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After Congress failed to pass a pair of immigration bills in recent weeks, President Donald Trump over the weekend tweeted that he had “never pushed” House Republicans to support either of them. Except that he definitely did, in a different tweet, three days prior.
“I never pushed the Republicans in the House to vote for the Immigration Bill, either GOODLATTE 1 or 2, because it could never have gotten enough Democrats as long as there is the 60 vote threshold,” Trump tweeted on Saturday. “I released many prior to the vote knowing we need more Republicans to win in Nov.”
On the Wednesday prior, Trump had been singing a different tune. He tweeted, in all caps, “HOUSE REPUBLICANS SHOULD PASS THE STRONG BUT FAIR IMMIGRATION BILL, KNOWN AS GOODLATTE II, IN THEIR AFTERNOON VOTE TODAY, EVEN THOUGH THE DEMS WON’T LET IT PASS IN THE SENATE. PASSAGE WILL SHOW THAT WE WANT STRONG BORDERS & SECURITY WHILE THE DEMS WANT OPEN BORDERS = CRIME. WIN!”
That same day the House rejected the legislation in a 121-301 vote. All the Democrats voted against it as did 112 Republicans.
I never pushed the Republicans in the House to vote for the Immigration Bill, either GOODLATTE 1 or 2, because it could never have gotten enough Democrats as long as there is the 60 vote threshold. I released many prior to the vote knowing we need more Republicans to win in Nov.
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 30, 2018
HOUSE REPUBLICANS SHOULD PASS THE STRONG BUT FAIR IMMIGRATION BILL, KNOWN AS GOODLATTE II, IN THEIR AFTERNOON VOTE TODAY, EVEN THOUGH THE DEMS WON’T LET IT PASS IN THE SENATE. PASSAGE WILL SHOW THAT WE WANT STRONG BORDERS & SECURITY WHILE THE DEMS WANT OPEN BORDERS = CRIME. WIN!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 27, 2018
The bill that Trump called “Goodlatte II” was a Republican-backed immigration bill that was a compromise reached between conservative and moderate members of the House. After its hardline predecessor, “Goodlatte I,” was rejected 193 to 231 in the House, Republican leaders twice delayed the vote on the slightly more moderate version, hoping to gain more GOP support.
Rep. Bob Goodlatte (R-VA) introduced the conservative first bill and was a lead negotiator on the second bill, which was also far to the right in its approach. Vox’s Tara Golshan wrote a full explainer of the “compromise” bill, Goodlatte II, and its failure in the House.
Trump’s not even trying to be sneaky here
The president’s declaration that he had never urged Republicans to support either of the Goodlatte bills immediately raised eyebrows, especially since it’s something so easy to fact-check. The tweet telling legislators to pass a bill is still there. You can see it.
These tweets are three days apart pic.twitter.com/Yc8tpfXTMz
— Ben Jacobs (@Bencjacobs) June 30, 2018
But Trump started to walk back his push for the compromise bill almost as soon as it failed. When asked by reporters about the legislation’s failure last Wednesday during a press conference with Portugal’s president, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, Trump said he desired that Republican lawmakers “do what they wanted.”
Trump commented, “You know, the problem we have — and I told them this morning, I said, ‘Hey, pass it, if you can.’” The president added, “But I also want them to do what they want. We have a big immigration bill, like everybody does — like you’re talking and everybody talks about immigration now, I think, more than ever before.”
He had sent the all-caps tweet just hours earlier.
