It's not the first time Rep. Troy Nehls has seemed to say the quiet part of loud: In December he suggested impeachment was about giving "ammo" to Trump.

As senators work on a compromise deal to address border security and immigration, at least one Republican is suggesting politics is a key motivator for him.

“Let me tell you, I’m not willing to do too damn much right now to help a Democrat and to help Joe Biden’s approval rating,” Republican Rep. Troy Nehls of Texas told CNN this week. “I will not help the Democrats try to improve this man’s dismal approval ratings. I’m not going to do it. Why would I?”

Nehls indicated he’d accept only a proposal similar to HR 2, a hardline immigration bill that got zero Democratic votes when it passed the House last year.

  • Ensign_Crab@lemmy.worldEnglish
    642·
    10 months ago

    You mean to tell me that Republicans are operating in bad faith, and that Democrats fell for it?

        • HubertManne@kbin.social
          82·
          10 months ago

          simply by going forward and having yahoos like him admit they don’t actually want to solve the problem. Calling out or calling a bluff is just going ahead with the thing.

          • gAlienLifeform@lemmy.world
            81·
            10 months ago

            That’s not what he said and not what anyone sympathetic to his dumbass viewpoint is going to hear. He said the House solved “the problem” back when they passed HR2, that if Senate Democrats actually wanted to solve “the problem” they would just pass that, and that the bipartisan deal moderate Dems are seeking is only for the purposes of improving Biden’s poll numbers, which is why he has no interest in passing it.

            You and I know HR1 is a psychotic pile of xenophobic trash that should never get passed, but the fact that Dems are making a big show out of working with the political party that produced it muddies the waters for anyone that doesn’t follow politics closely. The fact that they’ve gotten Democratic lawmakers to concede that “securing the border” is a problem (as opposed to staying focused on how our immigration system can’t process people in a timely manner and our social care systems are all too underfunded to deal with climate refugees) has been a massive win for them (makes it very easy for them to just say “securing the border” is “the (only) problem”), as is the fact that we’re talking about the border at all right now instead of Ukraine aid.

            • HubertManne@kbin.social
              32·
              10 months ago

              yeah which is him admiting they don’t want to work with anyone to solve it. its their way or the highway. so they are responsible for the highway status. its not a win. it makes them look even worse and makes anything biden does look better. Im still blown away but what he has been able to do sans congress for his term.

    • BlanketsWithSmallpox@lemmy.worldEnglish
      73·
      10 months ago

      Democrats fell for what exactly, doing their job in a lame duck government so people can see what Republicans are really about yet still somehow being blamed by fake Democrats?

  • Viking_Hippie@lemmy.world
    632·
    10 months ago

    I never thought I would, but I kinda miss the time when Republicans would lie about their motivations for being awful.

    This whole “mask off but still no consequences” bullshit is even more frustrating than when everyone knew but most people refused to acknowledge it 😮‍💨

  • Melllvar@startrek.websiteEnglish
    461·
    10 months ago

    If it improves the President’s approval rating, doesn’t that suggest that it’s something Americans need or want?

    “[…] I’m not going to do it. Why would I?”

    Indeed. Why help the American people, Congressman?

  • katy ✨@lemmy.blahaj.zone
    37·
    10 months ago

    i mean that’s pretty much the same story about immigration for the last 40 years and it’s why nothing has gotten done. they’d rather use immigrants as wedge issues then do something about the problem.

    • CodeName@infosec.pub
      6·
      10 months ago

      They also like to use them as cheap labor. The American system can’t function without them. But hush, hush, we don’t like to talk about that part.

  • eran_morad@lemmy.world
    32·
    10 months ago

    It is high time we treat the republican traitor swine with the same contempt that they show the American people.

  • paddirn@lemmy.worldEnglish
    321·
    10 months ago

    If it’s such a big deal, how come when Trump was in the White House and they held both chambers of Congress (~2017–2019), why didn’t they solve the issue then?

    • PRUSSIA_x86@lemmy.world
      42·
      10 months ago

      Wrong, they’re there to represent their constituents, who seem quite content with all the fuckery the GOP has been pulling.

      • dtc@lemmy.world
        12·
        10 months ago

        We need to replace oaths on books with legally binding contracts. I want to be able to sue the fuckers who lie their way into places of power.

        • Signtist@lemm.ee
          4·
          10 months ago

          Sure, why don’t you write to your representative to get that changed - oh, wait…

          • dtc@lemmy.world
            4·
            10 months ago

            Pfft, its way more efficient as an end user to just bribe a lobbyist. DUH

  • Nightwingdragon@lemmy.worldEnglish
    22·
    10 months ago

    This is standard, decades-long GOP mantra, championed by Mitch McConnell. It’s also quite effective. Give a man a boogeyman to blame for all of his problems, and he’ll follow you anywhere.

    • frezik@midwest.social
      14·
      10 months ago

      It’s worse than that now. Democrats rolled their eyes, started setting up a deal to address their boogeyman, and now there’s Republicans saying they refuse because it might help the other side.

      The GOP has nothing useful to say or do.

    • TurtleJoe@lemmy.world
      10·
      10 months ago

      1. Enact policies that create pain in your own supporters.

      2. Create an “enemy.”

      3. Blame the pain on the “enemies.”

      4. Present themselves as strongmen who can defeat the “enemies.”

    • samus12345@lemmy.worldEnglish
      1·
      10 months ago

      If he’s an idiot who believes that there’s a boogeyman to blame for all his problems, anyway.

  • Rapidcreek@lemmy.world
    243·
    10 months ago

    They’re going to blame a government shut down, due to their inability to govern, on the “border crisis”.