LIVE: Senate GOP 06-18-24

I I think the uh decision by the armed services committee to plus up the NDA this year is extremely significant not only did every Republican voted for it vote for it most of the Democrats did as well I think that's an accurate reflection of where we ought to be headed in terms of defense spending based upon current conditions when the agreement was made last year um the world did not seem to be quite as much aair a fire as it is now uh we need to react to where we're headed not only big Power competition with China and Russia but also Iran and now of course we have the war in Israel on top of everything else so I want to commend Senator wicker and the bipartisan group on the armed services committee who gave us a road map now the challenge is going to be to find to find a way to pursue the road map with real money the leader is uh is right the um most important job we have as elected officials is the Safety and Security of the American people and so I was uh very pleased to see Senator wicker and members of the Senate armed services committee last week in a big bipartisan way pass out legislation that increases the Top Line the defense Topline by $25 billion I've always said if you don't get National Security right the rest is really conversation and I think it's uh critically important for all the reasons that the leader mentioned uh we got a land war in Europe uh we have uh Israel is at war with Hamas terrorists and Iranian proxy groups China is increasingly aggressive these all represent threats to the United States of America to our people and so it is critical in my view that the Senate take up the National Defense authorization act and I would hope that Senator Schumer uh would decide to do that um I'm I'm hoping that's the case but if uh you know PR passed his prologue uh he will push this and try and push it to the end of the year uh I don't think that Accords it the priority that it deserves I think that this legislation needs to be on the floor of the United States Senate with a robust amendment process so individual Senators have an opportunity to come and have their voices heard in this very important uh legislation but the one thing I think that is clear in all this and uh that is that there are some things that are more important in po than politics and National Security happens to be one of them we're doing a bunch of series of show votes we're voting on all kinds of things that are not going anywhere there's no uh objective or intention to make law or to have any of these of these things enacted um they're all political show votes because this is an election season America's national security is not a political issue it is the number one issue when it comes to defending the Safety and Security of the American people and Congress should act like it terrorists have arrived in America the FBI says that lights are blinking red warning lights National Security Experts say that there is an increased risk of a coordinated attack why because the Democrats are the party of open borders just last week eight illegal immigrants were arrested with ties to the radical extreme extreme violent terrorist group Isis they were arrested in California Pennsylvania and New York they came from Central Asia to Mexico and from there easily came to the United States why because this open border policy of the Democrats has something called Catch and Release Democrats let me tell you it is not working you are releasing into the United States criminals drug dealers murderers and now terrorists and for other Americans let me tell you we are living on borrowed time this Biden Administration and the Democrats have let 10 million illegal immigrants into our country 10 million Common Sense will tell you that among them are additional terrorists and Democrats have no plan to keep us safe last week Joe Biden had an executive order a feeble executive order too little too late and today at the White House Joe Biden is going to be down there with another order which is going to provide amnesty for another half million illegal immigrants our country is being invaded by illegal immigrants and in this Senate Democrats are repeatedly voting to continue this the American people want secure borders we want to know who's coming here Republicans have Solutions it's finish the wall it's stop Catch and Release and bring back a policy that works and that policy is called remain in Mexico and I'm going to keep piling on where he left off so yes once again President Biden has rolled out the red carpet for illegal migrants so we're hearing the double speak again uh out of one side of his mouth he's saying look at me I'm doing an executive order we're going to control the Border and then on the other hand now he's offering basically Mass amnesty to hundreds of thousands of illegal migrants that are currently within the country so who's listening to this double speak well I can tell you it's our adversaries terrorist organizations and most certainly it's the cartels so let's just look at where we are since the executive order nearly two weeks ago 2700 illegal Crossings just in the San Diego sector just as Senator baraso said we had eight illegals in the United States that were caught that have links to Isis a terrorist organization and just most recently we saw the horrific rape and murder of a mother of five by an illegal immigrant when and where does it stop Joe Biden this is on you we need to secure our border well I'm going to change it up a bit before I do though I would like to say something uh Senator Ern said who is listening to