Sen. Lankford Sets High Bar for Republican Support of a Bipartisan Border Giveaway
NEIL MUNRO13 Jan 2024362
Lead Republican negotiator Sen. James Lankford (R-OK) said GOP Senate leadership will only support a Democrat-backed border-management bill if half of its 49-member caucus supports the deal, Politico reported Friday.
The statement is important because it ensures the bloc of swing-voting GOP Senators in the middle of the party — not just the pro-migration establishment wing — will determine the party’s direction under the glare of an angry GOP base and aggressive outlets such as Breitbart News.
Politico reported:
Senate Republicans don’t control the floor, but Lankford outlined his thinking in an interview. If he can get 25 or more of the 49 GOP senators to sign onto something, he’s betting that it might be enough to get Speaker Mike Johnson to take up a big emergency spending bill with Ukraine aid – without losing the gavel to a conservative rebellion.
When Lankford met with House Republicans on Wednesday, he told them that he doesn’t plan to back a border deal that barely skirts the 60 votes needed to break a filibuster. Lankford explained that he doesn’t want to win “51 Democrats and 10 Republicans. … That is not what this is. This is not just trying to barely squeak it over to them.”
https://www.breitbart.com/2024-election/2024/01/13/lankford-sets-high-bar-republican-support-bipartisan-border-giveaway/
