Eric Swalwell Hits GOP With Border Bill Reality Check: 'Have You All Lost Your Minds?'

Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-Calif.) delivered a brutal reality check to Republicans over the bipartisan border bill Wednesday by naming the reason they oppose it.

“Let me bring everybody back to reality and give you a little history lesson. The reason you oppose the bill is not because you have any policy issues with it… You oppose it because Donald Trump opposes it,” said Swalwell at a House Judiciary Committee markup meeting.

He continued, “Donald Trump opposes it because Donald Trump wants to be president because Donald Trump has 91 felony counts that he’s facing and the only way that those go away and he is not held accountable is if he’s president.”

Senate Republicans blocked the bill last month after Trump urged them not to back it, with some GOP lawmakers declaring that a border deal would benefit President Joe Biden ahead of the November election.

Swalwell took aim at Republicans who follow Trump, claiming that the former president wants “the issue, not the solution.”

“Have you all lost your minds?” asked Swalwell as he noted that Sen. James Lankford (R-Okla.), the “second-most conservative member of the Senate,” was the top GOP negotiator for the bill.

“He wrote the toughest border security bill that has come out of the Senate and President Biden engaged with him with other Democrats to find a solution because they’re in the solutions business and you’re in the chaos business.”

Support HuffPost

Our 2024 Coverage Needs You

Your Loyalty Means The World To Us

At HuffPost, we believe that everyone needs high-quality journalism, but we understand that not everyone can afford to pay for expensive news subscriptions. That is why we are committed to providing deeply reported, carefully fact-checked news that is freely