Murphy ‘hopeful’ GOP senators will back border deal despite pressure from Trump

Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) said he is “hopeful” Senate Republicans will back the border deal despite pressure from former President Trump to oppose the deal.

“I am hopeful that we will still have enough Republicans in the Senate who want to fix the problem at the border rather than just do Donald Trump’s bidding, but we will see over the next 24 to 48 hours whether that’s true,” he said Sunday on CNN’s “State of the Union.”

Murphy is one the top negotiators pushing for a bipartisan border deal for months — a deal that would unlock additional funding for Ukraine if passed by Congress. Trump has been criticizing the bipartisan deal in recent days, saying the deal was a “catastrophe waiting to happen” in a series of social media posts over the weekend.

Trump also said it was fine by him if he is blamed for the border deal failing.

“Well, we do have a bipartisan deal,” Murphy said Sunday. “We’re finishing the text right now. And the question is whether Republicans are going to listen to Donald Trump, who wants to preserve chaos at the border because he thinks that it’s a winning political issue for him.”

“Or whether we’re going to pass legislation which would be the biggest bipartisan reform of our border immigration laws in 40 years and would give the president of the United States —whether that President is a Republican or a Democrat — new important power to be able to better manage the flow of people across the border,” he continued.

Murphy also suggested some Republicans want to keep the border “chaotic” for “political purposes” but still expressed confidence over the deal.

“And I do have confidence that enough Republicans in the Senate are going to join us to pass this bipartisan legislation potentially, as early as the next week or two, and we can show that Washington can still stand up and work on these big problems even if Donald Trump is rooting for chaos,” Murphy said.