President Trump urged Democrats to work with their Republican counterparts to pass immigration reform, just hours before two bills were expected to fail in the House.
“We should be able to make an immigration bill that can really solve the problem, not just this — this is one aspect of it,” Trump said at the White House, referring to the debate about family separation at the border. “This is one very important, but small aspect of it. We should be able to do a bill.”
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Trump lamented that with 51 seats in the Senate, Republicans are short of the 60 votes needed to pass legislation addressing immigration. But he said the GOP could pick many as seven Senate seats in states he won in 2016 during the November midterm elections.
But even that would fall short of 60, and he blamed House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., for trying to stymie Republicans’ efforts.
“We need 10 Democrats — not going to get them,” he said. “They’re told by Schumer and Pelosi, ‘Don’t do it because we want to see if we can pick up seats.’ They don’t care about the children, they don’t care about the injury, they don’t care about the problems, they don’t care about anything. All they do is say obstruct and let’s see how we do. Because they have no policies that are any good. They’re not good politicians.”
Trump said Democrats’ opposition “make it impossible to take care of children and families, and to take care of immigration.”
But the president went on to invite Democrats to the White House to discuss immigration.
“We should be able to make an immigration bill that can really solve the problem, not just this, this is one aspect of it. This is one very important, but small aspect of it,” he said, referencing family separations. “We should be able to do a bill. I’d invite them to come over to the White House any time they want, this afternoon would be good, after the Cabinet meeting would be good, they are invited officially.”
Despite Trump’s remarks, it’s not clear that all 51 Republican senators would support either of the bills being raised in the House today. House Republicans have a 21-seat majority in the House, and is still expected to fail to pass either immigration bill on Thursday.
