WASHINGTON (AP) – Just before the Senate votes Wednesday break the border agreement As he spent the last four months negotiating, Oklahoma Sen. James Lankford climbed the marble steps outside the chamber and joined his wife in the visitors' gallery.
Fellow negotiator Kyrsten Sinema (Ariz.) sat on the floor while the Republican briefly watched quietly from upstairs as an outsider after defending his bill in a speech before the full Senate last session. He bowed down and criticized Republicans who had made unwarranted statements. abandoned lankford, one by oneafter insisting on a border agreement and negotiating a compromise on one of the country's most intractable issues.
“Less than 24 hours after we announced the bill, my Republican colleagues changed their minds,” said Sinema, a former Democrat turned independent. “It turns out they just want talk and no action. It turns out that border security is not a risk to national security. It's just an election issue.”
Mr Lankford, who emerged from the gallery with his wife by his side, was asked by a waiting reporter if he felt betrayed by his party. He took a deep breath and waited a few beats.
“It's a shame we couldn't accomplish that,” Lankford said diplomatically. “I don't know if I feel betrayed because the problem is still there. It's not resolved.”
He then descended the stairs with his wife and Sinema, who had come to greet him after his speech, and entered the chamber to watch the bill fail.
In the end, all but four Republicans, including Republican leader Mitch McConnell, who was closely involved in negotiations, tasked Lankford with negotiating a bill combining Ukraine aid and border security. voted against moving forward with the bill.
Mr. Lankford, 55, a former youth pastor at a Baptist church, is known as one of the most loyal and popular members of the Senate. He is a conservative who rarely votes against his party, has long supported stricter border security and supported former President Donald Trump. That's why his colleagues swiftly and completely rejected the deal he had spent weeks and months negotiating, even as many of them indicated they supported the direction of negotiations. All the more so that he indicated his intention to completely abandon Lankford in the process. Remarkable.
Democratic Sen. Chris Murphy of Connecticut, the third negotiator with Lankford and Sinema, said of Senate Republicans who had previously expressed support, “They're treating it like it's poison.'' I reacted,” he said. “I think what they did to James is unforgivable.”
“They really threw a guy overboard,” President Joe Biden said of Lankford at a fundraiser Wednesday night.
Some Republicans had always intended to vote against the compromise, saying there was no better policy than what they considered weak, but others said Lankford's new When explaining the details of the meeting, he revealed that he was encouraged by the meeting. But Trump, a leading 2024 presidential candidate, has made immigration a top priority, and his colleagues' eventual swift defeat of the bill highlighted deep rifts within the Republican Party. . Some senators, who had previously been positive about the agreement, became increasingly skeptical after President Trump made it clear that he opposed it.
It is also dysfunction and paralysis The traditional bipartisan image of the Senate has faded in favor of more partisan House-like battles.
When he took on the job of negotiating a border compromise, Lankford laughed, “He drew the short straw.” Sen. Roger Marshall (R-Kansas) later said that if Lankford couldn't make a deal, “Moses couldn't make a deal. He's the best man I've ever met in my life.” One of the kindest and most caring people in the world.”
Fellow negotiators described him as a no-nonsense, intelligent lawmaker who was willing to spend long hours delving into complex issues in immigration law, spending weeks away from his family in the process. Murphy said senators often leave the “dirty work” of negotiating broad policies and putting those ideas into legislative text to their staff.
“James does both,” Murphy said. “It shows how honest he is and how cautious he is about policy. But it probably means he's a little new to politics.”
The lawmaker has spent the past three days desperately trying to explain the bill after many Oklahoma Republicans issued statements opposing the bill without even reading its entire text.Some Republican lawmakers were called to action. misleading statement As for what it will do, he claimed it is designed to bring more people into the country. President Trump strongly opposed the bill, saying he didn't want to give Democrats a victory on the issue, but he gleefully boasted that he helped kill it.
“I think this is a very bad bill for his career, especially for the state of Oklahoma,” President Trump said of Lankford on his radio show earlier this week.
of bipartisan compromise An overhaul of the asylum system at the border with faster and stricter enforcement, among other measures to reduce the record number of migrants crossing the border when authorities are overwhelmed by the number of asylum seekers. This would give the president new powers to immediately expel people. border. It would also send billions of dollars to Ukraine, Israel and allies in the Asia-Pacific.
Mr. Lankford's work on this issue could have lasting political consequences. A group of about 100 members of the Oklahoma Republican Party released a statement accusing him of authoring the bill even before it was announced. And Lankford said in a speech to the full Senate on Wednesday that if you try to pass legislation to resolve the border crisis, “I'll do everything I can to crush you, because I don't want to.” ” about an unidentified “popular critic” who told him. Please resolve this issue during the presidential election. ”
What's even more surprising is how quickly his Senate colleagues turned against him.
Lankford was on a plane to Washington when the bill was announced late Sunday night. By the time he landed, the onslaught of criticism from conservatives had already begun. When House Speaker Mike Johnson posted on Dead on arrival ” in his room.
Lankford's complaint enumerates how the bill would accomplish several conservative goals, including building a border wall, hiring more Border Patrol agents, expanding detention capacity and speeding up deportations. It was clear when he responded.
“We have to find a way to stop the chaos at the border,” Lankford said.
Few Republicans, except Mr. McConnell, supported it. And by Monday night, seeing the writing on the wall, McConnell told the conference it was okay to vote no.
“I feel like a guy standing in the middle of a field in a thunderstorm holding up a metal pole,” Lankford told reporters shortly before announcing the bill. “This is a really intense thing. It was divisive.”
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Associated Press writers Seung-Min Kim, Will Weissert, Jill Colvin and Lisa Mascaro contributed to this report.
