Senate Republican leaders hold their weekly press briefing.
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NewsTranscript
00:00 [BLANK_AUDIO]
00:10 >> Good afternoon, everyone.
00:16 I think we can all agree the single biggest unforced error of the Biden
00:21 administration was what they did in the first few days to basically
00:26 undo the executive action that had been taken by the previous administration to
00:32 secure the border.
00:34 [BLANK_AUDIO]
00:36 We entered into a good faith negotiation led by Senator Lankford with
00:41 the administration to try to come up with something we could agree on.
00:45 It's pretty obvious that it's not likely to pass the Senate and
00:50 certainly wouldn't pass the House.
00:54 So what the president is left with is what he can do on his own.
01:00 And he ought to do everything he can do on his own.
01:04 Legislation, I've been around a while as you all know.
01:08 It's been very difficult to legislate in this area the whole time I've been here.
01:15 So the president needs to step up to it, do everything he can do on his own.
01:21 Because legislation obviously is not gonna clear this year.
01:25 [BLANK_AUDIO]
01:31 >> Next to the economy, which the administration has completely mishandled,
01:36 the next and most important issue in the minds of most people in this country
01:41 is the border, as Senator McConnell pointed out.
01:45 And in fact, you look at the polls, 80% of Americans believe the border
01:50 is an issue, and more than 50% of Americans believe it is a major issue.
01:56 Senate Republicans happen to agree on that, which is why we've been urging
02:00 the Biden administration to take the actions that are necessary to get
02:05 operational control of the border, and they can consistently fail in that regard.
02:09 This is an example of just the got away.
02:12 So you hear us talk about numbers like those apprehended,
02:16 that number is 7.5 million or so.
02:19 There have been, since President Biden took office, about 1.8 million gotaways.
02:24 And this is just, look at this, I mean, this is when he takes office.
02:27 You get 2021, two, three, and we've got a long ways to go this year yet, but
02:32 this is the way that the gotaways have increased.
02:35 Now, these are known gotaways, meaning that they were observed,
02:38 they couldn't catch them.
02:39 They're also unknown gotaways, the number could be significantly higher.
02:43 And what's really concerning about all this, of course,
02:45 is that since President Biden's taken office,
02:48 the 362 people who have been apprehended, those who have been caught,
02:51 are on the terrorist watch list.
02:54 That doesn't include the number on this list or the unknown gotaways.
02:58 So Republicans have tried consistently,
03:00 repeatedly, to get the Democrats to focus on it.
03:03 We twice had votes on HR2, which is a bill that passed the House of Representatives.
03:08 The Democrats defeated it, voted against it.
03:11 They have blocked legislation like Senator Blackburn's bill,
03:15 that basically would have said that law enforcement officials, state and
03:20 local law enforcement officials, can detain criminals,
03:23 illegal criminals, until they can be deported.
03:25 There was a bud bill that would have made attacking a law enforcement officer
03:30 a deportable offense.
03:32 The Democrats blocked that.
03:33 They blocked a bill by Senator Haggard, if you can imagine this,
03:37 that would make it a requirement that to be counted in the census,
03:42 you actually have to be a citizen of the country.
03:45 They blocked that legislation.
03:46 So Republicans have tried repeatedly to get Democrats to focus on this on the floor,
03:51 and they have not.
03:53 So where we are right now, obviously, is this has become a political liability,
03:57 a political vulnerability for the Democrats.
04:00 I wish they were focused on this issue because they think it's a national security
04:03 issue.
04:04 The reason all of a sudden they're interested in doing something, or
04:06 at least appearing to be doing something,
04:08 is because they know they've got a big political vulnerability on this.
04:12 This can be solved very simply.
04:14 This President, President Biden, can reverse all the policies that he implemented
04:18 the day he took office, which is what has led to this massive,
04:22 massive problem at our southern border.
04:25 And we still encourage him to do that.
04:28 But all the charades and political theater the Democrats are trying to adopt on
04:33 the Senate floor to protect incumbents, that they are worried,
04:36 they know are on the wrong side of this issue,
04:39 isn't gonna change the way things are in the southern border.
04:41 [BLANK_AUDIO]
04:47 Chuck Schumer is going to bring to the floor of the Senate a so-called
04:50 immigration bill this week that he knows is doomed to fail,
04:53 because it failed the last time he tried the same trick.
04:57 Democrats are desperately trying to deflect the blame for
05:02 the damage that's been caused to our country as a result of our wide open
05:05 southern border.
05:07 People all across the country know that it's the Democrats' fault for
05:11 bringing in the drugs, the death,
05:12 the destruction that comes from our southern border.
05:15 When Joe Biden took that first step into the White House as President,
05:20 our southern border was secure.
