Showdown at the Border
WASHINGTON -- Thursday always was going to end this way. Former President Donald Trump would show up at the Texas border, and he would be on fire, while President Joe Biden would try and fail to play catch up, having lost the support of voters who think he's botched immigration bigly.
After all, Trump made plans to visit Eagle Pass last week, so that he could remind the public of the border's sleepier days when he was in office.
Then Biden announced he would go to Brownsville on the same day, so he could showcase his reversal on immigration policy.
On the optics alone, Trump won the day.
The former president was in the thick of it, near an erstwhile border hot spot, at home with the men and women who put their lives on the line to enforce federal immigration law. And talking about the border in a way that resonates with American voters.
The current president has avoided the border for most of his presidency. It was not until two years into his tenure that Biden first visited the border as president; he went to El Paso in January 2023. This was his second trip, and to a border backwater.
And what did Biden say? Basically, he was trying to convince America that the southern border has been a hot mess because Hill Republicans walked away from a bipartisan compromise that was supposed to address the chaos.
Yes, Republicans caved under social media pressure from Trump, who wanted to keep the issue in play because he expects to run against Biden in November.
But what Republicans did once under duress, Democrats have been doing for decades because they don't believe in enforcing federal immigration law.
Biden used his border event to urge Trump to "join" him in passing a measure that Trump doesn't want. "We can do it together," Biden said.
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