Biden Blames Trump For "Intimidation" Campaign To Sink Border Deal

US President Joe Biden, delivering ad hoc remarks at the White House, has told reporters that former President Donald Trump engaged in a campaign of "intimidation" on Republican lawmakers to torpedo a bipartisan deal to overhaul border security.

• Biden: "For much too long, as you all know, the immigration system has been broken. Its long past time to fix it..."
• Biden says the bill's expected failure in the Senate is due to, "a simple reason: Donald Trump... Because Donald Trump thinks its bad for him politically therefore doesn't even want to help the country... he'd rather weaponise the issue than actually solve it."
• Biden says Trump, "has spent the past 24 hours" reaching out to Republican lawmakers to "intimidate" them into "caving" on the deal, adding that, "frankly [Republicans] owe it to the American people to show some spine and do what they know is right."
• Biden outlines reasons why "everyone" from the "Wall Street Journal, border patrol, and Chamber of Commerce," support the bill, including "making the country safer, making the border more secure, and making legal immigration more efficient."
• Biden's comments are unlikely to prompt any movement on the deal but may signal a more aggressive counter-messaging campaign from the White House in the coming months.
• Whichever party manages to more effectively pin blame on the other for the border crisis, the single biggest political wedge issue right now, may have the upper hand in November's general election. Polling currently suggests that voters trust the GOP more on the border.