05:23 He threw open the border along with the Democrats and
05:25 10 million illegal immigrants invaded our country.
05:30 People on the criminal watch list, cartel criminals, drug dealers,
05:35 people from all parts of the world came across our southern border.
05:40 Just a few weeks ago, a couple of those illegal immigrants who came in were
05:44 arrested trying to break in to our Marine Corps base
05:50 that holds our combat command.
05:53 One apparently was on the terrorist watch list.
05:56 So what did Biden's Homeland Security director in the department say?
06:00 Well, they dummied up.
06:02 They wouldn't tell us anything about the identity or
06:04 the intentions of those individuals.
06:07 What they said is that the privacy of those illegal immigrants
06:12 outweighed the right of public interest.
06:16 They said minimal public interest.
06:17 Well, look, Republicans continue to fight for the public interest,
06:21 for public safety.
06:23 Democrats are fighting for it and voting for wide open borders.
06:27 They're the ones that stopped construction of the border wall.
06:31 They're the ones that stopped telling people to leave the country,
06:35 evicting people who were here who were criminal illegal immigrants.
06:38 They're the ones that stopped allowing the border patrol to enforce the laws
06:42 of the land.
06:43 So Chuck Schumer is gonna be in here trying to throw a Hail Mary pass
06:47 to save his vulnerable Democrats.
06:50 The election is just a few months away.
06:53 The American people will have an opportunity at that time to hold
06:57 accountable Joe Biden and these open border Democrats.
07:01 [BLANK_AUDIO]
07:06 >> I think all of us remember what was going on about four years ago in 2020.
07:13 We were in the throes of COVID-19,
07:16 pandemic that swept all around the world.
07:21 Well, folks, here we are four years later.
07:24 And finally, the scientists at EcoHealth
07:29 will never be allowed to get their hands on bats or
07:34 our taxpayer funding ever again.
07:36 For years, folks, I've been working very hard to protect Americans from funding
07:42 EcoHealth's dangerous experiments at Chinese labs,
07:47 including the Wuhan Institute of Virology.
07:51 And the same work that they are doing now right here on American soil.
07:59 So yeah, EcoHealth Alliance working right here in the US doing the same thing
08:04 they were doing at Chinese labs.
08:06 And after years and years and years of denials by Dr.
08:12 Fauci himself and his friends, HHS has finally
08:18 now admitted that yes, folks, they were funding
08:24 gain of function research at Wuhan Institute of Virology.
08:30 Straight from HHS, they are finally admitting what they denied for years.
08:40 So before getting any other batty ideas, what we need to do as Congress is put in
08:44 place guardrails so that what happened at the Wuhan Institute of Virology
08:50 never happens again, whether it's overseas in China or right here on American soil.
08:57 So I'm working to ensure that Congress stops funding for
09:00 all risky research of pandemic potential.
09:06 So we need to make sure that Americans' taxpayer dollars are not being misspent
09:10 again, whether it's in China or right here in the good old United States of America.
09:15 >> Well, I wanted to bring to everybody's attention
09:23 something that doesn't get much attention.
09:25 And you've heard the term, follow the money.
09:28 So I looked up where to follow the money.
09:30 I thought it was from a Tom Cruise movie, but it wasn't.
09:33 It was from Watergate.
09:35 And follow the money is what they did in Watergate, and we saw what happened.
09:40 So my young staffer, who's very bright and I see him over there, Adam Pack,
09:45 followed the money.
09:47 And the money is from the so-called Inflation Reduction Act.
09:51 So in the name of green and environmental justice,
09:56 there's over $40 billion that are gonna be granted out through the EPA.
10:02 So with this great research that was done,
10:06 what was discovered that in December,
10:10 the EPA granted $50 million to an organization
10:17 called Climate Justice Alliance.
10:20 So we went to the website of Climate Justice Alliance.
10:26 This is what we found on the website,
10:28 that our taxpayer dollars are going to organizations such as this.
10:33 This at the bottom is a picture of the bulldozer that went through the fence
10:38 when Hamas attacked Israel on October the 7th.
10:41 They have a rendering on their website.
10:46 It says decolonize Palestine, and
10:48 it has a picture of that same bulldozer going through that fence.
10:54 If you dig deeper, they wanna defund the police, defund the military.
11:00 Either them or their affiliates want to have very radical,
11:05 drastic initiatives that I think are anti-American.
11:10 And they're certainly anti-Israel and anti-Semitic.
11:14 So the Biden administration doesn't seem to care.
11:18 $50 million in December, who knows how much more in the future and
11:23 other like groups because there are other associated groups with this group.
11:27 There's no inspector general for EPA to follow the money because they don't care.
