Senator James Lankford (R-OK) has been negotiating a border deal that has earned ire from other Republicans. Senator Rick Scott (R-FL), who called for the bill to be "shut down," offered further explanation for his stance in a recent appearance on Fox News Sunday, saying Sen. Lankford is "on a suicide mission" and that President Biden could secure the border "today" if he wanted to.
"I think James is smart. He is hardworking, he knows the issue, [but] he is on a suicide mission. The Democrats do not want to secure the border. I am a business guy. I never did a business deal where the other side did not want to have the same goal I have," said Sen. Scott, adding that the only way to get President Biden to comply "is if we have accountability that forces Biden to enforce the law."
As other Republicans have said, Sen. Scott reiterated that "we do not need a new bill." While he understood Lankford's attempts to get the deal through, "I do not know why they do not share it with us." After all, the deal is being negotiated behind closed doors, but what has leaked out is drawing GOP derision.
The proposed deal would cap border crossings to 5,000 per day and expand the availability of green cards to 50,000 per year. While Lankford has called this "inaccurate," House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) has already signaled rejection of it.
Host Shannon Bream asked Scott if the 5,000/day cap presented some measure of accountability until the election.
"Biden could do that today," Scott answered, "Why doesn't he do it today? He does not need any of this to secure the border. Trump secured the border with the exact same laws. Unless there is some accountability measure that forces Biden to secure the border, tie it to Ukraine [or] tie it to something else. Unless there is something like that, Biden is not going to comply with the law. If it was important for him to comply with the law, he would do it right now."
Fellow Florida Senator Marco Rubio (R-FL) and Representative Carlos Gimenez (R-FL) have said before that demanding a secure border from President Biden is increasingly pointless, as he would not comply with them anyway.
