Congressman Doug Collins, ranking member of the House Judiciary committee, spoke with Brian Kilmeade about why he feels there will not be a bi-partisan agreement to address the border crisis after some democrats added “poison pills” to the bill that fails to give the tools needed to the Border Patrol and ICE. When asked if he hopes Judiciary Chairman Jerry Nadler issues a subpoena to Robert Mueller, Congressman Collins said he would love to question Robert Mueller in front of the Judiciary Committee with a series of questions, including, how did Mueller go about his hiring process and how did Mueller wind up with an unbalanced group of prosecutors on his team.
Watch here:
BRIAN KILMEADE, FOX NEWS RADIO HOST: Joining us now is the ranking member, the House Judiciary Committee who’s working hard to solve the problem when it comes to asylum at the border and get some funding at the border. Congressman Doug Collins of Georgia, welcome back.
REP. DOUG COLLINS (R-GA): Hey, Brian. It’s always good to be with you.
KILMEADE: Hey congressman, what’s going on? Everything fell apart yesterday. You were supposed to have — be in the glide path, $4.5 billion to get the border patrol what they need to help with this crisis. What happened?
REP. COLLINS: Well, I think the giant flashlight came on, the stage lights came on and we saw the democrats show actually their true colors. And that is that they don’t want help on the border. They don’t want to fix the border. They want open borders. And for Ms. Pelosi, can you play that clip of Speaker Pelosi talking about this. Let’s be very clear about what ICE does. They take people who are already scheduled for–
KILMEADE: Yes.
REP. COLLINS: — the removal and remove the. They take — their main group is criminal aliens that they dispose of. Don’t talk about this as they’re going in and doing this as if all the sudden they’re just willy-nilly walking down the road doing this. They’re doing their job.
And by the way, one of the poison pill that the democrats are trying to put in to this funding bill language, they didn’t want to pay overtime. They were going to remove overtime payments for exhausted officers on the border. They were doing things like this. This just tells me–
KILMEADE: And no beds.
REP. COLLINS: Brian, we’ve talked about this.
KILMEADE: And they talked about no more beds.
REP. COLLINS: They don’t want to put beds, they don’t want to put the tent space, they don’t want to do anything that actually gives us some control and far be it from them to actually want to fix the laws that are creating the perverse incentive for the folks to come across.
Because they know once they cross that border, they hear what the democrats are saying, they say let’s just get over here because we know well be able to stay. That’s the humanitarian crisis.
And it’s caused by this attitude that the democrats are outing forward right now. And it’s got to stop. It’s just — this is just not sustainable. And they can’t — they either got to admit they’re just open borders or they got any hope to stick with.
KILMEADE: So right now I think they were fighting with each other and just give the idea.
REP. COLLINS: Yes.
KILMEADE: The big talking point — CNN has the same one miraculously as doe MSNBC, it went from a manufactured crisis to the president wants this issue to the president doesn’t like children, nor do republicans. Here’s Karen Bass, a democrat out of California, cut seven (ph).
(BEGIN AUDIO)
REP. KAREN BASS, CALIFORNIA (D): We definitely need to approve the money. But I do not think that is the issue at all. You cannot tell me that the federal government does not have money for toothpaste and soap.
This is inflicted on these children as punishment to try to bring democrats to the table to compromise on the border wall. I think that is absolutely important.
(END AUDIO)
KILMEADE: What’s she talking about? I mean number one, the border patrol wasn’t hired to be daycare workers. They’re not equipped. Nobody thinks they are. And now they’re saying they’re running out of supplies and they want to focus on children. This is not the — that’s not the issue. I hate to say it.
COLLINS: No, it’s not. I mean — look, that’s just a line that is just a bogus line. It’s just simply saying they can’t make anybody believe that they’re willing to fix it, so they focus on children.
Now let’s remember who the children are that are being held right now. And they’re being held because they’re unaccompanied minors. They have no connection to anyone that brought them across the border, where to put them, and where to place them.
So let me ask the other question. So is Karen Bass actually advocating for the federal government just to dump these kids on a street? Is that what she’s advocating for?
KILMEADE: Yes.
COLLINS: Is she advocating to take these kids – and some of these kids – remember Brian, some o these kids were separated from family units because they were barred, rented, or stolen from Central American countries to get the adult across the border. These are the kids that we’re talking about here.
And to make this a bigger issue, the family units that are crossing the border now since they have no place to house them, within 24 to 48 hours a family unit that is certified – that is shown to be at least legitimate is not staying anywhere – within 24 to 48 there with NGOs and then they’re sent out all throughout the country.
