Haley says Trump is ‘playing politics’ on Senate border negotiations

GOP presidential candidate Nikki Haley said Sunday that former President Trump is “playing politics” in trying to sink a bipartisan border deal in the Senate.

CNN’s Dana Bash pushed Haley on whether Trump is trying to get involved in the border deal to boost his own bid for the White House on “State of the Union” on Sunday. Trump has been railing against any potential bipartisan border deal, where negotiations have been taking place among senators since late last year, saying that there is no need for the legislation to address the issues at the border.

“Well, I think nobody should be playing politics with the border. First of all, he shouldn’t be getting involved, telling Republicans to wait until the election because we don’t want this to help [President] Biden win,” Haley responded. “We can’t wait one more day. You have millions of people who come to that border, they are not being vetted.”

“America’s acting like it’s September 10. We better remember what September 12 felt like because it only takes one. This is not a time to play politics,” Haley continued.

Bash then pressed Haley again on whether Trump is “playing politics” on the border deal. Trump has denied trying to block Biden from securing a win on the border, saying he would support bipartisan legislation if it was a “great border bill” that would solve the “problem.”

“Of course he is. He’s absolutely playing politics by telling them not to do anything. But what I do think they need to do is they’ve got to put a tough immigration law in place,” Haley responded.

Haley also said that the legislation should include the “Remain in Mexico” immigration policy enacted in 2019 under Trump, as well as other stricter border measures.

“So we need to strengthen the asylum laws so that we don’t have people coming in here for loose reasons. And that’s the only way we’re going to get this under control,” Haley said.