11:33 Because all they care about is the mission, the climate mission,
11:38 no matter what the radical ideas that are associated with the groups.
11:43 So then you could ask yourself, is this group really going to be funding
11:48 climate, cleaning up the water and cleaning up the soil and cleaning up the air?
11:52 Or are they gonna be funding things like the protests they had in Hart
11:56 just several weeks ago where several of them were arrested?
12:00 So follow the money.
12:01 We're gonna be doing that in the Environment and Public Works Committee.
12:04 That's where the derivation of this was.
12:06 And I find it rather startling to me that the EPA is not doing, and
12:12 the administration are not doing any better research as to where
12:17 our American taxpayer dollars are going.
12:19 [BLANK_AUDIO]
12:25 So go back and watch the replays of what was going on in February of 21,
12:30 when Joe Biden reversed policies that were working to secure the Southern border
12:35 that President Trump put in place.
12:37 And now three and a half years later, we've seen the Senate Democrats doing
12:42 nothing to try to solve the border crisis that we have.
12:45 They've done nothing to stop illegals who are flooding the country,
12:49 those on the FBI terror watch list.
12:51 They've allowed over 9 million illegal crossings up the Southern border.
12:54 But now, they've seen the light, or maybe they've seen the polls.
12:59 Senate Dems' border crisis has become a political crisis.
13:04 And now they're looking to Chuck Schumer to bail them out.
13:07 This is Washington cynicism at its finest, and
13:14 the American people won't be fooled.
13:16 This is a political stunt.
13:20 The reason, look at the votes the Senate Democrats have already cast.
13:25 They voted against the Lincoln-Riley Act, which calls for
13:28 illegals who commit theft or shoplifting to be detained or deported.
13:33 They voted against deportation for illegals who are assaulting police officers.
13:39 They voted to keep state and local law enforcement from
13:44 detaining illegals who commit crimes until they can be deported.
13:49 This is the real record, the Senate Democrats, and the spin or
13:53 the sham votes will not be able to erase this dismal record
13:59 that opened our Southern border and made America unsafe.
14:02 >> Leader McConnell.
14:06 >> I think I ought to give him the news one more opportunity.
14:09 >> [LAUGH] >> And that'll be once a week.
14:12 >> Okay, at least I won't ask you about Justice DeLito.
14:15 There was a report last week that outside of Justice DeLito's home,
14:19 there was an upside down American flag that was flown outside of his home,
14:24 similar to what was used by the January 6th rioters.
14:26 Was that appropriate for the justice to do that?
14:29 And should he recuse himself from any cases related to the election?
14:32 >> It seems to me they're just nonstop attacks on the Supreme Court.
14:37 Week after week after week.
14:41 And so I'm not gonna justify that with a response.
14:46 We need to leave the Supreme Court alone, protect them from people who went into
14:51 their neighborhoods and tried to do them harm.
14:55 Look out for the Supreme Court.
14:57 That's part of the job of the administration.
14:59 >> Leader McConnell, what was your message to the President when you talked to him,
15:04 when there was a telephone conversation about this border?
15:07 >> Yesterday?
15:09 Yeah, well- >> Had you talked to him?
15:11 In addition, or was that the only call?
15:13 >> Well, the President called the Speaker, and he also called me about the subject
15:18 that we've all been talking about, which is the border.
15:21 And I said to him what I just said to you a while ago.
15:24 Mr. President, you caused this problem.
15:27 There was no legislation that allowed the problem to be fixed.
15:35 Why don't you just renew what the previous administration was doing,
15:39 which got the border in decent shape?
15:41 We tried on a bipartisan basis to see if we could agree to something.
15:48 This is divided government.
15:50 Senator Lankford met with them for literally months.
15:53 It was clear that wasn't gonna pass.
15:57 So I think it's safe to say going to a border bill right now is just a gimmick,
16:06 a way to try to convince the American people that they're concerned about this
16:10 when they caused it.
16:12 >> Mr. McConnell, New York Times Santa College poll released last week showed
16:17 Trump beating Biden significantly in Nevada, Arizona,
16:21 also ahead in some other battleground states.
16:24 But at the same time,
16:25 Republican Senate candidates are behind Democrats in those states.
16:29 Why do you think the discrepancy here?
16:31 >> Well, I think incumbency, as we learned in 22, is an advantage.
16:37 Not a single incumbent lost in 22.
16:42 Senator Daines and I have never said we thought this was gonna be easy.
16:46 We've gotta beat an incumbent in Montana, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and
16:53 anywhere else we can.
16:55 But we never said it was gonna be a piece of cake.
16:58 And we've got good candidates in all these places and
17:02 are giving it everything we've got to win.
17:06 >> Thank you.
17:07 >> Thank you.
17:07 [BLANK_AUDIO]