--- title: Biden Urges GOP to Find Their 'Spine' and Stand Up to Trump description: As a bipartisan border bill appears dead, Biden warned Republicans he would ensure voters knew their party's leaders are "afraid" of Trump canonical: https://time.com/6692066/biden-republicans-border-bill-trump/ author: Brian Bennett article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2024-02-06T20:01:41.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-10-19T07:39:22.159Z article:section: Politics og:title: Biden Urges GOP to Find Their 'Spine' and Stand Up to Trump og:description: As a bipartisan border bill appears dead, Biden warned Republicans he would ensure voters knew their party's leaders are "afraid" of Trump og:url: https://time.com/6692066/biden-republicans-border-bill-trump/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt553391e65bed68e2/698a484de6e84a533d2b1652/GettyImages-1983622782.jpg?branch=production&width=1024&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1024 og:image:height: 576 og:image:alt: US-BIDEN-POLITICS og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Biden Urges GOP to Find Their 'Spine' and Stand Up to Trump twitter:description: As a bipartisan border bill appears dead, Biden warned Republicans he would ensure voters knew their party's leaders are "afraid" of Trump twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt553391e65bed68e2/698a484de6e84a533d2b1652/GettyImages-1983622782.jpg?branch=production&width=1024&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Biden Urges GOP Leaders to 'Show a Little Spine' and Stand Up To Trump on Border Bill > Sponsored content. 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It explains the politics, personalities and power dynamics behind the headlines, twice a week. #### Where can I get analysis of Washington politics by email? D.C. Brief is TIME's free Washington politics newsletter, available at time.com/newsletters. It is written by a TIME senior correspondent who covers the capital full time. #### Who writes TIME's D.C. Brief? Philip Elliott, a senior correspondent at TIME, writes D.C. Brief. #### Is D.C. Brief free? Yes. D.C. Brief is free at time.com/newsletters. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-dcbrief-2026q3/newsletters?i=7d6857ff-da6e-4a0a-bd76-53048c786c1e&cr=time-nl-dcbrief-2026q3-v1) ## Video: Biden Urges GOP Leaders to ‘Show a Little Spine’ and Stand Up To Trump on Border Bill [Watch (HLS stream): Biden Urges GOP Leaders to ‘Show a Little Spine’ and Stand Up To Trump on Border Bill](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/ipgp5Bd5.m3u8) (3:04)  _Published 2024-02-06. President Joe Biden lashed out at Donald Trump and Republicans in Congress on Tuesday, accusing his chief political rival of sabotaging a bipartisan bill that could meaningfully address dysfunction at the border, and GOP leaders for caving to Trump's demands._  by [Brian Bennett](https://time.com/author/brian-bennett/)  ## Brian Bennett Bennett is a former senior White House correspondent at TIME. Feb 6, 2024 8:01 PM UTC  by [Brian Bennett](https://time.com/author/brian-bennett/)  ## Brian Bennett Bennett is a former senior White House correspondent at TIME. Feb 6, 2024 8:01 PM UTC President Biden lashed out at Donald Trump and Republicans in Congress on Tuesday, accusing his chief political rival of sabotaging a bipartisan bill that could meaningfully address [dysfunction at the border](https://time.com/6589254/border-biden-texas-trump/), and admonishing GOP leaders for caving to Trump's demands. Biden promised to work to make the legislation’s collapse a top issue on the campaign trail between now and November. “If the bill fails—I want to be absolutely clear about something—the American people are going to know why it failed,” Biden told reporters gathered in the White House’s State Dining Room, adding, “The voters are going to know that just at the moment we’re going to secure the border and fund these other programs, Trump and the MAGA Republicans said ‘no’ because they’re afraid of Donald Trump.” Trump has spent weeks putting public and private pressure on Republicans to kill the Senate proposal, which would add thousands of new border patrol agents and immigration officers to block the entries or more migrants, and return people more quickly to their home countries if they don’t qualify for legal entry. The funding package also includes money for Israel’s war against Hamas and Ukraine’s defense of its territory from Russia’s ongoing invasion. The legislation was agreed to by a group of Republicans and Democrats in the Senate, and has the backing of the chamber’s top Republican, Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, as well