Senate Republican leaders hold their weekly press briefing.
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NewsTranscript
00:00 (audience chattering)
00:03 - Well, good afternoon, everyone.
00:13 Obviously, we had an inspiring one-hour meeting
00:17 with the President of Ukraine.
00:20 I think this overwhelming agreement
00:26 that we need to deal with secure borders,
00:29 whether it's the Ukraine border,
00:33 the Israel border, or the U.S. border.
00:36 I would remind everyone that the U.S. border
00:40 was a part of the President's original request,
00:44 so it's been viewed, at least by some people
00:48 in the White House, that this ought to be part
00:52 of this overall effort.
00:55 Obviously, negotiating a border solution
00:59 is very complicated.
01:01 As you know, I designated James Lankford
01:06 to be the lead on that.
01:07 He and I spoke repeatedly over the weekend.
01:11 The talks continue, but we're not there yet.
01:15 Hopefully, all of this can come together,
01:20 and we can deal with all of these national emergencies
01:24 and the supplemental at the same time.
01:27 - As the leader pointed out, we had a chance
01:34 to not only hear from President Zelensky this morning,
01:37 but also to ask questions of him.
01:40 One thing I'll reiterate, and which we reiterated to him,
01:44 and that is there is strong bipartisan support
01:47 for assisting Ukraine.
01:51 In fact, if we could get, as the leader pointed out,
01:54 a little bit of work on behalf of the Democrats
01:57 to actually get some border security provisions
02:00 included in the package, we could get to something
02:02 that we could actually vote on.
02:05 As of right now, the President has not been
02:08 willing to engage, regrettably.
02:11 Senator Lankford has been working diligently,
02:15 trying to make some progress,
02:17 some headway with the Democrats,
02:18 but so far, they haven't seemed to take that
02:22 nearly seriously enough.
02:23 I hope that changes, because we really do need,
02:26 we've got to address the southern border
02:27 as part of a national security package.
02:29 In fact, if you look at just the data itself,
02:33 we've all pointed this out, but last year,
02:35 169 people were apprehended at the southern border
02:38 who were on the terrorist watch list.
02:40 You add to that the number of what they call
02:42 special interest aliens, you're starting to talk
02:45 in the thousands.
02:48 Then you couple that with the fact that there are
02:49 670,000 known gotaways last year, known gotaways.
02:53 You don't know how many are unknown gotaways,
02:56 but you have to believe that there are a lot of people
02:58 who are getting into this country,
02:59 who are getting away from the authorities,
03:01 who also have some really malign intentions
03:05 when they get into this country.
03:07 This issue's got to be addressed.
03:08 We've made that very plain, we've made it very clear.
03:11 I think the Democrats, hopefully they're coming
03:13 to understand that, but in order for us
03:15 to be able to move forward with the national security
03:17 package that addresses many of the issues
03:19 that we think need to be addressed around the world
03:21 that represent national secure,
03:24 or at least reflect America's national security interests,
03:27 but that starts first and foremost
03:29 with securing our own southern border
03:32 and keeping Americans safe.
03:34 - Joe Biden and the Democrats have created a deadly
03:43 and dangerous crisis at our nation's southern border.
03:47 In doing so, they have betrayed the citizens of this country
03:50 and undermined our own nation's security.
03:53 In terms of the size and the scope and the significance
03:56 of what is happening there,
03:58 this crisis is getting worse every single day.
04:02 It's incumbent on Joe Biden and the Democrats
04:05 to work with Republicans to end the crisis
04:08 and secure the border.
04:09 We need to do this for the safety and security of our nation.
04:13 The southern border is an international hotspot
04:16 for terrorists, for traffickers.
04:19 Just last week, the head of the FBI came to Congress
04:22 and testified that he is seeing blinking red lights
04:25 from all around the country in terms of the threat
04:29 of a terrorist attack here at home.
04:32 And still, day after day,
04:35 10,000 illegal immigrants cross our southern border.
04:39 I remember when President Obama's head of Homeland Security
04:44 said 1,000 illegal immigrants a day overwhelm the system.
04:48 So it's no surprise that people are angry
04:51 and they're afraid.
