Senate Republican leaders hold their weekly press briefing after the shocking ouster of Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) from the Speakership.
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00:00 - Hello, everyone.
00:06 I'd like to start by thanking Speaker McCarthy for his service.
00:15 We had a great personal relationship, trying to lead two very different parts of the American
00:26 government.
00:27 I think he has much to be proud of.
00:31 We avoided a government shutdown.
00:36 We did the inevitable with regard to the debt ceiling.
00:42 And I'm one person who's extremely grateful for his service.
00:47 I have no advice to give to House Republicans except one.
00:54 I hope whoever the next speaker is gets rid of the motion to vacate.
01:00 I think it makes the Speaker's job impossible, and the American people expect us to have
01:08 a functioning government.
01:12 On the Senate side, we need to get our -- as many appropriation bills passed as possible.
01:20 The majority leader has indicated that's what he would like to do as well, and he'll have
01:27 plenty of cooperation from us in trying to achieve as close to a regular appropriations
01:34 process as we possibly can.
01:38 - And at least here in the Senate, we have Senator Collins and her great work on the
01:48 Senate Appropriations Committee for getting us at least in a position where we can consider
01:53 appropriations bills, and that should be the number one priority for this Congress up until
02:00 the next deadline that we hit, and hopefully the one beyond that.
02:04 Because honestly, if we don't get the appropriations process going here, we're just not going to
02:10 get any of these bills done before the end of the year, and we're going to end up in
02:12 a terrible position at the end of the year.
02:14 So I hope Senator Schumer will make this the number one priority.
02:17 He's got a lot of other things he wants to do.
02:19 We shouldn't be doing anything else right now but dealing with appropriations bills
02:24 as they have been reported out of the Senate Appropriations Committee.
02:29 We have until November the 17th.
02:32 I regret the fact that we're not going to be here next week.
02:34 I think the Senate ought to be in here next week working on the appropriations bills,
02:38 because we have a short amount of time and a lot of work to get done, and I know everybody
02:43 on our side is committed to making this process work, and to seeing that we actually can make
02:50 major significant headway and progress on the annual appropriations process before the
02:55 next November 17th deadline.
02:58 And let me just make one observation about that too, because I think it's really important
03:02 as we think about funding the government that we take a look at what's happening at our
03:07 southern border.
03:08 It is an absolute disaster down there.
03:11 Fifteen thousand people apprehended trying to come into the country illegally in the
03:17 month of September.
03:18 A new record, all-time record, or as Senator Barrasso likes to put it, 11,000 people per
03:24 day.
03:25 11,000 people per day.
03:27 And this administration so far has had a blind eye and a deaf ear to the horrible circumstances
03:34 that are at our southern border.
03:35 This is not, there is nothing humanitarian about what's happening down there.
03:40 We need to address that, and I think if the Democrats are willing to work with us, we
03:45 can do that in this appropriations process as well.
03:48 Well, Joe Biden's border policy has been one train wreck after another.
03:55 And the reason I say train wreck is that the number of Americans who have died from fentanyl
04:01 since Joe Biden has been president equals the number of people, if you take an Amtrak
04:05 train, fill it with people, crash the train, everyone dies every other day.
04:10 That's the number of people in America being killed by fentanyl.
04:13 And I also use the train analogy because Joe Biden should be familiar with the number on
04:18 that train because he took the train back and forth to Delaware when he was a senator
04:23 for 36 years.
04:25 But last week, he went to Arizona.
04:28 So Joe Biden goes to Arizona, which is a border state, where the number of illegal immigrants
04:32 and lethal drugs that come across every day continue to kill Americans.
04:38 He didn't go to stem the flow of lethal drugs.
04:42 No, no, no.
04:44 He went to increase the flow of campaign dollars into his campaign accounts.
04:48 But he didn't go to the border.
04:50 He was so close to the border.
04:52 He was closer than his regular daily train ride home to Delaware.
04:56 But he didn't go.
04:57 He has so little respect for the Border Patrol or the citizens of this country or the communities
05:01 in which they live by the border, ignored him completely.
05:06 It is disgusting.
05:09 Republicans have solutions.
05:10 It's to secure the Border Act.
05:11 Thirty of us have co-sponsored it.
05:13 It secures the border from illegal immigrants and deadly drugs.
05:17 Now, you know, when a train crashes, they often say that the engineer was asleep at
05:22 the switch.
05:23 Well, sleepy Joe Biden, he's been asleep at the switch.
05:26 And people all across America are dying by the train loads.
05:50 It's not hitting my watch.
05:51 Is it hitting anybody else's watch?
05:55 It's just a matter of time.
05:57 All right.
05:59 Leader, are we all right?
06:08 That's what they're asking over there.
06:09 When does it stop?
