While lawmakers waddle and engage in a staredown with the Trump administration over its policy of separating families at the border, GOP strategists fret about the impact that the issue could have on the midterms, the Washington Examiner reports.
Tidy it up soon and it'll be forgotten soon; let it linger and the images of kids being taken from mothers will dominate the run-up to November.
"The issue is terrible for House Republicans, President Trump, and the Republican Party as a whole. For many voters, including crucial swing voters from suburban areas, it reinforces the absolute worst perceptions," a Republican strategist told the Examiner.
"The GOP is not going to win on this issue and needs to back down and admit it was a mistake," a Midwest Republican operative told the Examiner. "Millions of mothers around the country picture their own babies being ripped from them. That’s not a good place to be."
However, President Donald Trump and his administration remain unapologetic and steadfast in continuing to enforce their "zero tolerance" policy on people trying to cross the border illegally.
All eyes are on Trump's Tuesday meeting with House Republicans, most of whom have voiced strong opposition to the policy, save for the conservatives in the caucus.
The House continues to haggle on compromise legislation to address comprehensive immigration reform, having narrowly avoided an end-around tactic by moderate Republicans and Democrats to force a floor vote.
Also on the table is solo legislation that would ostensibly address and end family separations. But whichever way House Republicans hope to go, it's only a piece of paper unless the president is committed to it.
"Unless we actually get a piece of paper signed by the president that says 'I am no longer going to do this,' people are going to presume that the administration will continue doing this," Leon Fresco, who led the Justice Department’s Office of Immigration Litigation under Obama, told the Examiner.
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