House Republican leaders hold their weekly press briefing.
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NewsTranscript
00:00Good morning, everyone.
00:10Under Joe Biden, the world is less safe.
00:14Since stepping into the Oval Office, Joe Biden's weak foreign policy has been defined by a
00:19steady stream of disastrous decisions and a world in chaos as a result.
00:24His desperate policy of appeasement has left our nation and our allies vulnerable to attack.
00:31Make no mistake, Vladimir Putin invaded Ukraine because Russia feared no reprisal from Joe
00:36Biden.
00:37A communist China flew a balloon over the United States, and Joe Biden allowed it.
00:43And who can forget Joe Biden's catastrophic and botched Afghanistan withdrawal, abandoning
00:48American interests in the Middle East and resulting in 13 American lives lost, all under
00:53Joe Biden's watch.
00:55And now Israel, our most precious ally, is in the fight for her very survival, facing
01:01an onslaught of attacks on its borders from Hamas and now the unprecedented attack from
01:06Iran over the weekend.
01:08Russia, communist China, and Iran have been emboldened by the utter failures of Joe Biden
01:14and the Biden administration.
01:15Our enemies do not fear recourse from America because of Joe Biden's weakness.
01:21For the sake of Israel's survival, our nation, and the world's security, we need to return
01:25to President Trump's peace-through-strength policies, which House Republicans proudly support.
01:31With that, we are joined by our Foreign Affairs Chairman, Mike McCaul.
01:34Thank you, Madam Chair.
01:35Let me just say first, the world is on fire, and history will judge us by our actions.
01:45Were you Chamberlain or were you Churchill?
01:50It all started with Afghanistan, the debacle, the implosion, the surrender to the Taliban
01:57that projected weakness, not strength.
02:00It invited aggression, not peace.
02:04What happened?
02:05Putin and the Russian Federation, we saw on satellite imagery, going down to Ukraine to
02:12begin their invasion, and we warned them.
02:15I talked to the ambassador, our ambassador to Ukraine yesterday.
02:20Kharkiv is on the verge of falling, that's two million people, and the power group could
02:25be taken down.
02:26It's a very dire situation, in her words.
02:30China is more aggressive now than ever, threatening to take over Taiwan that controls 90 percent
02:36of our advanced semiconductor manufacturing for the world, and now the Ayatollah has raised
02:42his ugly head with his proxies, his tentacles, and for the first time in history, unprecedented,
02:49an Iranian strike from Iran in Israel itself, on Israel soil.
02:56How did we get here?
02:59By projecting weakness, not strength.
03:02Iran, not enforcing sanctions.
03:06Energy sanctions to the tune of $80 billion were essentially waived so that China could
03:13buy $80 billion of energy and fund Iran's terror enterprise.
03:19What else happened?
03:20The UN sanctions expired, we did nothing on the drones and the missiles, the very same
03:27drones and missiles that we saw launched last weekend, last Saturday night.
03:33The same missiles and drones that we know Mr. Putin is buying and killing the Ukrainians
03:39with as they build a manufacturing base in Russia itself.
03:45We need to go back to the vaccine campaign, pressure campaign.
03:50We need to enforce these sanctions.
03:52We need to re-designate the Houthi rebels as a foreign terrorist organization, for God's
03:59sakes.
04:00We don't understand this accommodation and appeasement to the Ayatollah in the hopes
04:06of some Iran deal when their own envoy, special envoy to Iran, is under FBI investigation
04:14for violations of his security clearance.
04:17You really can't make this up.
04:19The Speaker has a plan.
04:20We're going to address Israel, we're going to address Ukraine, we're going to address
04:25Taiwan.
04:26And we're also going to have a fourth package with things like MyRepo Act to help pay for
04:31this, from Russian sovereign assets.
04:33We're going to have a loan program for direct government payments.
04:39Creative ideas, a package that would be far better than the Senate's, and I want to thank
04:44the Speaker for his leadership in this very, very difficult time and very dangerous time,
04:50but the time clearly attacked us now.
04:54I'm off to a hearing with the Secretary of the White House.
04:58We'll be walking over articles of impeachment today.
05:03We're going to demand the Senate do their constitutional responsibilities and hold a
05:08trial.
05:09This man is responsible for 200,000 people who are dead now because of fentanyls.
05:15This man is responsible for 350 on the terror watch list in this country now, posing a threat
05:21every day.
05:23Nine million encounters.
05:25He is responsible for releasing aggravated felons.
05:28In fact, in a memo he told his agents, disregard Congress's law that says mandatory detention
05:36for aggravated felons, release them into society.
05:41We believe he merits impeachment.
05:43That is our message and that is what we intend to do.
