OPINION: This article may contain commentary which reflects the author's opinion.
House Speaker Mike Johnson said it did not take long to realize that the U.S. Senate’s “bipartisan” border bill was going to be “dead on arrival” in the lower chamber.
During an interview on Fox News, Johnson spoke with host Laura Ingraham about the border crisis and President Joe Biden’s refusal to do much about it.
“It did not take long to realize that this is dead on arrival. There’s no way we could bring this through the House. The Senate expects us to pass a bill, a he is pooh of legislation that you just did a great job dismantling here. What it would do is actually further incentivize illegal immigration it. Would not resolve any of the problems. Not reform in any meaningful way the broken asylum system. The broken parole process and all the things that have created this catastrophe. And, by the way, meanwhile, it further empowers the very cabinet secretary who designed and created this mess. They don’t follow federal law. Why would we do this anyway? But the bill itself would actually do more harm than good and that’s why we have said it’s a nonstarter over here in the house,” Johnson said.
“The American people are running the show here. We are the representatives of our constituents. The American people are on our side. They recognize this catastrophe has been disastrous for the country. Every state is a border state. And everybody knows it. Everybody traveling the country, Laura, since I have been speaker of the House. 15 states doing events. Doesn’t matter out in the west. Midwest, long island, the deep south, south Florida the message is the same. Number one issue on the hearts and minds of the American people. We have to solve this crisis,” Johnson added.
The Speaker continued: “I’m going do make this point again because Senator Schumer isn’t listening, apparently, the president of the United States has the authority right now to fix this crisis. He has broad executive authority under the federal statutes and Chuck Schumer knows it and President Biden knows it. And he refuses to use that they could stop this, they could stop the flow immediately. They don’t want to, Laura. I think you alluded to a few moments ago exactly why that is.”
“In our arsenal to ensure that does not happen and, by the way, in the last half hour, President Biden came out and said that he would actually veto the legislation, the clean funding bill to help our ally Israel in its time of greatest need. Israel is at war. They are fighting for their very existence. And the president has our troops in harm’s way now because of the deterrence effort against Iran. And he is suggesting that he would not send the funding to abandon our ally right now? That is outrageous,” Johnson declared.
“I mean, everybody who is watching this is scratching their heads wondering how in the world we have gotten into this situation. This president is projecting weakness on the world stage. Is he not willing to fix the greatest crisis facing our country, which is the open border. They have just shown a staggering level of leadership that I think the American people are going to let their voices heard at the lack of leadership. They are going to let their voices heard at the election cycle. That is why his polling is so low. The people see what is happening here,” he said.
“We have the job explaining the real details of what this actually would accomplish. And in our view, it’s an immigration bill. Not a border security bill. We have to secure that border. We have an obligation to do it. It’s an moral obligation, it’s a legal and constitutional obligation. the White House has done this by design,” the Speaker said.
“They intentionally enacted these policies, remember, we documented over 64 incidents where the president himself and his agencies have used executive authority to create the current situation. To create the situation and catastrophe. He could unwind those now stroke of a pen. President Biden could fix this but he does not want to do it. I think this is going to be a price to pay at the election,” he charged
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