04:53 10,000 a day translates into over 10 million
04:57 in a four-year term of Joe Biden.
04:59 And this flood of illegal immigrants, who are they?
05:03 Well, some are criminals, very dangerous individuals,
05:07 drug dealers, people on the terrorist watch list.
05:11 Our communities and safety in our communities
05:14 are being undermined and people are being overwhelmed.
05:17 The American people know that they want border security.
05:22 Republicans have offered reasonable solutions
05:26 that will work to help make our communities safer.
05:29 If there's gonna be a national security bill,
05:31 it's going to absolutely have to include
05:34 border security measures,
05:36 or there's not gonna be a national security bill.
05:38 (audience murmurs)
05:41 Israeli women are being tortured and raped
05:48 at the hands of Hamas terrorists.
05:52 And this has been going on now for 57 days.
05:57 And the United Nations has been silent on this issue.
06:05 Now, previously, the United Nations
06:08 would have decried these actions
06:11 and called it an abhorrent war crime,
06:14 but not now.
06:16 Why?
06:18 Because these women are Jews.
06:22 October 7th was the bloodiest day in Israeli history.
06:32 It is the day that is the single greatest
06:36 murder and loss of Jews since the Holocaust.
06:41 The United Nations must speak up.
06:46 And if they don't, I will be calling for an investigation.
06:51 We need to come together,
06:53 let women's voices all across this nation be heard
06:57 in defense of those that can't speak out for themselves.
07:01 In Israel, in Gaza.
07:05 So we must make it known this is not okay.
07:09 Our administration needs to step up,
07:11 the United Nations needs to step up,
07:14 and we need to come together and work
07:17 for the sake and safety of these women.
07:20 - I want to talk just for a moment
07:26 about something that I find deeply troubling,
07:28 and I think all of us do,
07:30 and that's the rise of anti-Semitism across this country.
07:34 According to the Anti-Defamation League,
07:37 the incidents of anti-Semitism in this country
07:40 have gone up 337%.
07:44 That's more than 2,000 in the last year.
07:49 So if you think about what happened
07:50 on the House side last week,
07:52 with the three university presidents testifying,
07:56 when asked about hate speech and hate threats
08:00 on their campuses,
08:02 and they fall back to an academic answer
08:04 about freedom of speech and context,
08:08 I flash back to when my three children
08:11 went off to campuses themselves.
08:14 And one of the first thing as a parent you think about
08:17 is the physical safety of their child.
08:21 And Jewish moms and dads around the country
08:27 have to think twice and three times
08:31 about what is the position
08:32 of the higher education institution
08:35 that they're entrusting their children
08:37 and young adults with
08:39 as they're moving into furthering their education.
08:43 And as a threat comes at them,
08:46 whether it's acted on or not,
08:48 an active threat of violence is not to be trifled with.
08:54 And I think we had a wake up call last week, quite honestly,
08:57 and I think these institutions have and the parents have.
09:00 And so I think we need to make sure
09:02 that we're facing this head on where it is
09:04 with the increase attacks we see across this country
09:08 against the Jewish people,
09:10 not just American Jews, but Jews all around the world.
09:14 - As you see the news every week
09:23 on what's going on at the southern border,
09:24 one might wonder are things getting better
09:28 or how could they possibly get worse?
09:32 Let's look at the numbers for a moment.
09:34 Just when we thought we hit record numbers in a prior week,
09:37 the next week breaks those numbers, breaks those records.
09:40 12,000 migrants apprehended at the border each day,
09:45 over 12,000 last week.
09:47 But here's one of my biggest concerns.
09:51 The State Department has identified four countries
09:55 as state sponsors of terrorism.
09:58 Iran, Syria, Cuba, North Korea.
10:03 How many individuals from one of those four countries
10:07 is being apprehended by border patrol in September?
10:11 1,030.
10:13 In October, it climbed to 1,394.
10:18 In November, another record, 1,876.
10:23 But it's not just the sheer volume that's concerning,
10:27 it's the very real public safety
10:30 and national security threat
10:32 that Biden's open border has created.
10:34 As we heard from the FBI, the blinking red lights,
10:37 that's not Santa's reindeer,
10:39 it's the blinking red lights that are coming from the FBI
10:43 about the terror threats in this country.