05:46And with that, I want to turn it over to our whip, Mr. Randolph.
05:52Iran's unprecedented attack against Israel this past week was a result of Joe Biden's
06:02disturbing pattern of appeasement on the world stage.
06:06Look no further than his failed foreign policy decisions over the last three years.
06:11In February 2021, Joe Biden reversed a Trump-era move which imposed permanent sanctions on
06:18Iran's drone and missile programs.
06:21In September of 2023, Joe Biden waived sanctions to give another $6 billion ransom payment
06:29to Iran.
06:30In November of 2023, Joe Biden handed another $10 billion to Iran, despite their repeated
06:37attacks against American servicemen overseas.
06:41And just this month, Joe Biden actually demanded that Israel back down in its fight against
06:48the Iranian-backed Hamas.
06:51It's no wonder Iran did not take Joe Biden's warning of don't very seriously.
06:58Robert Gates, who served as Defense Secretary under President Obama, hit the nail on the
07:02head when he said that Joe Biden has, quote, been wrong on nearly every major foreign policy
07:08and national security issue over the past four decades.
07:12Unfortunately, our allies continue to suffer and our adversaries continue to be empowered
07:18by this administration's incompetence.
07:21That is why this week our House Republican majority will be voting on a series of bills
07:25that hold Iran and its terrorist proxies accountable while showing our unwavering support for Israel.
07:33We cannot afford to equivocate on this issue.
07:36Now is a time for choosing, and the choice could not be more clear.
07:40It's a matter of good versus evil, of right versus wrong.
07:44The question remains, will House Democrats let this administration's failed foreign policy
07:49slow walk us into World War III, or will they vote with House Republicans in putting a check
07:54on Joe Biden's incompetence?
07:57I hope that this week they're going to come to their senses and join us in standing with
08:00our strongest ally in the Middle East over Iran and its terrorist proxies.
08:04And with that, I turn it over to our leader, Steve Stolz.
08:08Take a whip.
08:12With the world on fire, this is an incredibly difficult time for our allies around the world.
08:19You see what's happening in Israel.
08:21It's no longer just the terrorist proxies like Hamas that are trying to eviscerate Israel,
08:28but now you have Iran directly striking at Israel.
08:33You see what's happening in Ukraine with Putin taking advantage of the weakness here in the
08:38White House to try to reestablish the old Soviet Union.
08:44You watch what's happening in Taiwan as they look over their shoulder at China.
08:50We don't choose moments like this, but history will judge us based on how we respond to moments
08:57like this.
08:58That's why this week you're seeing the House deal with a number of pieces of legislation
09:04to first stand firmly with our friend and ally Israel, to let them know that we have
09:10their back and their right to self-defense, however they choose to defend themselves from
09:15these unwarranted attacks from Iran.
09:18That's their choice.
09:19That's their decision.
09:21But we support that decision, and we are going to pass legislation to make that clear.
09:26We're also going to be confronting the threat that Iran poses directly.
09:30It's no longer their proxies that they're working through.
09:33They directly took unprecedented action to launch strikes, drones, other missiles, into
09:38Israel.
09:39Thank goodness for the coalition that joined together over the weekend, not just Israel
09:45but the United States, the United Kingdom, France, Jordan, standing to make sure that
09:50we knocked all of those drones and missiles down so that you didn't have casualties in
09:55Israel.
09:56But what about the next potential strike?
09:59We know that Israel is contemplating a response.
10:04The President of the United States shouldn't be telling our ally that they shouldn't respond.
10:10Imagine if the United States was attacked on our soil, and you had an ally call and
10:14say don't respond.
10:16This is a time when your allies need to be standing together against evil in the world.
10:21There are dark forces out there, and they're trying to do us harm and our friends harm.
10:26And this is the time where you stand with them.
10:28That's what the legislation this week will bring to the floor is focused on.
10:32Yesterday I spoke with Prime Minister Netanyahu, and we know these aren't easy times.
10:36We meet with him a lot here, sometimes in Israel, but they're facing serious challenges
10:41that they haven't seen in decades.
10:44And we are going to be letting them know, as the whip said, it's a time for choosing.
10:48Everybody's going to have to pick a side this week.
10:50Do you stand with Israel, or do you condone the terrorists and the largest state sponsor
10:56of terrorism, Iran?
10:58I hope everybody chooses the side of Israel.
11:01We surely will be.
11:02And we're going to continue to stand up with our friends, and it's time the President
11:07stopped putting preconditions on our allies and recognized when there's a choice between
11:12good and evil in the world, stand with good against evil.
11:17Israel is the country that we need to all be standing with.
11:21The man who's been leading that charge, to stand with our allies, to stand up to the
11:25evil, and to push this administration in the right direction is our speaker, Mike Johnson.
