Journalists are uncritically spreading the talking points of House and Senate leadership, insisting foolish conservative hardliners thwarted a border deal that left them with nothing in return when Speaker Johnson finally passed a package of foreign aid bills last week. This is convenient for the Beltway, but it’s absurd to cast conservatives as hapless rubes and partisan hacks for rejecting unpopular policies designed to undercut the will of their constituents.
Their option was to take a terrible deal and pretend it was great, or push for something — anything — to meet the basic and reasonable will of their voters. Johnson decided to demand the former of his conference.
Take this post from Sahil Kapur of NBC News. Purporting to report “HOW IT HAPPENED,” Kapur claims Democrats “cave[d]” by working on a border deal with Sen. James Lankford and that Republicans rejected it because former President Trump wants to run on the border crisis. This is not remotely neutral reporting, but it’s also not accurate.
HOW IT HAPPENED
1. Rs say no foreign aid without border security
2. Ds say nope
3. Rs say then no aid
4. Ds cave, cut a deal for tougher border laws with Lankford and McConnell
5. Trump tells them to kill it
6. Rs kill it
7. Rs pass foreign aid without the border security
— Sahil Kapur (@sahilkapur) April 22, 2024
Democrats made some small concessions in the Lankford-Schumer deal, but the legislation was peppered intentionally with exemptions to those concessions, ultimately allowing President Biden to
