2 days ago
Inside the Senate GOP's heated meeting with Stephen Miller
GOP frustration bubbled over in a closed-door meeting with senators and White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller on Thursday morning, Axios has learned.
Why it matters: The border has long been a unifying issue for Republicans. Now it's a point of drama as Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) seeks to make cuts some border funding in the Trump budget bill.
Paul was not physically in the room with Miller, but his presence was overwhelming.
Two sources described the meeting as heated and shared frustrations that Paul was using his power of Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs chair to make a unifying issue divisive.
Zoom in: Sen. Roger Marshall (R-Kansas) grew particularly frustrated at Miller for not having more specific statistics on hand, per two sources.
Miller indicated Paul already had detailed statistics — about how they arrived at the billions of dollars needed to continue building a border wall, for example — but was not sharing them with other senators.
Zoom out: Paul's version of the border security text for the bill would have significantly less funding. He has long balked at the price tag. He's expected to vote "no" on any final package due to its debt ceiling measures.
In a different closed-door meeting on Wednesday, Paul pitched GOP senators on needing to have more information about why the border price tag was so high — $150 billion.
