Senate Democratic leaders hold their weekly press briefing.
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NewsTranscript
00:00The Knicks did not do too well, wait till next year, like we used to say for the Brooklyn
00:08Dodgers.
00:09Okay, whoops.
00:10But, how about the New York Yankees, you told me last night there were seven in a row.
00:20It's May.
00:21It's May.
00:22It is May.
00:23Seven in a row.
00:24They have the best record in baseball except for who?
00:28The Philadelphia Phillies.
00:29Where's, what's his name?
00:30P.K.
00:31Who's the Phillies' man?
00:32Yes.
00:33Okay.
00:34All right, thank you for coming, Senators Murphy and Cortez Masto, our great senators
00:40have joined us.
00:42So this week, we are again attempting to fix something our Republican colleagues have long
00:47called an emergency and a crisis, our southern border.
00:52For years, Republicans have insisted that the only long-term solution to fixing the
00:57southern border was for Congress to pass legislation.
01:01We Democrats agree with them.
01:04That's why this morning I filed cloture on the motion to proceed to the Bipartisan Border
01:08Act, the very same bipartisan bill negotiated months ago by Senators Murphy, Sinema, and
01:15Lankford.
01:16It's the same bipartisan bill that was supported by the National Border Patrol Council, a very
01:22conservative group that usually leans Trump, the same bipartisan bill endorsed by the Chamber
01:28of Commerce, and even by the very conservative Wall Street Journal editorial page, the same
01:36partisan bill that Donald Trump killed, saying, please, blame it on me, please.
01:42So blame it on him.
01:44Make sure you do.
01:45He said so.
01:46You're just following his wish.
01:47I know you don't have to follow his wishes, but that's okay.
01:50So we will try to do something, again, our Republican colleagues have long claimed to
01:56have desperately wanted, securing our southern border.
02:00This Thursday, the Senate will vote on the bipartisan border bill.
02:04All those who say we need to act on the border will get a chance to show this week that they're
02:08serious about fixing the problem.
02:12They'll get a chance to show whether they're just talking points to them or whether they
02:16want to improve the status quo.
02:19Unlike H.R. 2, this is a huge and vital distinction.
02:23The border bill was written explicitly to win support from both parties with input from
02:27both sides.
02:28When H.R. 2 came up in this House, in this Senate for the first time, it got no votes
02:33at all.
02:34And there was no Democratic input, unlike our bill, which had tons of Republican and
02:39Democratic input, not only from the three negotiators, but from many others.
02:44And let's not forget, when this bill was being negotiated, Leader McConnell was also
02:49supportive of the effort.
02:51He insisted this has to happen as part of the supplemental right before we released
02:55our bill.
02:56He said, I think this is the ideal time to do it.
03:00This is a unique opportunity where divided government has given us an opportunity to
03:04get an outcome.
03:06As I said, H.R. 2 was not a serious bill, but what we're voting on this week is.
03:12It's the same bipartisan bill both sides negotiated for months this winter, Senator
03:17Murphy's here, and received bipartisan endorsements across the country.
03:22By any objective measure, it's strong, tough, and realistic.
03:27This is the same bipartisan border bill Republicans pushed for, then backed away when they got
03:32orders from President Trump, made an about-face, turn, and then voted no.
03:38If our bipartisan border bill was good enough to win support of the union that represents
03:42Border Patrol agents, why isn't it good enough for Senate Republicans?
03:49Our Senate Republicans say they know better than our agents patrolling the border.
03:53The question is, do Republicans want to improve the situation on the border or not?
04:00Maybe they're happy with the way things are.
04:03They're happy with chaos.
04:04They're happy with trafficking and smuggling.
04:06They're happy with fentanyl and the deadly flow of drugs coming through our ports.
04:11They're happy with the misery.
04:13I hope not.
04:15I sincerely hope our colleagues are ready to join us.
04:19Of course, we don't expect every Democrat or every Republican to come out in favor of
04:23this bill.