as the Border Patrol union and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. If it passes out of the Senate, House Speaker Mike Johnson has said the bill would be “dead on arrival” in the House. “It’s time for Republicans in Congress to show a little courage, to show a little spine, to make it clear to the American people that you work for them, not for anyone else,” Biden said, in what was likely a preview of attacks Democrats will be making against Republicans in races across the country. Biden’s decision to target some of his criticism at Republicans in Congress is unlikely to bring over any votes, and may be a sign that the negotiations, while nominally still ongoing, have hit an irreparable rift. Polling suggests immigration is a political weak point for Biden. A recent [NBC News poll ](https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/2024-election/poll-biden-trump-economy-presidential-race-rcna136834)showed that voters thought Trump would be better at securing the border by 35 percentage points, a wide margin. The same poll found 47% of voters want to vote for Trump, 42% for Biden, and 11% were unsure. On Monday, Trump described the border bill proposal as a “trap” by Democrats to shift the blame for the crisis on the border to Republicans. “The ridiculous ‘Border’ Bill is nothing more than a highly sophisticated trap for Republicans to assume the blame on what the Radical Left Democrats have done to our Border, just in time for our most important EVER Election. Don’t fall for it!!!” Trump wrote on his social media platform Truth Social. The bipartisan compromise would have allowed him to shut down the border immediately, Biden said, at a time when Border Patrol agents are finding more than 5,000 people per day crossing between ports of entry. Biden accused Trump of pressuring Republican lawmakers and interfering in the funding negotiation for political purposes. "He doesn't really want to solve the problem, he wants a political issue to run against me,” Biden said. ## Transcript For much too long as you all know, the immigration system has been broken and it's long past time to fix it. That's why I months ago. I instructed my team to begin negotiations with the bipartisan group of senators is seriously and finally fix our immigration system for months. Now, that's what they've done working round-the-clock through the holidays over the weekends. It's been an extraordinary effort by Sanders Langford Murphy and Cinema result of all, this hard work is a bipartisan agreement that represents the most Fair UMaine reforms in our immigration system in a long time and I chop a set of reforms to secure the Border ever. Now all indications are this bill won't even move forward to the senate floor. Why a simple reason Donald Trump Donald Trump thinks is bad for him to let Oakley therefore. He doesn't even know it helps with the country. He's not for he'd rather weaponize this issue than actually saw it. So for the last 24 hours, he's done nothing. I'm told a reach out to Republicans in the house and the Senate and threaten them and try to intimidate them to vote against this proposal and looks like they're caving frankly. They all went to the American people to show some spine and do what they know to be right bottom line. Is this bipartisan bill as a win for America because it makes important fixes to our broken immigration system and its toughest Ferris law has ever been proposed relative to the Border a clock is ticking. Every week every month that passes without New Age Ukraine means fewer artillery shells pure defense air defense systems, true or two or three cranes defend itself against this Russian Onslaught just with Putin wants for those Republican Congress and think they can oppose funding for Ukraine and not be held accountable history is watching history is watching trailer support Ukraine. This critical moment will never be forgotten this bipartisan agreement also provides Israel with what it needs to protect his people defend itself against Hamas terrorists, and I'll provide the necessary life-saving humanitarian assistance for the Palestinian people. Lipozene is Bill to do nine age of the people who are really suffering and desperately need help. So I'm calling on Congress to pass this Bill gets my desk immediately. But if a bill fails I want to be absolutely clear about something American people are going to know why it fail. I'll be taking this issue to the country is republics have to decide who do they serve Donald Trump in American people. Are there to solve problems or just weaponize those problems for political purposes? I know my answer. I serve the American people. 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