, DC - JANUARY 16: Sen. James Lankford (R-OK) speaks with reporters after meeting with Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) at the U.S. Capitol January 16, 2024 in Washington, DC. The Senate returns today to begin work on a stopgap spending measure that will keep the government funded through March 1. (Photo by Drew Angerer/Getty Images) MORE LESS

The big, big news of the morning is of course the D.C. appellate decision that Donald Trump has no immunity as a former president. But I wanted to briefly revisit the half-day life of the Senate bipartisan border deal that collapsed last night in the face of Trump’s demands.

There’s a bit more to it that I wanted to walk you through. Not a lot more. But a bit more. And those bits have some significance.

After the bill was released, House GOP leaders repeatedly insisted it was absolutely positively dead in the House. The very transparent aim of these statements was that they wanted their Senate Republican colleagues to kill it in the Senate. Because the truth is that it’s not at all clear it was dead in the House if it was allowed to get a vote. So the thinking from the House GOP was: you’re going to put us in a very tough position if you pass the bill and send it to us. So kill it in the Senate first. At least for now, that’s just what their Senate colleagues did.

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