Joseph Sabino Mistick: Playing politics with the border

“That’s just politics” is a common response whenever Donald Trump says or does something outrageous, and it’s true that many of his carnival sideshow antics are worthy of nothing more than a chuckle. But his decision to get Republican senators to kill the bipartisan border bill in February deserves more attention.

For pure political advantage, Trump has continued the suffering and danger along our southern border so he could blame the Democrats during the presidential election. As reported by The Hill, Trump got Republicans to vote against the bill because it “would be a political victory” for Democrats.

The bill was chiefly negotiated by Oklahoma Republican Sen. James Lankford, one of the most conservative and knowledgeable members of the Senate. It provided sweeping immigration and border security reforms. Calling Trump’s move against the bill “painful to watch,” Lankford said, “President Trump said don’t fix anything during the election; it’s the single biggest issue during the election, don’t resolve this.”

Republican Sen. Mitt Romney said at the time, “Former President Trump has indicated to senators that he does not want us to solve the problem at the border. He wants to lay the blame at the border at Biden. And the idea that someone running for president would say, ‘Please hurt the country so I can blame my opponent and help my politics,’ is a shocking development.”

And just as he said he would, Trump is deflecting the blame for the ongoing border problems — problems that remain unsolved because of his efforts. Now he is trying to pin it all on Vice President Kamala Harris.

When Richard Nixon was running for president in 1968 against Democrat Hubert Humphrey, he also turned against the good of the country for his own political advantage. But he was smarter than Trump and left no fingerprints at the time. It took decades for the truth to come out.

As described by Smithsonian Magazine, the BBC’s David Taylor found proof in 2013 in White House audio tapes that Nixon prolonged the war in Vietnam to benefit his political career. Nixon was running on a platform opposing the war, so he needed the war to continue through election day.

“Nixon feared a breakthrough at the Paris peace talks designed to find a negotiated settlement to the Vietnam War, and he knew this would derail his campaign,” according to Taylor.

“In late October 1968, there were major concessions from Hanoi which promised to allow meaningful talks to get underway in Paris — concessions that would justify Johnson calling for a complete bombing halt of North Vietnam.”

Nixon used an aide with strong ties to Asia to convince the South Vietnam government a better deal was possible for them if they waited for Nixon to win the election. South Vietnam pulled out of the talks, and Nixon won. But the war continued, and over 21,000 more American soldiers died before the parties finally settled “for a peace agreement in 1973 that was within grasp in 1968,” according to the BBC.

Back when Trump was doing everything in his power to derail the bipartisan border security bill, he welcomed anyone to blame him for its defeat. “I’ll fight it all the way,” he said. “A lot of the senators are trying to say, respectfully, they’re blaming it on me. I say, that’s OK. Please blame it on me. Please.” The voters may well grant his wish.