DHS Shutdown
“The President’s right that the Democrats have become crazy on this issue. Let’s be clear: whatever procedural differences we have between the House and the Senate, the reason we are at this impasse is that Democrats are using long TSA lines to throw a temper tantrum about deportations of violent criminal illegal aliens and funding of I.C.E. and Border Patrol. We prefunded I.C.E. and Border Patrol last summer in our big budget bill because we saw how just radicalized Democrats have become. What you’ve seen over the last week is Chuck Schumer continually moved the goalposts, he makes a deal and then he retreats from that deal. The key sticking point here, at least one of the key sticking points, is that Democrats insist we write into law that I.C.E. officers can’t wear masks. The reason why ICE officers wear masks is because radical left-wing Democrats will dox them, and then their street militias will terrorize their wives and their kids at their houses. That’s why they are inflicting long TSA lines on the American people.”
Operation Epic Fury
“I’ve said from the beginning I expect this campaign to last weeks, not months, and I think that is still a good estimate. But we have to see it through to the end, we cannot stop early and allow Iran to have the military capability to continue to terrorize the United States and the rest of the civilized world.”
Senator Cotton’s full interview may be found here and below.
Shannon Bream: Joining us now, Republican Tom Cotton, Chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee. Great to have you with us.
Senator Cotton: Thanks, Shannon, for having me on.
Shannon Bream: So let’s start here. Why did G.O.P. senators agree to this deal in the middle of the night and kind of hoist it to Republicans over in the House to figure out what to do next? And what do you think of the President’s call for getting rid of the filibuster in wake of this? He says and I quote “It’s time for it to end. Those weak and ineffective Republican senators that stand in the way should be exposed to the public, the Democrats are all caps crazy.”
Senator Cotton: The President’s right that the Democrats have become crazy on this issue. Let’s be clear: whatever procedural differences we have between the House and the Senate, the reason we are at this impasse is that Democrats are using long TSA lines to throw a temper tantrum about deportations of violent criminal illegal aliens and funding of I.C.E. and Border Patrol. We prefunded I.C.E. and Border Patrol last summer in our big budget bill because we saw how just radicalized Democrats have become. What you’ve seen over the last week is Chuck Schumer continually moved the goalposts, he makes a deal and then he retreats from that deal. The key sticking point here, at least one of the key sticking points, is that Democrats insist we write into law that I.C.E. officers can’t wear masks. The reason why ICE officers wear masks is because radical left-wing Democrats will dox them, and then their street militias will terrorize their wives and their kids at their houses. That’s why they are inflicting long TSA lines on the American people.
Shannon Bream: So, the House sent back a 60-day funding patch. That nearly everyone thinks is complete dead on arrival in the Senate. Democrats say the president’s playing games with the TSA employees and we’ve been looking live at some of the worst airports. One of them saying, quote, that the president is protecting his vile, violent, and lawless I.C.E. and CBP policies. Where is the off-ramp? I don’t hear one.
Senator Cotton: So, first off Shannon, what the president has tried to do from the beginning is protect the country from the wave of illegal immigration that Joe Biden invited into America. That has brought depraved, savage gang members and drug traffickers into our country. Now, the president on Friday made the decision that he’s going to fund TSA using money that’s been appropriated for other purposes but for which Congress gave him discretion to use. So hopefully, TSA officers will be paid on Monday, and I regret the pain that has been inflicted on them and their families by Chuck Schumer and Senate Democrats, and that the American flying public will also be able to get back to normal operations at the airport because President Trump made this decision. That gives us 60 days in the meantime to do what the Senate Republicans were planning to do at the end of last week, which is pass a new budget bill, a new budget bill that will fund I.C.E. and CBP for probably five or ten years because we don’t think the Democrats will ever fund them again, because they are so committed to defunding the police. We may do that with TSA as well, now that we’ve seen that Democrats are willing to use TSA as a weapon against the American people to try to open our borders again. At that point, I don’t know what Chuck Schumer is going to object to anymore. Is he going to object to funding the Coast Guard, or Secret Service, or other parts of Homeland Security. Now, if Chuck Schumer and the Democrats would agree to pass this short-term funding bill that the House sent us yesterday—
Shannon Bream: Which we know they won’t.
