Senator Mike Lee (R-UT) spoke with Brian Kilmeade about Congresswoman Ocasio-Cortez wanting to eliminate the Department of Homeland Security, President Trump making the right call using an executive order to add a citizen ship question to the Census,Senator Mazie Hirono needing to apologize for saying the President is terrorizing communities with ICE Raids and why he finds it “Horrifying” for Women’s Soccer star Megan Rapinoe saying she and her teammates do not want to visit the White House because they don’t want their platform corrupted by the Trump administration
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Transcript:
BRIAN KILMEADE, FOX NEWS HOST: Let’s ask Senator Mike Lee of Utah. He’s got his book out, it’s excellent. It’s called “Our Lost Declaration: America’s Fight Against Tyranny from King George to the Deep State.” Senator, is it – is the evidence in, Homeland Security should never have been set up?
SEN. MIKE LEE (R-UT): You know, I think on the conservative side you can make an argument as to whether or not you needed to create Homeland Security as a separate department to begin with. But the thing that frustrates me about what these Democrats are saying, they’re suggesting to just get rid of it all together.
KILMEADE: Yes.
LEE: They’re suggesting that we not enforce the border, and that is unfathomable, it is unthinkable, and it reflects I think the – how out of touch they are with poor, middle class Americans who are themselves far more impacted, far more hurt by uncontrolled waves of illegal immigration than the wealthy elites who seem to inhabit the ranks of the Democratic presidential candidates.
KILMEADE: I mean number one, you have these hearings that are going on, on Capitol Hill, condemning Mark Morgan and Kevin McAleenan for what’s going on at the border. My goodness, this whole – what do they expect? They’re build – they’re working with the facilities that were given to them. They didn’t design them. They were designed during the previous administration and nobody in Congress has acted on the asylum rules. Do you think the American people understand this?
LEE: No, this is one of the problems, that our asylum laws are difficult to understand; they’re complex. And a short way of describing it is if you set foot in the United States and you claim asylum, you’re – in most circumstances in (inaudible) to remain here until such time that your asylum claim is adjudicated.
Now the drug cartels have figured out how to game the system and how to overwhelm the system and send in so many people at once that we can’t possibly hold onto them for very long while we adjudicate their claims. And this is a feature not a bug, from the standpoint of the cartels, who are making many millions of dollars by smuggling people across the border.
KILMEADE: So the people that are overstaying their visas and ignoring deportation laws, they’re going to be under fire because the president says the raids are coming. Here’s what one of your colleagues, Senator Mazie Hirono of Hawaii said, cut aid.
(BEGIN AUDIO CLIP)
SEN. MAZIE HIRONO (D-HI): First and foremost, this is again the president sowing fear. He’s terrorizing these communities where the immigrants live, because these are not going to be targeted arrests. He’s going to spread a wide net sowing fear in multiple cities across the country. So it’s all part of his plan to continue to – to do everything he can to portray these people as the other and that they deserve all of our cruelty and hatred.
(END AUDIO CLIP)
KILMEADE: Do you think that’s what the raids are going to do?
LEE: Yes, it’s (ph) morally irresponsible and indefensible, and I call upon Mazie Hirono to apologize for that statement. Look, there’s nothing about this that reflects hatred. There’s nothing about this that reflects a desire to harm people. This is about the fact that we are a nation of laws.
And Brian, you know what country you couldn’t do this in? You couldn’t get away with this in Mexico. Mexico, like most other countries that we do a lot of business with, is very strict about its immigration laws. You couldn’t get away with overwhelming its border. It wouldn’t put up with it, and its laws are not nearly as permissive as ours.
So to accuse this president, simply because he’s enforcing our laws — which are themselves among the most generous on the planet, to accuse him of cruelty is irresponsible. It’s wrong.
KILMEADE: It’s embarrassing, because it’s – it’s such a consequential argument that we need legitimate answers to and bipartisan support, and we’re not getting it. And if you go to the border, you understand how overwhelmed everybody is.
Today is not a good day if you’re a border patrol person. Not only are you sweating to death, you’re having to control an unbelievable amount of illegals coming here hoping to get caught let alone the (ph) ones that don’t.
So how do you feel about the president at 5 o’clock today making an announcement using an executive order to put the citizenship question on the census? How do you feel about that, because you’re legal scholar as well?
LEE: I think it’s the right call. I think he’s got the power to do that, and I don’t think there is any valid reason to stop it. There’s nothing about legal action that prohibits him from doing it, and in fact, I think for people to try to interfere with his ability to carry out the census in something that is plainly not prohibited by the Constitution is entirely contrived.
KILMEADE: Senator, we are also seeing a lack of patriotism in our country, so the president’s remarks there was no — on July 4, there was no politics in it. It was about our history. You write about our history.
Now we have the canyon of heroes playing host to the women’s World Cup team. Their star player won’t – doesn’t want to put her hand over her heart for the National Anthem, but will put her hand on her back disappointed in the country to this point. And here’s a little about what she said about going to the White House. Cut 20.
(BEGIN AUDIO CLIP)
ANDERSON COOPER, CNN HOST: Would you go — would your teammates go?
MEGAN RAPINOE, PROFESSIONAL SOCCER PLAYER: I would not go and every teammate that I’ve talked to specifically about it would not go.
COOPER: Everyone that you’ve talked to?
RAPINOE: Everyone that I’ve talked to, yes. I don’t think — I don’t think anyone on the team has any interest in lending the platform that we’ve worked so hard to build and the things that we fight for and the way that we live our life. I don’t think that we want that to be co-opted or corrupted by this administration.
(END AUDIO CLIP)
KILMEADE: Do you understand her point of view?
LEE: No. No, I don’t. And to the extent I understand it, I find it horrifying. Look, Brian, this is one of the reasons I wrote my book, is one of the reasons why I wrote “Our Lost Declaration.” I’ve come to believe that so many young people today seem to lack a basic understanding and appreciation of how our country was founded, of what we went through in order to become a country, of what freedom means.
And I had them in mind in writing the (ph) book that parents and grandparents could get for their children, so that they can understand how hard we’ve had to fight (ph) against tyranny and its many forms. If she truly understood tyranny, she wouldn’t be accusing this president of it. This is not tyranny. She might disagree with some of his policy, but he’s not a tyrant, and she shouldn’t disrespect him or our country in that way.
KILMEADE: And I just think on the world stage wearing the red, white and blue, I just find it unbelievably disappointing. Yes, she’s allowed to do it, but I could not be more disappointed. I would feel the same way if it was President Obama or President Clinton who was president.
Senator Mike Lee, go out pick up his book, “Our Lost Declaration: America’s Fight Against Tyranny from King George to the Deep State.” Thanks so much Senator.
LEE: Thank you Brian.