11:33Thank you, Mr. Leader.
11:34Good to see everybody this morning.
11:36It's a big day on Capitol Hill, and we have been trying to push the administration to
11:40do their job.
11:41Let me say this very clearly, as you've heard me say so many times before, and you'll
11:46hear me say in the days ahead, the Biden-Border catastrophe remains the number-one priority
11:52of the House Republicans.
11:53We have fought for this every single day.
11:56We continue to fight for border security every single day.
11:59Today is a big day to bring some accountability.
12:03It's a very important time in history, as has been noted here around the world, but
12:07certainly here as well.
12:08We're all witnessing that we live in an increasingly dangerous world, and our enemies are growing
12:14increasingly hostile abroad, and they're trying to exploit our borders here at home.
12:18The administration has made that very easy to exploit.
12:21In fact, they put out the welcome mat, as we all know.
12:24Over the last nearly four years, we've seen Secretary Mayorkas willfully cede operational
12:30control of our border to drug partners.
12:33We've seen exploding numbers of terrorists being encountered at the border.
12:37We've seen gang members and people of criminal backgrounds be released into our country.
12:42We've seen fentanyl flood over the border, and it's now become, as we all know, the
12:46leading cause of deaths for Americans aged 18 to 49.
12:49It feels like almost every day we hear another story now of violence committed against innocent
12:54Americans, some illegal alien who commits a violent act, assaults, brutalizes, or even
13:00murders an American.
13:02We're hearing about legal aliens getting busted for trafficking drugs in our small towns.
13:09Secretary Mayorkas has invited this catastrophe into our cities and our states, and he is
13:13responsible for the heartache of so many families across this country.
13:17He and Joe Biden engineered this catastrophe.
13:20They allowed it.
13:21They apparently desired it, and now we're all living with the results of it.
13:26He has repeatedly violated the public trust in a way that no previous cabinet secretary
13:31in the history of the United States has, and he has willfully defied federal immigration
13:36laws, willfully defied the will of Congress, the bipartisan will of Congress, bipartisan
13:41laws that were enacted before he took office and since.
13:45And after the House transmits the articles of impeachment to the Senate later today,
13:49we expect and we demand that all 100 senators listen to the arguments of the House impeachment
13:55managers.
13:56They have a constitutional and institutional obligation to do so.
14:00If Senator Schumer cares at all about the suffering of Americans and the disaster that
14:06Mayorkas has wrought at the border, then he will hold a full and public trial.
14:11The American people want a full and public trial.
14:14I think they deserve to see the evidence, and it will be unconscionable and, in my view,
14:19unconstitutional if Chuck Schumer fails in that responsibility.
14:23We have fought every single day to secure the border.
14:27The accountability for Secretary Mayorkas is a long time coming, but obviously there's
14:31much, much more to do.
14:33We passed H.R. 2, as everybody knows, a long time ago.
14:36It had all the key provisions to secure that border.
14:39We say H.R. 2 as if everybody understands what it is, but some Americans may not.
14:44What did we do in that bill?
14:46Very important things.
14:47We would restore the remaining Mexico policy that the previous administration under Donald
14:52Trump used to secure the border.
14:54We would end the catch-and-release policy that President Obama first installed and Joe
14:58Biden reenacted.
15:00We would end the abuses of the parole system and the abuses of our asylum process and systems
15:09that has allowed all of this flood of people into our country in these dangerous times.
15:14We also would rebuild parts of the wall because, as we've shown in Texas and demonstrated
15:18elsewhere, that's a critical deterrent to people crossing illegally.
15:22That was H.R. 2.
15:23We sent it to the Senate, and it has been sitting on Chuck Schumer's desk ever since.
15:27Since that time, we've passed resolutions in favor of the border.
15:30We'll continue.
15:31The House Republicans will continue to push all of this legislation through the House
15:34and use every ounce of leverage that we have to get control of the border.
15:38I have begged and pleaded and demanded that the President use his executive authority
15:43that he clearly has under law.
15:45Section 212F of the Immigration and Nationality Act, which now everybody knows by heart, allows
15:50the President's full discretion to close the border entirely, to shut it down if he
15:54deems it to be in the nation's interest.
15:56For goodness sakes, if this is not the time where it's in the nation's interest, we
16:00don't know when it would be.
16:02FBI Director Chris Wray has testified multiple times on the Hill and most recently here just
16:06several days ago that all the lights are blinking.
16:09We expect and anticipate a terrorist attack on the homeland because we've allowed over
16:13340 persons, suspects on the terrorist watch list, they were apprehended at the border,
16:17but we've allowed many of their compatriots, none of us knows how many, to come through
16:21unabated or to be in those groups of gotaways.
