Rick Scott claims James Lankford is ‘smart’ but ‘on a suicide mission’ with border bill

Sen. Rick Scott (R-FL) defended Sen. James Lankford (R-OK) on Sunday from attacks on all fronts, saying he knows what he’s doing by taking his border bill “on a suicide mission.”

Lankford has been harshly criticized by other Republicans for his border negotiations with Democrats, but he has hit back, saying his work has been misrepresented. House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) indicated the bill will not pass in the Republican-controlled House in a “Dear Colleague” letter Friday. As a fellow Republican senator, Scott seemingly agreed during a Fox News Sunday interview.

“James is smart, he’s hard-working, he knows the issue. He’s on a suicide mission,” Scott said. “Democrats don’t want to secure the border. That’s number one. Number two is, right now, this border could be secure, but we know we have a lawless administration, completely lawless Biden administration.”

Scott also criticized Lankford for not releasing a draft of the bill for senators to review. Johnson was able to see a draft as the speaker of the House.

“James is doing the best he can to try to explain the bill that, unfortunately, I don’t know why they don’t share it with us,” Scott said. “I mean, I’d rather be for something, but we don’t get anything.”

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Despite endorsing Donald Trump in the 2024 presidential race, Scott brushed off Trump’s influence on how the bill will shake out. According to Scott, Trump is “irrelevant to this conversation” because “he’s not in office.”

Meanwhile, U.S. Customs and Border Protection processed more than 302,000 people at the U.S.-Mexico border in December alone. That is in addition to the over ten million immigrants who had reportedly entered the country illegally since Biden took office to last October. It is the most recorded in that amount of time of any administration.

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