Texas Border Business
A new president was sworn in yesterday and despite our differences, we wish him well. President Biden has signaled he’ll embark on an ambitious agenda. Here are four fights we’ll be closely watching:
The battle over borders. Biden immediately threw down the gauntlet with a big move on immigration. He announced plans to send to Congress a sweeping immigration bill that includes far-reaching amnesty provisions, a fast track for Dreamers, expanded access to the United States, and whiffs on border security. Conservative rejection was swift. “A mass amnesty with no safeguards and no strings attached is a nonstarter,” said Senator Chuck Grassley. Biden signed a flurry of first-day executive actions, including rescinding the travel ban, rolling back immigration enforcement, and halting construction on the border wall.
The battle over Big Tech. As the world now knows, with days left in his presidency, Donald Trump was banned by Twitter, suspended by Facebook, and kicked off YouTube and Snapchat—an effective silencing of the president of the United States. Many other conservative voices have been silenced too. Judicial Watch’s own Tom Fitton was suspended from Twitter for an innocuous tweet about hydroxychloroquine—the exact same tweet that Tom had repeatedly posted and that Twitter had found in September to be not in violation of its rules. Big Tech’s concentration of power and impact on free speech has become too blatant to ignore. In 2021, watch for the battle over Big Tech to move to Congress and the courts.
The battle over Trump. The former president has decamped to Florida but he is certain to stay in the news. He leaves a legacy of conservative judges, deregulation, and economic growth. His adversaries are circling with a second impeachment trial, a criminal investigation by the Manhattan district attorney, a federal tax probe, defamation lawsuits, and an assault on his worldwide business holdings. The harassment and troubles will not cease, but he remains a potent force in Republican politics. How will he use that power? The political world will be watching closely.
The battle over Biden. With his son’s business dealings—including with the controversial Ukrainian energy firm Burisma—under FBI investigation, President Biden’s Justice Department faces pressure to hand off the probe to a special counsel, a development that will engulf the new administration in controversy. On the legislative front, as an old Washington hand, the new president knows that the window of opportunity closes fast. Next January, will President Biden have a record of legislative achievement, the pandemic erased, the economy growing? Or will he be seen as feckless and wavering, unable to achieve his goals, captive to his party’s left-wing?
Time will tell.
The view from here: doubling down on a Senate impeachment trial while pursuing a politically risky immigration deal is not a smart start.