Senator Cotton: That would be fine. We would come back promptly to pass that bill. In past times when you have a dispute about a certain agency or certain policy, it’s been custom for both parties, when there in charge, to pass a short-term funding bill. But the Democrats have become so radicalized on immigration that they are willing to inflict mass pain on TSA agents and the American flying public, and for that matter to insist that I.C.E. officers are subject to doxxing so their families will be terrorized at their homes. Republicans will never agree to that.
Shannon Bream: Does this turn into a reconciliation fight then?
Senator Cotton: That is the path we are going down now.
Shannon Bream: Do you think you have the votes there? Because there are skeptics who think there aren’t even G.O.P. votes to hold that together.
Senator Cotton: I anticipate we will have the votes in both the Senate and the House to do very simple, straightforward things like funding I.C.E., funding Border Patrol, perhaps passing a supplemental bill for the military operations in the Middle East right now.
Shannon Bream: Ok, let’s talk about the Middle East by the way because this is the headline from the Washington Post last night, the Pentagon prepares for weeks of ground operations in Iran. A lot of that conversation is around possibly taking Kharg Island, others in the Strait of Hormuz. One veteran and military analyst said this to the Wall Street Journal: that will become a chance to kill Americans who are aggregated and concentrated. He says they would be sitting ducks. Now, you’re a veteran, you’ve worn the uniform. What are your concerns about more troops heading to the region and possibly ground operations?
Senator Cotton: Well, my concern is that Iran is a revolutionary regime that’s been killing Americans by the thousands for 47 years. America is finally put our foot down, and the objectives are clear despite the lies from the media and the Democratic Party. They are what President Trump said on the first day of this campaign: we’re going to destroy their missiles, their missile launchers, their drones, their navy, destroy their air force, we are going to again set back their nuclear program. Every briefing I get, and I get briefed or have a phone call with administration officials almost every single day, says our military operation is on time or ahead of schedule for every single line of effort.
Shannon Bream: What do you make of though of Republicans who are coming out of some briefings that they’re getting, like Congresswoman Nancy Mace, the chair of House Armed Services Mike Rogers coming out and saying we are concerned about what we are seeing, we are not getting a full explanation of what’s going on or what the end game is? I mean, those are Republicans saying that publicly.
Senator Cotton: Well first, the end game has been clear from the very beginning. This revolutionary regime is going to be defanged and neutered. It will no longer be able to hold the civilized world at risk, it will no longer threaten American troops and our friends in Israel and the Arab nations in the region. It won’t be able to shoot missiles that can reach as far as Europe and our base in the Indian Ocean, or for that matter, very soon within probably a matter of months, have a missile that could even hit the United States. In terms of the briefings and updates, I can only say that I, as a senator, and Chairman of the Intelligence Committee, get new information almost every single day, whether it’s part of a briefing or a hearing on the Intelligence Committee or the Armed Services Committee, and phone calls with the president or senior cabinet officials, or in meetings with them. So, I think they are doing a very good job of keeping Congress informed. They obviously can’t share everything, they can’t share operational details. Those things actually tend to be sensitive, but also tend to leak from Congress if 535 members hear them all.
Shannon Bream: The goals that you mentioned there, quickly because we have to go, do we get there in the next two to three weeks? It’s pretty ambitious.
Senator Cotton: I’ve said from the beginning I expect this campaign to last weeks, not months, and I think that is still a good estimate. But we have to see it through to the end, we cannot stop early and allow Iran to have the military capability to continue to terrorize the United States and the rest of the civilized world.
Shannon Bream: Ok, Senator Cotton, good to see you. Thank you very much.