06:11 On that note, I would like to say I served many years with Kevin McCarthy before he became
06:17 Speaker and he is a very good friend of mine and a wonderful public servant.
06:21 It's a tough time for him, tough time for them.
06:25 And for those of us who know him well, we have such great respect.
06:29 And I think it's a sad day yesterday.
06:30 So Kevin, we wish you well.
06:34 You've served our country well, and I know you're not finished.
06:37 So basically, today, I want to just echo the words of the leader and others that we need
06:41 to get back to regular order on our appropriations bills.
06:45 I'm an appropriation, a ranking member on the Health, Education, and Labor bill, a big
06:50 bill.
06:51 I want to have our imprint, our Senate imprint, our bipartisan imprint into what we think
06:57 the priorities are in spending in that exceedingly important bill, as they all of them are.
07:02 Susan has worked masterfully with Patty.
07:05 Hopefully, when we come back, we'll have the three minibus together with many amendments
07:10 that they've worked out.
07:12 Everybody's voice will be heard.
07:14 But we averted a shutdown.
07:15 We cannot run this up to November the 17th with the same intensity that we had in the
07:21 past.
07:22 I, for one, think it's a disservice.
07:23 It's a road to nowhere.
07:24 It's a misery march.
07:26 And we cannot govern like this.
07:29 Thank you.
07:30 Is it over yet?
07:31 I thought it was just a House member pulling the fire alarm again.
07:36 I wasn't sure.
07:39 So we've talked a lot about the border crisis.
07:42 If there should be a fire alarm pulled right now, it's the alarm that we're seeing on the
07:47 southern border with some 11,000 illegal crossings happening every day in this country.
07:54 Make no mistake, the crisis that we are witnessing is a direct result.
07:59 There's cause and effect because of Joe Biden's failed open border policies.
08:04 Look at any illegal apprehension chart.
08:07 You'll see when it hit a low number right as Biden took office and how it skyrocketed
08:12 since then.
08:14 He ended construction on the wall.
08:16 He ended the Remain in Mexico policy.
08:18 He ended Title 42.
08:20 This is cause and effect.
08:22 The good news is this is a solvable problem.
08:26 We could come together, Republicans and Democrats, to reinstate those policies, the president
08:31 reinstate those policies, and finish building the wall.
08:35 Sadly, all of our communities now in this country are paying some price, some paying
08:40 a big price for that, whether you're a northern border state like Montana or a southern border
08:45 state or in between.
08:46 It's insanity.
08:48 Veterans in New York were forced out of a nursing home to make space for illegal immigrants.
08:56 Service members' hotel reservations were canceled because of migrants.
09:01 They were canceled for the Army-Navy game because of migrants that had taken up space
09:07 there.
09:08 Even the Democrat governors are fed up.
09:11 Let's hope they start calling the White House and tell them they're fed up with these policies
09:15 that are causing this disaster.
09:17 It is time for President Biden to wake up.
09:19 Maybe he should engage his border czar, Vice President Harris, and get something done and
09:24 end the nightmare on our southern border.
09:26 I would just add one thing on the border.
09:33 Earlier this year, it was only Fox News that was covering this disaster at the border.
09:37 Now it's being covered on CNN.
09:39 So that tells you that even they couldn't ignore this catastrophe that's been going
09:47 on almost since the beginning of the Biden administration.
09:50 What's your concern about trying to fund the government in five and a half weeks if they
09:57 struggle next door to have a speaker?
09:58 I mean, these two things go hand in hand.
09:59 They can't function without a speaker.
10:00 And the imperative to get the government funded in the border, a problem with that in November?
10:05 Well, I think the obvious answer is we need to get a speaker, and hopefully we'll get
10:09 one by next week.
10:12 And I'll repeat what I said earlier, which is I think to do that job for anyone, you
10:19 have to get rid of the motion to vacate because it puts whoever the speaker is in a hammerlock
10:29 of dysfunction, so potential dysfunction.
10:32 So I hope whoever emerges insists on getting rid of the motion to vacate.
10:41 What is your strategy going forward to get funding for Ukraine?
10:48 Well I think it's important, and I think Kevin McCarthy addressed that very well last
10:54 night.
10:56 And it's still a major priority.
11:00 I think the majority of the members of both parties still support it.
11:05 We need some direction from the administration as to how they intend to go forward.
11:09 Leader McConnell, Leader McConnell.
11:10 Jim Jordan, Congressman's running for speaker, says he does not support more Ukraine.
11:11 Does that bother you?
11:12 I mean, do you have a preference for a speaker?
11:21 Look, I think job one right now in the Senate is to get back on the appropriation bill,
11:29 get as many finished as the majority leader will let us.
11:34 And all of these other issues are not going away.
11:37 They'll be dealt with in due time.
11:38 Thank you.
11:39 Thank you.
11:42 Thank you.
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