Conservative columnist Noah Rothman devastated President Donald Trump and the Republican Party on Wednesday with an epic Twitter thread pointing out every time Republicans rejected Trump’s wall.
After Trump flopped in his effort to convince the American people to support his wall with an Oval Office address to the nation on Tuesday night, Rothman reminded us and the GOP that many Republicans didn’t support it either until after Democrats won back control of the House in November.
Indeed, despite Senate Republicans voting overwhelmingly for a continuing resolution to fund the government through early February without wall money, some House Republicans refused to vote for it and demanded $5.7 billion for the wall after Trump told them he would not sign a bill without it, thus triggering a government shutdown that is nearly at the three-week mark.
Trump and the Republicans have now taken to trying to pin the shutdown on Democrats, who were not even in control of the House until January 3rd. But up until they took control, even Republicans opposed Trump’s wall, and Rothman shined a light on their hypocrisy by using direct quotes to make his case.
You might get the impression from this fight that Congressional Republicans are now and always were united behind Trump’s border wall. You’d be wrong. A brief review:
— Noah Rothman (@NoahCRothman) January 9, 2019
2/6/2017: “I don’t think we’re just going to be able to solve border security with a physical barrier because people can come under, around it and through it.” –@JohnCornyn https://t.co/TrdXk1FF18
— Noah Rothman (@NoahCRothman) January 9, 2019
3/28/2017: “The border wall is probably not a smart investment.” – @LindseyGrahamSC https://t.co/5XoKVIrEiV
— Noah Rothman (@NoahCRothman) January 9, 2019
5/2/2017: “Last month, The Wall Street Journal canvassed Democrat and Republican lawmakers from Southwest border states and found that none of them supported the president’s funding request to start wall construction.” https://t.co/gaHKi9WnKC
— Noah Rothman (@NoahCRothman) January 9, 2019
7/25/2017: “House Republicans seek to dodge border wall vote.” https://t.co/OFoy6fyQfw
— Noah Rothman (@NoahCRothman) January 9, 2019
9/2/2017: “McCarthy: Republicans will punt wall fight to December” https://t.co/n7LzmM5AzQ
— Noah Rothman (@NoahCRothman) January 9, 2019
9/20/2017: “When asked by the USA TODAY Network whether they support the president’s initial $1.6 billion budget request to begin construction, only 69 of the 292 Republicans on Capitol Hill said ‘yes.’” https://t.co/LbtHlTR9ae
— Noah Rothman (@NoahCRothman) January 9, 2019
1/22/2018: “The wall is ‘one of the three legs of this three-legged stool,’ said Rep. Mark Meadows… ‘I’m glad to hear that there is some movement there, but there’s a couple of other legs of that stool that have to be put forth.’” https://t.co/GLbCg4J6th
— Noah Rothman (@NoahCRothman) January 9, 2019
2/15/2018: “The Trump-backed bill garnered 39 ‘yes’ votes, and 60 senators voted against it.” https://t.co/zd7QDqcskt
— Noah Rothman (@NoahCRothman) January 9, 2019
6/21/2018: “The House rejected a hard-line immigration bill on Thursday and Republican leaders delayed a vote on a compromise measure…” https://t.co/qw7U82uQdr
— Noah Rothman (@NoahCRothman) January 9, 2019
9/20/2018: “Republican leaders are more focused on urging Trump to delay a fight for the wall than on fighting for it themselves. Congress is working to pass a short-term spending bill [that would] and punt a showdown over wall funding into December.” https://t.co/CJEB43MXfZ
— Noah Rothman (@NoahCRothman) January 9, 2019
The problem was never Democratic recalcitrance but Republican disunity over not just the $ ask but the essential utility of the wall. Republicans were right to maintain that skepticism, but they can’t posture united now that Democrats in the majority provide them with cover.
— Noah Rothman (@NoahCRothman) January 9, 2019
As anyone can clearly see, even Lindsey Graham opposed Trump’s wall early on, and Republicans in Congress time and time again refused to vote for wall funding despite controlling the House and the Senate for the last two years, even rejecting a compromise measure that would have given Trump even more funding then what he is asking for now. Only after Democrats won back the House and subsequently took control of the gavel did Republicans all of sudden support it.
The thread posted by Rothman should be read by every American so that everyone can understand just how hypocritical, deceptive and complicit Republicans have been. Because if border security is a real crisis, Republicans would have addressed it when they were in control. It’s either that, or they ignored it, which would be even worse considering how much Trump has tried to scare us into believing we are being invaded by ruthless drug-addled killers. But they did nothing, and now they want Democrats to fund the wall that they themselves have been rejecting for two years.
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