KILMEADE: Do you –
COLLINS: We just had a recent discussion. 10,000 were actually polled. 87 percent did not show back up for their immigration hearing.
KILMEADE: Yes, and that’s important because going on old stats that say when deportation numbers were normal, they say more people show up than we thought on first blush, but now since the surge has happened over the last year almost 90 percent don’t.
Julian Casto, who’s on another planet when it comes to this, who’s running for president that no one cares about, cut four.
(BEGIN VIDEOCLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: If HHS needs $3 billion more dollars to improve the conditions, to build more housing, wouldn’t that alleviate it? You’re talking about not giving one more dime. It doesn’t make any sense.
JULIAN CASTO, FORMER U.S. SECRETARY OF HOUSING AND URBAN DEVELOPMENT: I wouldn’t give them – I wouldn’t give them one more dime for these types of conditions. I don’t have confidence that if you give them more money right now. If they have a plan to actually have different conditions –
(END VIDEOCLIP)
KILMEADE: Would you know where he’s coming from? Have you – have you had a chance to ask him to expand on that ridiculous comment?
COLLINS: Yes. No, he has no explanation on it. He’s trying – he trying again to split a tight rope that says I’m trying to figure out how I can tell my base that I don’t want to give them money while at the same time telling my base that I’m being compassionate towards children, and it’s not working. People are seeing through this.
Even their press secretaries at MSNBC and CNN and other places are actually looking at this and saying – in New York Times they’re saying there’s a crisis. Quit the griping in here. And look, if they wanted to talk about bed facilities (ph), he really got really close there which was really interesting that he would design (ph) that they don’t have a plan.
Well, what was the plan was is to build new structures so that we can keep these kids even in, you know, temporary housing. Is he going to agree with that? No. He’s not going to.
So the problem is he wants them released with uncontrolled, especially the family units and everything else, and they’re not dealing with the very fact that these are underage children who have been dumped here by parents who let them go with coyotes, made a long trip, or they were part of a fake family unit that we have seen over 3,000 of those just in the last few months that are fake because they know once they get to border – so again, democrats are trying a smoke and mirrors hoping, praying that the American people don’t see through the fact that they’re using these children, using these families as pawns.
That’s all they’re doing, and the Speaker needs to just step up to the mike and say we prefer this as an issue more than we prefer solving it, and we want to blame republicans for it.
KILMEADE: Well, aren’t you going on break Friday?
COLLINS: Yes, we’re leaving Thursday. And right now it’s not even done.
KILMEADE: So you’re leaving Thursday, so you got two days.
COLLINS: Yes. It’s not going to get done. Right now, unless they come up with a plan – which by the way, last night they fought with each other all evening. They did not get a rule for the bill. The bill is not on the floor today as far as we know of, and it could be, but I mean, it’s not right now. But they’ve got to come to conclusion.
When you get to the groups that basically say they don’t want to give any funding here to do what needs to be done on the border, and again, it’s just egregious. I mean, they’re keeping DOD – any money from DOD to send help to the border, to help these border patrol agents.
But the egregious to me, and I want to – I wish every part of the democratic caucus would stand up and tell me why you’re wanting to refuse overtime payments for the CBP folks down there for doing their job.
Now, any other time we’re talking about wages and hourly and everything, but you’re going to look at men and women who are doing their job, who’s families are suffering, and you’re going to saywell, we’ll give them supplemental humanitarian assist (ph) but we’re not going to pay them overtime. Then who’s going to watch these people.
KILMEADE: So several —
COLLINS: This is the problem that — who’s going to enforce the border? They don’t want to answer that and they don’t want to stand up.
KILMEADE: They don’t understand that those aren’t Republicans working the border, they’re not Democrats, some of them are both and they don’t care who the president is, they’re trying to get help to do their job. But I’ll tell you what, they’re going to know who’s trying to help them and who’s not, so they might be losing them, so take that for what it’s worth. So this is what Politico’s reporting, that several liberals including AOC have secured last minute tweaks to the bill after a late night meeting at Pelosi’s office on Monday.
It’s not clear, however, whether it will be enough to win the support for the caucus. But 20 minutes ago Pelosi said the border package will pass despite the liberal grumbling. She says it’s very exciting and it was a good start. Steny Hoyer scheduled a supplemental border bill vote sometime today but it’s no guarantee. So these are the things happening under the wire. How could you expand on that?
