Oklahoma Sen. James Lankford spent months negotiating the recently released border and immigration deal. Now he’s watching his Republican colleagues set it on fire.
It appears the deal, once backed by leadership, will likely wind up with hardly any Republican “yes” votes. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, the day after supporting the bill, stated publicly that it will not become law. Republicans who railed about the need for border legislation and even directly encouraged the latest negotiations have now left Lankford out to dry.
“Look what they did to James Lankford. It’s disgusting,” fellow negotiator Sen. Chris Murphy, a Democrat, told reporters on Tuesday. “They put him out there and asked him on their behalf to negotiate a compromise, and then they didn’t even give him the chance to argue the merits.”