16:23We know that there are single adult men, which is the vast majority of the people in some
16:29of these sectors that have come in.
16:31But we took 40 or 64 Republicans to the Eagle Pass sector, the Del Rito sector, back in
16:38January, January 3rd, largest congressional trip ever.
16:41They told us that 60 to 70 percent of the crossings at that border at that time were
16:46single adult males of military capability.
16:48What are they plotting?
16:49What are they planning?
16:50Where are they?
16:51What small town are they encamped in?
16:53We have no idea, but we anticipate the worst.
16:57We pray for the best.
16:58We pray that all these fears are not realized, but this is a serious, serious thing the American
17:03people.
17:04And so I put out a preliminary plan, as you all know, on these measures to handle these
17:14matters from Israel to Ukraine to the Indo-Pacific region.
17:20And the fourth bill in this package would be our priorities, which is the Repo Act,
17:24and we implement the loan concept and all of this in the supplemental discussion.
17:29But the will of our body is to find every possible way, using this legislation and every
17:36legislation that we pass, to try to use as leverage to get the administration to get
17:42control of that border.
17:43The American people demand it.
17:44The American people deserve it.
17:45We're going to continue those discussions today about the bill.
17:49It's in draft form.
17:50It's not been released yet because we're still working it out.
17:53We have lots of ideas on the table, and we'll be doing that in earnest.
17:57And I'll take a few questions.
17:59Mr. Speaker, what is your response to Republicans who say this move should cost you your job
18:05and that if you don't resign, they will try to oust you?
18:08I am not resigning.
18:10And it is, in my view, an absurd notion that someone would bring a vacate motion.
18:15We are simply here trying to do our job.
18:18It is not helpful to the cause.
18:20It is not helpful to the country.
18:22It has not helped House Republicans advance our agenda, which is in the best interest
18:26of the American people here, a secure border, sound governance.
18:30And it's not helpful to the unity that we have in the body.
18:34Look, we have a very important mission here.
18:37Our mission is very clear.
18:38The reason most of us – I can speak for the House Republicans – the reason every
18:42House Republican ran for Congress is that they – because they wanted to come here
18:46and help to save this believer republic of ours.
18:49We want to save the country.
18:51We believe that we're in an existential moment.
18:53We really do.
18:54This is a civilizational moment.
18:56It's a moment where we're going to decide in this election cycle which vision we have
19:01for the country.
19:02See, we believe – and you all have heard me say before – we believe in the founding
19:06principles, the foundations of America, things like individual freedom and limited government
19:10and the rule of law, peace through strength, fiscal responsibility, free markets and human
19:15dignity, the foundational, the anchor points that make us the exceptional nation that we
19:19are.
19:20And right now, we're in a political struggle, a battle between a completely different vision
19:25for the country.
19:26We have colleagues in the Congress who envision for us not those things.
19:30They have disdain for those things I just listed.
19:33They instead envision that America should be remade in the form of some sort of European
19:38style socialist utopia.
19:40That is a dangerous fool's era.
19:42That is a road to Marxism, communism, socialism.
19:46That's a step towards those eventualities.
19:48And that is not who we are as a country.
19:50And so for us to accomplish our mission, which is to save the republic, we need to add more
19:55republics to the House and grow the House majority so we have more votes.
19:59We need to win back the republican majority in the Senate and we need to restore General
20:05J. Trump to the White House as our nominee.
20:07I believe all those things will happen, but we have to have the United Front and we have
20:12to have our members work together.
20:14And we'll be working today to do that very thing.
20:18Look, we are in unprecedented times, okay?
20:22We're in dangerous times, as has been articulated here, around the world and here at home.
20:27We need steady leadership, we need steady hands at the wheel.
20:30Look, I regard myself as a wartime speaker.
20:33I mean, in a literal sense, we are.
20:35I knew that when I took the gavel.
20:37I didn't anticipate that this would be an easy path.
20:40Former Speaker Newt Gingrich posted a couple days ago on his social media that this is
20:44the hardest challenge that's faced a speaker probably in the history of the country from
20:47the moment we're in right now.
20:49He said, arguably, maybe comparable to the Civil War, but maybe worse.
20:54A single-vote party at a difficult time when the nation is terribly divided.
20:58The way we get through that is we show unity and we explain how we have answers to all
21:03these great challenges.
21:04If we have those answers, we shouldn't get in the way of ourselves.
21:07We're going to work this out today and we'll have a lot more comment for you today, for
21:11you later.
21:12But I'm going to tell you that I am not concerned about this.
21:16I am going to do my job, and I think that's what the American people need to do.
21:19Is there any opposition?
21:20Is everyone here blocked, Mr. Speaker?