10:46 In my hometown of Bozeman, Montana,
10:49 over the course of the last couple of weeks,
10:51 we had two separate cases of drunk drivers
10:55 driving the wrong way down Interstate 90.
10:58 Turns out, both drunk drivers were illegal immigrants.
11:02 We may be a northern border state in Montana,
11:05 but we too are part of this southern border crisis.
11:08 What will it take for Senate Democrats to get on board
11:13 and secure our southern border?
11:16 This is not a time for negotiations.
11:19 This shouldn't be a partisan issue.
11:22 Everybody else sees the southern border as an utter chaos.
11:27 It's time for the Democrats to wake up.
11:29 - Senator McConnell.
11:31 Senator McConnell.
11:33 - Chad.
11:34 - Good afternoon, thank you.
11:35 In years past, you have said,
11:37 when we approach the holidays,
11:39 we don't get the work done by a certain date, we're done.
11:41 You've not said that this year.
11:43 Does that mean you anticipate the Senate
11:45 continuing to be in next session,
11:47 or are these negotiations on the supplemental
11:49 on the border continuing over the holidays
11:50 and come back and hit it in January?
11:52 - Good question.
11:53 I think the Speaker has said to a number of people
11:56 that he can speak for himself,
11:57 but he's apparently said to a number of people
12:00 they're leaving at the end of the week.
12:02 So all I have said is practically impossible,
12:07 even though we reach an agreement to craft it,
12:11 get it through the Senate,
12:12 get it through the House before Christmas.
12:15 That doesn't mean it's not important.
12:17 And even though we've been emphasizing the border,
12:21 I want to remind everybody of the importance of Ukraine.
12:26 We heard from the President today.
12:28 He is inspirational.
12:31 They have fought one of our biggest adversaries
12:37 for almost two years now.
12:41 We haven't lost a single person.
12:42 NATO has expanded.
12:45 The Japanese, the South Koreans, the Taiwanese,
12:49 the Australians all care about what happens in Ukraine.
12:53 We're not losing track of that.
12:57 It's just that border security applies to us as well.
13:02 And that's why we've emphasized so much
13:04 that subject in the last few days.
13:06 - Leader McConnell, a number of times in the past,
13:09 you've gotten together with Joe Biden
13:11 to negotiate deals on really tough problems,
13:14 like the fiscal cliff.
13:15 Do you think there's any chance of that happening now,
13:17 given the impasse on border security?
13:19 - Well, I have been in a similar situation
13:23 where I was the leader of the minority in the Senate,
13:26 and we had a Democratic administration.
13:29 And Joe Biden and I did do some pretty big deals,
13:35 fiscal cliff deal, the debt ceiling deal.
13:40 What I have said to him is the only way
13:46 we'll get an agreement is for you to be involved.
13:49 Don't just punt the ball up to Senate Democrats.
13:52 They may never get there.
13:54 And so it's been difficult to get the kind of support
13:59 out of the administration itself.
14:02 Look, we all know he's the only one
14:03 who can sign a bill into law.
14:06 Without him, there is no deal.
14:08 And so I've talked to him about it.
14:10 I've talked to Zinth about it.
14:12 Some indication last night
14:16 that maybe they're gonna finally engage
14:18 rather than just sending James Lankford and his team
14:23 back to Senate Democrats.
14:24 So just to sum it up, there won't be a deal
14:28 until Joe Biden and Republicans reach an agreement.
14:32 And that hasn't happened yet.
14:34 I hope that it will,
14:37 because I think this whole package
14:38 is important to our country,
14:40 and I'd like to see it pass.
14:42 -Do you worry about- -Mr. Lear,
14:45 if this does extend into January
14:47 and you're up against another spending deadline
14:50 and a shutdown, won't that just make the process
14:52 that much more complicated?
14:54 -It's not gonna be easy.
14:56 We've got plenty of work to do in January.
15:00 And if it were possible to pass this sooner,
15:05 I'd be for that.
15:08 But we can't do that without full engagement
15:10 from the White House and, ultimately,
15:13 the person who can sign something into law.
15:16 -Senator Earnest.
15:18 -Thank you.