04:24It's bipartisan.
04:25By definition, it's a compromise.
04:27That's why the only way to pass this bill is with broad bipartisan support.
04:34If you go by what Republicans said over the last few months, you'd think they'd leap at
04:38an opportunity like we have right now.
04:40In the words of one of my colleagues from Texas, it makes no sense to me for us to do
04:46nothing when we might be able to do things better.
04:49In the words from a colleague from South Carolina, to those who think that if President Trump
04:54wins, we can get a better border deal, you won't.
04:57And he added, this moment will pass, do not let it pass.
05:02I wholeheartedly agree.
05:04Let's not let the moment pass.
05:06Border legislation is just about the hardest thing Congress ever wrestles with.
05:11Bipartisan border bills are rare in the Congress.
05:15That's precisely what we have in front of us this week.
05:18I urge everyone not to let politics get in the way.
05:21Senator Masto has to go to another event, so I'm going to call on her next.
05:24Court Justice.
05:25Thank you.
05:26I appreciate that.
05:27And I thank you to my colleagues and to my colleague, Chris Murphy.
05:31Thank you so much for all the work that you have done, along with Senator Sinema and Lankford
05:37on this bipartisan bill.
05:38And yes, I want to thank Leader Schumer for bringing us together again to talk about this
05:42important issue, which is how do we ensure we're passing legislation to address the very
05:47needs that I heard when I was down on the border.
05:49I was at the Tucson sector.
05:50I was talking to the Border Patrol.
05:52I was talking to the customs agents.
05:54They are understaffed and overwhelmed.
05:57And my commitment to them was we will work here in Washington to bring you the resources
06:03that we need.
06:04This bipartisan legislation does just that.
06:08It would help us fund new technology to crack down on drug and human trafficking, and it
06:13would save lives by stopping the deadly flow of fentanyl and other dangerous drugs into
06:18our communities.
06:20It also updates our old asylum system that takes far too long to process cases.
06:25Everyone agrees our asylum system is broken.
06:29Let's fix it.
06:30And this bill would create a quarter of a million new visas to help reunite families
06:35and encourage people to go through the immigration process legally.
06:38Let me just say this.
06:39This is an issue you don't have to be a border state to realize this is affecting so many
06:44people across this country.
06:46It is important in Nevada.
06:48It's important across the country that we give our law enforcement on the border the
06:51tools that they need.
06:52That's what this is about.
06:53I sit and listen to my colleagues on the floor of the Senate and Republicans talk about wanting
06:57border security.
06:58They talk about wanting to pass policy to address it.
07:01This is that legislation.
07:02This bipartisan legislation fixes that.
07:06Our Republican colleagues are thinking about the people they serve back home.
07:11Are they really?
07:12No.
07:13They're not thinking about them.
07:14They're not thinking about the safety of American families.
07:17They're not thinking about the law enforcement officers at the border that I met with.
07:22They're only thinking about one person right now, and unfortunately, that's Donald Trump.
07:27Enough is enough.
07:28It is clear who the real party of law and order is, and right now, unfortunately, it
07:33is not the Republican Party.
07:42Thank you, Leader Schumer.
07:44So why are we bringing this bill up a second time?
07:47The answer is simple.
07:50Democrats care about border security.
07:53We care about immigration reform.
07:56We are not willing to walk away from a bipartisan bill that we worked for four months to achieve
08:05that lines up with the broad priorities of the American public.
08:10Maybe it would have been easier to accept Republicans' political decision to side
08:15with Trump and move on, but Democrats believe that we have an opportunity to continue
08:23to bring this case to the American public, to try to change minds in the Republican
08:26caucus, so that we can finally come together, Republicans and Democrats, and do something
08:31about border security.
08:33Listen, this bill would be effective.
08:37It would be effective.
08:39And it lines up with where the broad middle of America is.
08:43People in this country are proud of our history of immigration.
