In an interview on The Tennessee Star Report with Steve Gill and Michael Patrick Leahy – broadcast Wednesday on Nashville’s Talk Radio 98.3 and 1510 WLAC weekdays from 5:00 am to 8:00 am – Steve Gill and Michael Patrick Leahy spoke with Congressman, Mark Green about the current bill on the table regarding border security and how it can only be done in the Rio Grande border of Texas.
The men further discussed the details of the deal and how it is fundamentally constricted by both Rhino’s and Democrats however may offer the President a substantial reason to declare a national emergency.
Gill: Congressman Mark, good to have you back with us.
Green: Hey, it’s great to be on the show Steve, Michael. How are ya’ll today?
Gill: Doing good. It’s a decent deal maybe? Not a great deal, not what we would want but it’s a step in the right direction. Would that sum it up?
Green: Oh gosh, I hate to even say that. You know, there are some things in it that are better than what the offers were on the table before. for example, the fifty five miles, are, that’s actually new mileage of wall. But you know, in the one point six deal that was, we could basically do two hundred and forty three miles of conversion of vehicle barriers to pedestrian barriers.
Leahy: So those were already sort of in the six hundred and fifty or so that’s were already there. This is new mileage. So it’s a win in that accord.
Green: This is brand new mileage.
Gill: Now also Mark one of the things that I think get’s lost also is that, we are not trying to do fifteen hundred miles of wall. There are geographic barriers and others. There is a certain amount of wall and barrier that’s already up as you point out that needs to be enhanced. Needs to be made more secure. But the amount of mileage that’s still is kind of open territory that needs to be secured. What are we talking? Three, four hundred miles? Not fifteen hundred.
Green: It’s significantly more. Here’s the issue. Homeland security came to us and said, ok this is where the narcotics are coming through. This is where the vast majority of trafficking is coming through. And we need two hundred and forty three miles. So, this was a needs based plan originally. Now it’s a, ok we’ll give you, you know it’s sort of like you know, bartering. We’re getting fifty five miles. It’s better in one sense it’s not in the other. But it’s this political gamesmanship and not needs driven rational thinking. That’s the thing that frustrates me the most. One of the important…
Gill: And we still have hundreds of miles that our border security folks, experts say is unsecured. Even after this, hundreds of miles are still open to drugs, narcotics, cartels, coyotes, and terrorists.
Green described that one other thing to note that’s important and fortunate is that this goes into the appropriation bill. He added that a year from now if we’re in this same problem again and we do a continuing resolution it could automatically fund another fifty-five hundred miles. He was certain that we could do this over and over again and eventually get more. Leahy asked when the final eleven hundred and fifty nine page bill would get to Green. Green replied that it was posted around midnight last night and that his team was going through it and had admitted that there were no surprises on the framework in which it was briefed to them yesterday. He was however miffed that nobody new the full extent of the details and that the process has been absurd and professed that this was no way to run a legislature. He was clearly baffled that these types of schedules can’t be working because Pelosi has been the speaker before and added that it was mind boggling how the government is run like this, as he noted that you couldn’t run a private sector business this way.
Leahy: So when Congressman Green are you going to have to vote on this bill?
Green:Â Looks like tonight. So they are violating the rule that they asked for back when the Republican’s were in charge. And it’s actually even probably not enough time anyway. You know, the seventy two hour rule. But so we’re voting this evening on an eleven hundred page bill. My people have the bills. You know, we’re ripping staples out and reading through it. We’ve got other teams of supporters reading through it. You know, hopefully we’ll get through it by this evening.
Gill: I noticed that it gives a billion dollars to the Smithsonian. I love the Smithsonian. Why are we putting a billion into the Smithsonian and not securing our border?
Green: Yeah you know, thats (Chuckles) they talked about doing away with you know all of these appropriations that are tacked onto bills but obviously, that’s not the case. They’re still doing it.
Gill: Four point four billion in international disaster assistance. A hundred million more than last year. Three point four billion in refugee assistance. Seventy four more million more than last year. They’re increasing funding for these kind of giveaways, and yet restricting the number of beds for detention of violent criminals that are detained. I mean these aren’t just people coming in illegally and us detaining them. These are the one’s that are the worst of the worst and the Democrats are wanting to make sure we free these people and allow them to go out into our communities into our country. We need to be tracking the names Congressman, because when those people commit violent crimes here we need to pin that right onto Nancy Pelosi and the Democrats.
Congressman Green concurred with Gill’s statement claiming that the Democrats are clearly in want of full open borders and are very different now then they were four or three weeks ago. He questioned why they would want to cap ICE and the detention beds unless it was because they wanted these people in the community voting. Gill reminded Green of his suggestion earlier in the week that they should be loaded up on a bus and released in front of Nancy Pelosi’s and Chuck Schumer’s front steps so people know where these criminals are being dumped because they aren’t being allowed to be detained. “Make sure you put a sign in their hands that says, walls are immoral,” laughed Green.
Gill: Hey let me ask you on another topic Mark. Yesterday you had Ilhan Omar with her anti-Semitic rants recently, a faux apology taking on Elliot Abrams, a Jewish envoy by the way, of Venezuela continuing her anti-Semitism and chastising this guy. Even when he denies that he’s for genocide which is a ridiculous question. She says I’ll take that as a yes that you’re in favor of it. At what point will Congress do something to reign in these crazy’s?
Green: Well yesterday, very interestingly, we put, David Kustoff had did this. We put a amendment on, it was Congressman Bucks amendment, but David did the work on the floor and we got it added. And they had to vote for this anti-Semitism resolution on a bill that ultimately we voted against. And it was a you know foreign policy issue in Yemen. But very interestingly they had the vote. We were very successful in putting them on record on this. And you know, Omar voted for it herself. We will continue to put these kind of barriers in their way and then turn around at election time and show the, “Ok, here’s who these people are.”
Gill: Well particularly again, when you got Jewish voters in America that are continuing to fund and vote for Democrats. I think again the more you can expose who they are and what they’re doing the better. Tonight you guys are going to vote on the budget deal. I assume it passes. President Trump indicates he’s going to go along with it and then look for more money. Is that how you see it playing out?
Green concluded the conversation by stating that he’s pretty sure the bill will pass and that he will vote on it on this evening. He did however anticipate some form of a declaration of emergency from Trump and believes that the President could get really close to the five billion mark this year. Gill asked if he thought it could get restricted on the Texas region and added that the bill was limited showing a dire need in other regions as well.
“I think he’d be operating under the national emergencies act from seventy six which would not constrain. I mean he could declare the emergency just about anywhere on the border that he feels he needs to,” concluded Green.
Listen to the full segment:
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Tune in weekdays from 5:00 – 8:00 am to the Tennessee Star Report with Steve Gill and Michael Patrick Leahy on Talk Radio 98.3 FM WLAC 1510. Listen online at iHeart Radio.
