WASHINGTON—United States Senator Bill Hagerty (R-TN), a member of the Senate Appropriations Committee, today joined Kudlow on Fox Business to discuss the ongoing Senate border deal negotiations and the U.S. House of Representatives efforts to impeach Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas.
Partial Transcript
Hagerty on the ongoing border deal negotiations: “I have respect for my colleagues, as you know, Larry. I think they’ve been working very hard on a piece of legislation. I haven’t seen it though, as you mentioned, I haven’t seen the text. But I’ll tell you this: you and I have both been in business for years. When you’re negotiating with the other side and they don’t show good faith, it’s time to walk away. [President] Joe Biden, as [House Majority Leader] Steve Scalise just said, Joe Biden has had every tool that President [Donald] Trump had. President Trump secured that border [and] left it in the best shape that we have seen it, at least in my lifetime. Joe Biden came in and intentionally undid all of that. He’s shown no good faith to try to step back up to say he was wrong, to put back in place the border wall, to begin rebuilding that again, to put back in place ‘Remain in Mexico,’ third-party safe agreements—he’s undone all of that. The Biden Administration was in the Supreme Court just last week seeking permission to take down the razor wire at our southern border that [Texas Governor] Greg Abbott put up. That is not good faith. When the other side is not negotiating in good faith, it’s time to step away. What we’ve got right now is a situation that is very, very hard to square.”
Hagerty on the House’s efforts to impeach DHS Secretary Mayorkas: “I applaud what the House [of Representatives] is doing right now. In the private sector, [if] somebody had allowed this to happen—eight million people to enter our country illegally in the past three years under his watch, hundreds of thousands of people dying from drug overdoses from fentanyl primarily coming across that southern border. We have no idea how many people are here on the terrorist watch list; the national security crisis is through the roof. And you’ve got [DHS] Secretary [Alejandro] Mayorkas there in every hearing where I’ve cross-examined him; he’s been the most Orwellian answerer of anyone that I’ve ever spoken with. He says the exact opposite of the truth every time. It’s high time to deal with him. In the private sector, he would’ve been fired long ago.”
Hagerty on Senate Republicans’ border deal negotiations: “Well, we haven’t seen text so far, and Senator [James] Lankford has assured us all that he doesn’t want to divide our conference. Based on what people are seeing, what people are hearing, we’re divided right now, Larry. So, perhaps it doesn’t see the light of day; that would suit me just fine. If what we’re hearing, what you just described, is manifested in the document, it’s not going to work here in the United States Senate for the Republicans.”
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