08:47They want America to be a place where people can come to find a better life, to reunite
08:52with their family, to flee violence or persecution or torture.
08:57But they want our immigration system to be done in an orderly way.
09:00And at the end of last year, when 10,000 people were showing up every day at our southern
09:03border, that was not orderly.
09:07That put a strain on our law enforcement, it put a strain on our cities.
09:13And people in this country knew that we needed to make changes to how we bring people into
09:19this country at the southwest border, and that's exactly what we did.
09:23Our bill doesn't stop the ability of people to come to the United States, it just puts
09:26in place a more orderly system, where you will never again have 10,000 people showing
09:31up on an individual day, because it allows the President to shut down asylum claims when
09:36they overwhelm our resources.
09:39Never again will someone wait for 10 years to have their asylum claim processed, because
09:44we put in a new system with additional resources so that people's asylum claims will be taken
09:49care of in months, not in years.
09:53This bill, if it passes, would be effective in bringing order to the southwest border,
10:00and that is the reason that Republicans killed it earlier this year.
10:04Because Donald Trump said, plain and simple, I don't want you to do anything.
10:10Mitch McConnell admitted it at a press conference.
10:12Senator McConnell stood up and said, the President of the United States told us to do, the former
10:17President of the United States told us to do nothing.
10:22The question that we believe is so important, that we want to have another debate in the
10:28Senate is this.
10:30Do you care more about the security of your country, or do you care more about the political
10:35prospects of your party and your presidential candidate?
10:40I think this problem is so big.
10:45I think this solution is so important that it's worth putting that question to Republicans
10:50and to the country again, and I thank Senator Schumer for giving us the chance to have this
10:54debate this week.
11:00Do you support the idea of calling Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and having him address
11:06a joint meeting of Congress?
11:08Look, I'm discussing that now with the Speaker of the House, and as I've always said, our
11:15relationship with Israel is ironclad and transcends any one Prime Minister or President.
11:20Is the Democratic position now that the border needs to be taken care of before addressing
11:26other things like DACA and path assistantship visas?
11:29Look, we have ready-made legislation that had broad bipartisan support that Republicans
11:35supported until President Trump told them to make a U-turn.
11:39It's very important to do, and we're going to try to do everything we can to get it done.
11:43Yes?
11:44On a separate issue, Farm Bill, any prospect of getting that done this year before the
11:48Senate?
11:49Look, the way to get a Farm Bill done is bipartisan, and we hope that can happen.
11:52The House bill is not yet bipartisan.
11:54It's going to be very hard to get Farm Bill done unless we have bipartisan support in
11:58both the House and Senate.
11:59Leader Schumer, on IVF, what do Democrats see as wrong with the Great Cruise proposal?
12:05Look, we have a much better proposal, and Republicans ought to support it.
12:09The proposal put forward by Senator Duckworth has been thought through and carefully done.
12:14Yes?
12:15Leader Schumer, do you have concerns about the impartiality of Justice Alito in the wake
12:18of that New York Times report?
12:20Look, I think what he did was really the wrong thing to do, and it casts some doubt on impartiality,
12:29and I'm discussing with Senator Durbin where we should go from here.
12:32Yes?
12:33Do you support the State Department offering condolences to the Iranian president?
12:38I haven't seen what they put out, so I'll have to get back to you.
12:42On the Alito flag situation, do you plan to bring the Supreme Court Code of Ethics bill
12:46to the floor for a vote on it?
12:47We have a lot of bills we want to get on the floor, but that's one of them in high consideration.
12:52Last one.
12:53On the border issue here, are Democrats vulnerable on that politically this fall,
12:58and is that one of the reasons you're doing this?
13:00Democrats are doing this because we believe in fixing the border, and we have the only
13:05real bipartisan bill negotiated by both sides with a real chance of passing and being put
13:11on the president's desk.
13:12Everything the Republicans do have no chance of passing, so who's more serious about
13:16fixing the border?
13:17We are, and I think the public will understand that.
13:20Thank you.