what the president's saying with his back and forth ping ponging on his immigration policy I'll tell you who's going to end up listening is the court system this is all going to the court system none of it will be put into effect because it's going to have to be litigated and it's all being put out in front of the American people for political fodder for the election in November that's obvious so there's no passion here there's no real policy here because this is all going to be listened to by the courts in the United States and will not be even litigated before we turn the clock into 2025 but today I want to talk about something that uh is good news uh and that is the advance act uh that is a bill that I've worked on uh for over a year through my epw committee it is uh in conjunction with Senators Carper and Senator white house uh the H the house passed the advance act by uh 393 to 13 what does it do it's for advanced nuclear we hear a lot about the solutions of energy how are we going to meet the energy demands of tomorrow for me we got to have all of the above certainly natural gas coal Renewables but we need nuclear and particularly the new technologies of nuclear to be a big part of our Energy Future small modular reactors are the future of nuclear energy but we have a regulatory system right now that does not address and license uh these reactors quick enough they don't have the uh speed nor the staff to be able to do this but we also need to take as the United States the power of the world nuclear uh Innovation to the rest of the world we want to be the leader here and so the advance act uh reforms some of the NEPA process for uh citing U nuclear small modular nuclear it also works on uh innovation of the technology it works to speed up the licensing so we can see more of this moving forward and also for areas such as mine that have abandoned uh Power sector a coaled power plant that's no longer in service that has transmission it encourages the use of those um assets to be transformed into a small modular nuclear facility uh they're big employers it's green energy it's it's baseload energy we have 20% of our energy now is nuclear and so I'm excited well I'm anticipating that we will have a big uh bipartisan vote this will be our economy our energy security and our Innovation and our environment all wrapped into one thanks more fair and more just that's what Joe Biden called his immigration policies they started rolling out today but today I ask where is fairness and justice for Rachel Moren she was the Maryland mom who was raped and killed by Victor Antonio Martinez Hernandez and Hernandez wasn't just any Street Thug he committed murder in El Salvador he then came across our Southern border illegally a few weeks later he committed a home invasion in Los Angeles and then a few few months after that he murdered and raped Rachel morren a mom of five while she was out walking on a trail in Maryland eerily similar to Lake and Riley's murder in February lak and Riley was a nursing student in Georgia who was murdered while out on a run by another illegal who was just freely roaming our streets sadly this is Joe Biden's America and it's Joe Biden's border crisis we have terrorists we have violent criminals coming across the southern border who are raping and murdering Americans where is the justice for Rachel Moren where is the justice for lakan Riley the American people are going to write this wrong by holding Joe Biden and Senate Democrats accountable in November leader McConnell leader M you've seen the videos of the president in Europe and here in the states do you believe that these videos are deep fakes and that there uh and is there a national security issue here in terms of how our adversaries and our allies see our the ability of our commander and chief to make critical decisions in response to new conflicts look um I think when it comes to National Security and that's what you're talking about right this Collective responsibility on the part of all of us to make defense spending as I said earlier job one we're going to have an election this fall and the American people can decide which of these candidates they want to lead us into the next four years but whoever it is in my view needs to make National Security the top priority leer MC Alex are are you going to reach out to speaker Johnson to get him on board with the Wicker proposal to increase defense spending by 25 billion and what are the next steps to get the Appropriations Committee to come along with that number that's the challenge uh Sen Murray has said once again she's going to insist on equal treatment for defense and non-defense that in my view is absurd it doesn't reflect current needs the agreement that former speaker McCarthy and the president reached has the top line in it whether that still makes sense a year later given all the intervening events is something we're going to have try to work out but in the end what I feel very strongly about is we need to begin to deal in a way that Senator wicker laid out over the next five years with reflecting the actual changes to our National Defense needs and there are trip wires you have to deal with in the process do you plan to attend Andor speak at the Republican National Convention this summer National Convention yes yeah yeah will you be speaking there too H speaking there uh don't know what role I'm going to play but I'm going to be chairman of the Kentucky delegation as I have been for a number of years and I'll be there okay do you believe bump stocks should be banned legislatively bum stock [Music] [Music]