COLLINS: Well at this point in time they’ve still got to bring it to rule. They’ve not done that yet. I mean, that’s still, I mean, a timing issue. Could it be done? Yes. I mean, if (inaudible) bring it forward, but let’s (ph) be very clear, they’re going to have to find 218 by themselves. Because what they’ve put into this bill is — it makes it almost impossible with no — no funds for ICE attention (ph), no money for overtime, no money for DOD to help Homeland Security, no money to limit the authority of the Homeland Security Department to actually send extra people to the borders. You know, they’re limiting actions on — on almost everything.
They’re not — I mean, Republicans are not going to be drug into this game of — of simply a showboat that does nothing, in fact actually hurts our men and women on the border and hurts our national security. So if they can’t find 2018, then, you know, good luck. I think the co-speaker, Ms. — the co-speaker there is running the ship, so maybe somebody ought to get her on record.
KILMEADE: So they’re not even trying to woo Republicans right now?
COLLINS: Not at all. Not at all. There’s a bill in the Senate — I mean, the president put it forward — you know, very plain forward, here’s what we need to fix this humanitarian crisis, here’s what we need — and again, still thinking (ph) we can work on issues — you know, we’ve talked about the bill that I have, you know, the (inaudible). They don’t even want to touch that. But he simply sent forward, here’s what we need to actually keep us running, and they’re playing politics with it. Plain and simple.
KILMEADE: Well lastly I just want to ask you a little bit about what they’re asking for in the House. They’re going to subpoena Robert Mueller if — Jerry Nadler is if he doesn’t come on his own. He does not want to come. Do you carry the way (ph)? I mean, there’s a lot of Republicans who seem to look forward to that opportunity. Are you one of them?
COLLINS: I’ve said it, I — I — I would love the opportunity to talk to Robert Mueller. I have a list of questions that keep growing, you know, from — from how he did his investigation, how he began his hiring process, did he farm out (ph) his, you know, hiring process, did he do it to Mr. Weissmann and the others, is that how we got such a unbalanced group of prosecutors on this? Why didn’t they look into the issues when they took up (ph) part of the dossier but not other parts of the dossier?
Why did they not go into — you know, there’s just question after question after question that goes to show the corrupt cabal that started this whole thing, led us down a two year fiasco of finding a report that in the end did nothing except show no collusion and show no charge of obstruction but did show, which we’ve all talked about, the influence of Russian elections but yet I can’t get my chairman or anybody to acknowledge that and take up bills instead that we’ve already processed — I’ve put out bills, some of our other members have put out bills but yet last week we had a — a show hearing on the fact that we have foreign interference but yet instead of actually taking up the bills and passing those, we wanted a press release.
KILMEADE: Yes. The one thing that stands out with me in the part one is that Vladimir Putin was so desperate to get a hold of anyone in the Trump administration, he put his oligarchs and finance guys out there, he goes come back with contacts, we don’t know anybody. So having said all that and getting involved in what — what this person said or that person said, when he won the election, they had no way of getting a hold of the power players with the Trump administration. And they didn’t have any contacts.
So they went to this business guy to try to get contacts with Kushner. But they were all the way through the process, win the election and they still didn’t know how to coordinate with Trump.
So how the heck did they possibly collude and shouldn’t that alleviate all worry that there was some type of unsavory action that brought them the election?
REP. COLLINS: It should, expect it doesn’t fit the political narrative of the democrats. Political narratives have been telling — the democrats have been telling the country for two years that this was going to show.
And this is what’s really sad, Brian, they were actually going — were gleefully saying that the president was a foreign — an agent of a foreign government. They were actually — again, it just blows my mind that the democrats were actually hoping that our president was compromising a foreign aid which the Mueller report clearly showed it wasn’t.
That’s why they’re so desperate right now. That’s why they’re trying everything they possibly can because the American people aren’t buying it.
KILMEADE: Right.
REP. COLLINS: The people are saying let’s get on with it. And when the other reports start coming out whether it be the inspector general’s report or (inaudible) report, they’re going to then have to go back and answer questions that they don’t want to have to answer.
So, again this is just simply an attack on the president. Simply they want to win the 2020.
One of my colleagues, Ms. Lesko and others, and I’ve talked about this as well, at what point in time do we begin to notice that the democrats are simply using taxpayer dollars to influence the 2020 election? That’s exactly — when did that become a campaign contribution to the democratic nominee for president?
KILMEADE: Yes, 2018 was certainly affected by the Muller report. Hey, Doug Collins, always working hard, appreciate your time, thanks congressman.
REP. COLLINS: Thanks, Brian. Take care.
