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He promised to repeal the Affordable Care Act. He called on states to deploy National Guard troops to the U.S.-Mexico border. He warned Congressional Republicans to stick to a perfect deal on immigration — or else.
Former President Donald J. Trump, who hasn’t even confirmed the Republican nomination for president, is wasting his time as if issuing orders from the Oval Office rather than between court appearances in New York. He gave me instructions without hesitation.
And now President Biden is being forced to ponder campaign questions that no president has had to consider before. How does he compete against someone who already has a job, never admits defeat in an election, and acts like he already has a job? Also?
Mr. Trump’s influence over his party, the loyalty of his base and his quick re-emergence as the Republican nominee have allowed him to spar with Mr. Biden in a way no other candidate could.
Frustration boiled over Friday night as the president struggled to save the immigration deal from collapse in Congress. Trump has spent weeks pressuring lawmakers to oppose the deal, but it seems unlikely that Republicans will defy him.
In an unusual statement from a president who often keeps the most sensitive negotiations private, Biden said Friday that if Republicans come back to the table and agree to a deal, the U.S. and Mexico will use emergency powers included in the deal. He said the border would be closed.
Biden criticized Republicans who have called for border enforcement in exchange for approving military aid to Ukraine, saying, “For everyone who is calling for stronger border controls, this is the way to get it done.” said. “If you are serious about the border crisis, pass a bipartisan bill and I will sign it.”
Current and former advisers to Mr. Biden say the impasse over immigration underscores one of the toughest points in the president’s re-election bid. The Trump-led battle over border security “is showing Americans what Donald Trump and the Republican Party’s priorities are, but instead of actually solving problems, they’re scoring political points. ” said Kate Bedingfield. Biden’s former communications director.
“I’m sure President Biden is frustrated, and I’m sure his team is frustrated, because they’ve been working in good faith to get an agreement on the border,” Bedingfield said. . Asked what the president thought about the threat posed by Trump, he said that Biden has talked about Trump in private as well as in public and that “he thinks he’s dangerous.” ” he said.
Democratic strategist Dan Sena said the campaign needs to get better and faster to counter Trump in real time because Trump has perfected tactics that Biden never mastered. The news cycle when the current news doesn’t suit you.
“He really has the ability to take the oxygen out of the room and frame everything the way he wants it,” said Sena, who helped Democrats flip the House in 2018. “Democrats absolutely have to set the record straight.”
There is evidence that this is already happening.
On Friday, when Mr. Trump nearly lightning-gunned the border bill, Mr. Biden was quick to react, pointing out that Republicans were moving away from legislation that would allow for an emergency border closure.
But the former president has been shadowboxing the current president in other areas as well.
On Thursday, during a break in court in his defamation case, Trump posted on social media that he expressed “every desire to send the National Guard to Texas” to “prevent illegal aliens from entering our country and remove them from all parts of our state.” called out to a certain state. The conflict between Texas Governor Greg Abbott and the Biden administration is escalating over the border.
The Supreme Court this week sided with the Biden administration, granting a federal order to cut or remove some of the concertina-wire barriers along the Mexican border that Texas has erected to prevent migrants from crossing into the state. admitted to the authorities. Mr. Abbott mobilized armed National Guard troops from Texas and other states to erect barriers and order migrants to return to Mexico.
White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre would not say whether Biden would take over federal control of the Texas National Guard, calling Abbott’s effort a “political stunt.”
With Mr. Trump on the rise, it is unclear whether the Biden administration’s response will do much to bring Republicans back to the negotiating table on immigration and other issues.
Like Trump, Biden faces low approval ratings. He is battling pessimism about the U.S. economy even as he tries to tout a healthy job market, curbing inflation and infrastructure projects on his watch. And a significant number of young Democratic voters deeply disapprove of his support for Israel’s campaign against Hamas in the Gaza Strip.
As Biden continues to attack Trump on the campaign trail and, more subtly, at public events, Republicans are attacking Trump in other areas, including Trump’s repeated efforts to rally support in the near term. may have to slow down, Sena said. To repeal the Affordable Care Act. (Trump failed to do this several times as president.)
The 14-year-old law is now widely known among Americans. Approximately 21.3 million people will be enrolled in the Affordable Care Act market in 2024, a record high for the third year in a row and nearly double the number of enrollees in 2020.
“President Biden knows we have a responsibility to work together across the aisle and govern with the best interests of our families in mind,” White House press secretary Andrew Bates said in a statement. “If others have a contrary opinion, the American people deserve to know.”
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