| BORDER DEAL FALLOUT |
| A Senate border deal is in deep trouble after mounting resistance from both Senate and House Republicans. |
| After months of delays, Senate lawmakers on Sunday evening finally released the text of the mammoth national security package. |
| Republicans aren’t happy about what the package includes—in particular, a provision that mandates a border shutdown when illegal border crossings hit an average of 5,000 a day over a week. |
| Coming in at a total cost of $118 billion, the bill contains a suite of border security policies in exchange for funding for Ukraine, Taiwan, Israel, and other U.S. defense-related initiatives. |
| Over half of that amount, $60 billion, would go to Ukraine. |
| Senate leaders had hoped for the package to clear the chamber expeditiously. But within a day of its release, senators were clamoring for more time to analyze the bill, if not outright voicing opposition. |
| During a closed-door Senate GOP meeting Monday evening, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), a supporter of the bill, recommended senators vote no to the procedural vote on Wednesday to begin debate on the bill, according to a Senate source. |
| It would take only 41 senators to defeat the procedural vote on Wednesday. At least 21 senators, 19 Republicans and 2 Democrats, have publicly vowed opposition to it. |
| “I think the proposal is dead,” Sen. Roger Wicker (R-Miss.) told reporters after leaving the GOP meeting. |
| Even Sen. James Lankford (R-Okla.), the top Republican negotiator for the deal, suggested he might vote no in the procedural vote if his colleagues weren’t ready. Voting against its advancement on Wednesday, he told reporters, is “not voting against the bill, that’s voting on, ‘Is right now the time to be able to open this up for debate.” |
| “So that’s not the final passage. That’s the beginning point,” Lankford said. |
| The package faces even worse odds in the House. |
| Asked what he found most objectionable in the package, Rep. Chip Roy (R-Texas) told The Epoch Times, “All of it.” |
| He and many others point to a provision that would impose a mandatory border shutdown at more than 5,000 encounters in a day. This provision, Republicans say, effectively legalizes illegal immigration up to that level. |
| Rep. Mike Garcia (R-Calif.), one of the more moderate members of the House Republican conference, told The Epoch Times that the bill “is not a border bill.” |
| “The Senate supplemental bill is an immigration bill with effectively zero border security implementation elements to it,” Garcia said. “So I’m hopeful that our leadership doesn’t even allow that to come to the floor further.” |
| The criticism was echoed by Rep. Troy Nehls (R-Texas), who accused Democrats of using the issue to bolster President Joe Biden’s abysmal approval ratings. |
| “It’s not really about border security,” Nehls told The Epoch Times. “It’s about improving [Biden’s] 33 percent dismal rating. |
| Rep. Byron Donalds (R-Fla.) also criticized the package. |
| “It’s a terrible deal,” he told The Epoch Times. |
| Aside from the 5,000 a day figure, Donalds cited the high cost of the bill without offsets as framing his opposition. |
| With House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) vowing not to bring the bill to the floor in the lower chamber, the package looks to be on a fast track for the congressional waste bin. |
| Meanwhile, the House Rules Committee yesterday advanced a resolution in a party-line vote to set up a vote to impeach Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas. |
| Republicans have accused Mayorkas of worsening the situation at the border by intentionally ignoring the law for partisan or philosophical reasons. |
| The Rules vote paves the way to move forward on impeachment. A vote on the two articles of impeachment proposed against Mayorkas is expected today. |
| —Joseph Lord |
| NEVADA’S ELECTORAL CHAOS |
| This year’s presidential contest in Nevada will be one of its strangest, with competing primary and caucus electoral battles. |
| There will be two contests this week: a state-endorsed primary election today and a caucus endorsed by the Republican National Committee two days later. |
| Rebelling against a Democrat-led change in state law calling for a primary election, the state GOP will hold caucuses on Thursday, pitting former President Donald Trump against a little-known candidate, Texas businessman Ryan Binkley. Nikki Haley opted to participate in the primary instead. |
| Trump is virtually assured of winning the caucus and picking up the state’s 26 delegates. |
| But Nevada Republicans may also vote in a state-run primary today. That contest, not recognized by the GOP, counts for bragging rights only. |
| Today, Haley confronts a bizarre situation: Her most formidable adversary on the primary ballot appears to be “None of These Candidates,” an unusual option that Nevada voters have been afforded for decades. |
| Based on a new poll and political insiders’ observations, “None” might draw the most votes in the primary. |
| “It’s my most fervent hope that ‘None of These Candidates’ wins the Nevada Republican primary,” Bruce Parks, chair of the Washoe County GOP, told The Epoch Times. He said he’s voting for “None” and then will caucus for Trump–which all Republican voters are allowed to do. |
| Likewise, Nevada Gov. Joe Lombardo has publicly stated that he would do the same. |
| If “None” draws more votes than Haley does, “that will send a message” to her and other candidates who overlook Nevada, home of the First in the West nominating contest, Parks said. |
| He made his remarks just before a new poll showed that 59.2 percent of Nevada’s Republican primary voters would choose “None,” while 40.8 percent would pick Ms. Haley, the Washington Examiner reported. |
| The Haley campaign declined to comment for this story, instead pointing to newspaper articles critical of the Republican Party’s decision to persist with its caucuses. |
| An editorial in the Las Vegas Sun said the GOP was causing confusion by “hosting private nominating parties that are gift-wrapped for disgraced former President Donald Trump.” |
| Still, due to the abnormal situation, Trump is virtually guaranteed to rack up the only Nevada delegates in play this week. |
| —Janice Hisle and Joseph Lord |
| |
- The House of Representatives votes on impeachment articles against Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas.
- Federal Aviation Administration head Michael Whitaker testifies before the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee.
- Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen testifies before the House Financial Services Committee.
- Nevada holds an unsanctioned Republican primary election in which Haley is on the ballot, but not Trump. Win or lose, Haley will not earn any delegates because the party-sanctioned GOP caucus, in which Trump is running practically unopposed, will take place on Feb. 8.
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| In the brewing showdown between Texas and the Biden administration over the border crisis, the Lone Star state is embroiled in at least three lawsuits over its efforts to defend its borders. The Epoch Times’ Matthew Vadum covers the brewing legal battles between Texas and the federal government. |
| Tanya Chutkan, the judge in charge of Trump’s criminal case in Washington, acknowledged that Trump’s trial could extend deep into 2024. Politico reported on the comments, and what they could mean politically. |
| Haley is seeking Secret Service protection amid increasing threats to her safety, The Wall Street Journal reported. |
| The Biden administration on Feb. 5 walked back its claims that it had informed the Iraqi government that it was planning to carry out military strikes in the country, The Epoch Times’ Andrew Thornebrooke reported. |
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