As (unfavorable) reaction to the just-dropped Senate-White House border bill continues to roll in, it is important to note the extent to which the drive-by media are doing the White House’s legwork by pushing this bill.
Watch as host Kristen Welker absolutely berates Speaker Mike Johnson into accepting the Senate bill on NBC’s Meet the Press:
KRISTEN WELKER: You have been calling for legislative change to actually deal with this problem. You are now the Speaker of the House. Do you not have a responsibility to your voters, to the people who put you in office, to address what you have called a crisis and catastrophe? Isn't something better than nothing?
SPEAKER MIKE JOHNSON: Kristen, we did that. We did that. Nine months ago. And since we passed our measure in the House to solve this problem- and the reason we had to do it is because we saw that President Biden was not fulfilling his obligation under the law. That’s why it is such a failure of leadership, but we did our part. And by the way, since then, in the nine months since that bill sat on Chuck Schumer's desk collecting dust, 1.8 million illegals have been allowed into this country- welcomed into the country. Sent around the nation into every community- communities near everyone listening and watching this morning. And that is a catastrophe.
WELKER: But you…
JOHNSON: …and the American people know it and that's part of the reason that Joe Biden has the lowest approval rating of any president facing re-election.
WELKER: Even former President Trump, though, called for legislative change on this issue. You have one of the slimmest majorities in the House in history. Don't you have to compromise to get something done? What you passed in the House can't pass in the Senate, Mr. Speaker. You know that.
JOHNSON: We are willing to work- we are willing to work with the Senate. I am not disclosing that, and I've been very consistent for the hundred days that I've had the gavel. We are willing to work, but they have to be serious about it. If you only do a few of those components, you are not going to solve the problem and Kristen, that is not a Republican talking point. That's what the sheriffs at the border, the Border Patrol agents, the Deputy Chief of U.S. Border Patrol, a 33-year veteran of the agency told us, he said that it's as though we're administering an open fire hydrant. He said, “I don't need more buckets”, like the president’s proposed. I need to stop the flow and we know how to do that, but Joe Biden is unwilling to do it.
WELKER: Let me ask you about your decision, and by the way, Joe Biden said he would shut down the border. He’s calling for more funding, he’s calling for you to pass this legislation.
Throughout this process, Speaker Johnson’s demeanor in the face of routinely getting blasted by hostile media has been as steady as that of the cat in the salad meme. That pretty much sums up this exchange as Welker hammers Johnson time and time again over the Senate bill, and over Washington’s favorite c-word: “compromise”.
In order for the Acela Media’s shilling of the Senate bill to be successful, they must first depict the House as do-nothings on immigration. Johnson denies Welker that ground by addressing that H.R. 2, the House-passed immigration bill, has been “collecting dust” in the Senate. Thus Welker’s hand is forced on “compromise”. H.R. 2 can’t pass in the Senate, she says, so the House must capitulate.
The rest of the interview was devoted to arguing the merits of the vote to impeach DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, over his role in flinging the border wide open. But, as with the border legislation, the purpose of the interview was not so much to have a discussion on the issue as it was to argue on behalf of the BIden administration.
Remember this interview as Republicans begin to register their opposition to the border bill, for it is a tonesetter. Passage of the bill qualifies as a “doing something” which might goose Biden’s terrible numbers on immigration ahead of the election. With the Senate bill now public watch for the Acela Media’s calls to “do something” intensify, and to direct that scrutiny straight to the House, which were actually the first to “do something” on immigration.
