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Trump readies blame game if Senate fails on DACA

Senate hasn't started voting on amendments and the blame game begins!

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President Donald Trump is refusing to budge from his immigration framework, and he and his allies on Capitol Hill are laying the groundwork to heap the blame on Democrats if the Senate fails to reach a deal this week.

In Trump’s view, according to administration officials and GOP senators, he’s already compromised beyond where he and his staff felt comfortable by offering 1.8 million young undocumented immigrants a pathway to citizenship. And if Democrats want to step up this week and sink the president’s proposal, that will be on them, they said.

“It seems to me this ought to be a pretty sweet bipartisan deal to solve the problem,” Sen. Roger Wicker (R-Miss.) said of the president’s proposal. If Democrats reject it, “I think we’re looking pretty good from a PR standpoint.”

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The standoff means the Senate’s immigration debate is likely destined for failure absent a course correction from Trump, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) or Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.). Such a result would be a major blow to Dreamers facing the threat of deportation as well as the institution, where dozens of senators in both parties are searching for a bipartisan solution.

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What instantly angered Schumer and other Democrats were the president's proposed cuts to legal immigration, not the 1.8 million eligibility figure or the border wall money. Some Republicans were upset about it, too.

“Probably it falls short” of 60 votes, said Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) of the president’s plan. “We’re not going to cut legal immigration by a third.”

The senators writing Trump’s plan into legislative text, including Cornyn and Tom Cotton (R-Ark.), have included some conservative provisions that the president didn’t explicitly seek in his framework and could be dropped as an olive branch to Democrats. But those items are unlikely to sway the opposition.

And Republican leaders are not signaling they will break with the president. McConnell says he supports Trump’s plan, and Trump opposes a narrower bill sought by some senators.

Sen. Jeff Flake (R-Ariz.) has attempted to write a plan that mirrors some of Trump’s, but drops the cuts to legal immigration. Flake has been sparring with Trump for more than a year, making it difficult to see the president supporting his revisions.

“The president has never said that we need to cut legal immigration by half over time. That’s more a Tom Cotton-David Perdue construct,” Flake said, referring to Sen. David Perdue (R-Ga.).

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“He’s shown a lot of flexibility,” said Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.). “It’s almost like people are fighting to get to no." If Democrats vote no, "they’ve let down a lot of DACA people.”

Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.) said the White House’s current stance undercuts Trump’s deal-making reputation.

“That’s not how you make a deal. You don’t say take it or leave it,” McCaskill said.

But Sen. Doug Jones (D-Ala.), who has met with Trump this year to talk about immigration, doubted that the president is as dug in on his plan as he's letting on.

“I believe there’s some flexibility there. I really do,” Jones said. “The president really wants to get a deal done.”

Jones and McCaskill would not say how they would vote on the president’s plan. Sen. Jon Tester (D-Mont.) said he would oppose it because providing billions in border money for the executive branch means Congress is “not doing our job as the legislative branch.”

If Tester doesn’t support it, it’s hard to see the minimum of nine Democratic votes that Trump’s framework would need to pass the Senate. Indeed, the finger-pointing over a scenario in which no proposal can clear the Senate is already underway.

"What is so appalling and revealing is Democrats claim to care so deeply about this issue but don’t have a bill," said a White House official.

https://www.politico.com/story/2018/...me-game-407629