Catherine Cortez Masto: GOP Voted Against Border Bill Due To 'Two Words—Donald Trump'
At a Senate Democratic press briefing yesterday, Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto (D-NV) slammed Republicans for voting against for the Border Act.
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NewsTranscript
00:00 Thank you. And thank you again, Leader Schumer, for your leadership and to all of my colleagues here with me for all of the work they've done here.
00:07 Listen, we know what happened today. We all know why a majority of Republicans have not joined us to strengthen our border security, to support our law enforcement, to get fentanyl off our streets, and to protect American families.
00:25 Two words, Donald Trump. He would rather use the border chaos for political gain rather than actually solving the problem.
00:37 Listen, this bill was not something I wanted. It's not something everyone wanted. It's a compromise bill. That's what this is about.
00:46 It wasn't perfect. Most of the bills we pass in Congress aren't perfect, but our job is to work together to solve the problems within our jurisdiction that the American people want and expect from us.
01:02 Not to put our party above everything else or political gain above everything else.
01:08 Listen, I come from Nevada. We are not a border state. But what happens at that southern border bleeds into Nevada.
01:16 I know this because, unfortunately, like every community, we have fentanyl in our community, and it is killing people.
01:24 Between 2020 and 2023 in Clark County, where Las Vegas is, the Southern Nevada Health District reported the number of overdose deaths involving the use of fentanyl with methamphetamine or cocaine increased 97%.
01:38 97%.
01:40 And it's just not the fentanyl.
01:42 I will tell you, I was down at the border.
01:45 I was down at the Tucson sector, both the Lukeville and Nogales. I was talking to our custom agents down there, as well as our border patrol.
01:55 And I'll tell you what, the one thing that they made very clear to me was that they are understaffed and they are overwhelmed.
02:03 And they want to be able to do their job.
02:07 And they expect Congress to do its job, which is provide them the resources they need to secure that border and make sure that we have resources to strengthen that border security where they are.
02:22 And unfortunately, today, it's not happening.
02:26 As you've heard, this bill would hire more officers.
02:29 It would fund new scanning technology to address what we see the drug trafficking coming across the border, all the while fixing a broken asylum system.
02:38 That is not fair to families and is taking our border patrol agents away from other critical work.
02:45 Listen, the reason why we brought this bill and continue to bring this bill is because this solves the problem.
02:53 And it's a bipartisan piece of legislation.
02:56 Working together, this is what Congress does.
02:59 And we have to show the men and women in law enforcement on those front lines, along with American families and everyone else, that we continue to work together to get things done.
03:09 And it's unfortunate that some of my Republican colleagues think it's okay to play politics with their lives, with the American public and families' lives.
03:20 And so I just thank my colleagues and thank Leader Schumer and everyone else who continues to support our law enforcement at the border, continues to put our American families first, and recognizes that we need to continue that work to solve these problems.