President Biden on Thursday questioned whether former President Trump was talking about himself after his rival called an immigration executive order by the White House that was announced this week “pathetic.”
Trump this week said Biden’s “executive order won’t stop the invasion, it’s weak, and it’s pathetic,” adding that he believed the order was just for show ahead of the debate coming up later this month.
When asked by ABC’s David Muir to respond to Trump’s characterization of the order being “weak” and “pathetic,” Biden responded: “Is he describing himself? Weak and pathetic?”
“Come on, look, everybody knows what’s happened,” the president said. “We had a deal, it was much broader than this, much better, much more accepted across the board and he got on the phone and told the Republicans, don’t support it. It will hurt me, it will help Biden.”
Biden was referring to the bipartisan border bill negotiated in the Senate, which Republicans blocked twice. As the deal was getting near, Trump urged the GOP to block, assuring it would remain a major issue leading up to Election Day.
Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) as a result killed the border deal in February, calling it “dead on arrival,” and, Trump in January told supporters that he’s fine being blamed for tanking the bill.
That deal included $20 billion for border security and would have given the federal government temporary authority to expel migrants when the average number of daily crossings exceeds a set threshold. It would have also ended “catch and release,” and raise standards for asylum screenings.
Biden’s order, meanwhile, would turn away migrants seeking asylum who cross the southern border illegally at times when there is a high volume of daily encounters.
Earlier this week, Biden blamed Trump for leaving him no choice but to act on curbing the influx of migrants at the border after the bill failed.
Muir interviewed Biden in France on Thursday morning, ahead of events to mark the 80th anniversary of the D-Day landings. Biden gave remarks on Thursday stressing the importance of alliances, subtly pushing back on Trump’s America First agenda.
