Here's another reason Democrats can't trust Kevin McCarthy: Incredibly, he's demanding that Dems support the far right GOP border agenda as part of the next package of aid for Ukraine.
I'm not sure people appreciate how extreme this demand truly is. 1/
Ending Biden's parole programs isn't "border security." Those programs allow migrants to apply for entry from afar rather than make the trek to the border. This isn't about the border, it's about reducing the number of immigrants allowed in. 4/
One can envision a bipartisan compromise that would help fix our asylum system. I genuinely think it could have appeal for some Republicans and restrictionist minded writers (cc @DouthatNYT), if they'd give it a hearing. Here's what it might look like. 5/
Dems have grown overly accustomed to negotiating under threat from Republicans as the normal conditions under which governing must function. Dems shouldn't play along with efforts to link Ukraine aid to the GOP's wildly extreme "border security" bill. 6/6
A note on JD Vance's repulsive response to the deportation of a Salvadoran in "error": The whole point of his stunt is to show that Trump feels free to remove people even when the law *doesn't* justify it.
“If nobody can do anything to bring him back once he’s been deported, then the order preventing his deportation in the first place is meaningless,” the lawyer for Kilmar Abrego Garcia, who was deported in "error," tells me.
The Trump administration's position is effectively a declaration that it has the power to remove people, outside the law, in "error," without having any subsequent responsibility to rectify that “error.”
Time to focus on Marco Rubio's role as a chief Trump enabler. Rubio is helping execute some of Trump's worst designs: Terminating program for Ukrainian kids, deporting people to foreign gulags, wrecking USAID, arrests with zero due process.
Next up: Rubio is key to the deportations of Venezuelans to a notorious prison in El Salvador, many without any evidence. Rubio negotiated the deal making this possible. He says this is a good deal for taxpayers and that these are "good jails."
Horrifying: After the contract tracking Ukrainian children abducted by Russia was terminated, the underlying evidence of these potential war crimes seems to be missing, a bipartisan group of Reps just charged in letter to Rubio. Two GOPers signed. Details: newrepublic.com/article/192924…
Two *GOPers,* Don Bacon and Brian Fitzpatrick, joined this letter, which says underlying info/evidence collected on abducted Ukrainian children has vanished.
They're calling on Rubio to say what happened to this data. State Dept still saying nothing.
Horrific: One of the USAID programs Trump just terminated was set to deliver lifesaving treatment to hundreds of thousands of starving kids abroad. Much of it is now in a Georgia warehouse.
Rubio's promise to preserve urgent assistance was a lie.
This is one of hundreds of terminated USAID contracts. The full list is appalling: There's tons of the "lifesaving humanitarian assistance" that Rubio promised to protect.
Former USAID official Atul Gawande tells me we'll see a "a massive loss of life."
The cancellation of the lifesaving assistance for starving kids abroad is really a galling one. This stuff was grown by American farmers and manufactured by American workers. This spreading of American bounty and good will long had bipartisan support.
Awful news --> Delivery of therapeutic food assistance to nearly 400,000 severely malnourished kids is suddenly in doubt due to Trump-Musk firings at USAID, two manufacturers of the product tell me.
The product is called Ready to Use Therapeutic Food. It's a paste made mostly of peanuts, milk, and sugar, designed for children to ingest if they're on the edge of starving to death.
It's made in two US factories, one in Georgia, the other in RI.
Remarkable: Trump's own pollster just found that in swing House districts, Dems lead by 5 points and voters want tax policy to prioritize working people, per Politico.
Yet GOP is about to slash the safety net and give the rich huge tax cuts!
Trump's pollster found that in 18 swing House districts, 68% are unhappy about their financial situation. Majorities want ACA's expanded subsidies to continue and oppose corporate tax cuts.
Swing voters want the opposite of what Trump/Rs are set to do.
Next week, House Republicans will vote on a blueprint that could lead to $880 billion in Medicaid cuts, big cuts to spending on food stamps, and more big tax cuts for rich/corporations.
Trump's own pollster finds broad opposition to these priorities.