Ron Johnson To Nominee After Grilling From Dems: 'Why Do You Think They're Trying To Smear You?'

9 months ago

During a Senate Finance Committee hearing last week, Sen. Ron Johnson (R-WI) accused Democratic colleagues of trying to 'smear' President Trump's nominee for CBP Commissioner nominee, Rodney Scott.

Transcript

00:00Thank you. Senator Johnson. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Scott, first of all, thank you for your past service.

00:08There's obviously a serious attempt to smear you. I don't think it's going very well for him.

00:17I read Secretary Noem's letter back to the ranking member.

00:22Before I get my main question out, why do you think they're trying to smear you?

00:32I don't want to speculate. I mean, politics are politics, but I want everybody to know,

00:37if you look at my track record, the one thing you'll see consistently is transparency.

00:43In every one of these cases, what you see is what you get. Everybody makes mistakes.

00:48I believe the ones I've made were very minor. We learn from them and move forward.

00:55I don't know how to speculate on why they would try to secure the background.

00:59So what I didn't do is bring the chart that I've been using now for years,

01:04showing how President Trump pretty well secured the border, and then through their want and desire,

01:11they totally opened up, let millions flood in this country, completely unvetted.

01:16I'm thinking that maybe they don't really want to talk about that and discuss how now President Trump

01:22has successfully secured the border. They'd rather try and smear you and totally distract the American public.

01:28That would be my, what I would surmise.

01:32But again, I appreciate your past service, and I know you'll do an excellent job as commissioner.

01:37One question I have is, being a fiscal conservative, I was fully supportive of providing the administration

01:45the resources they need to not only secure the border, but deport however many millions of people that should be deported.

01:54And that's going to take your resources.

01:57The swiftness with which this administration has secured the border, again, I don't want to just throw money at the problem.

02:02You know, I want to make sure that we account for every dollar that we do spend.

02:06So, that's my main question.

02:11Because no matter, whenever we're talking about, you know, some kind of border security or some immigration bill,

02:16we're going to be throwing a lot of money at it.

02:18And the question I always ask, well, once we actually achieve it, we're not going to need all those detention beds.

02:23We're not going to need to spend all that money.

02:24We're not going to need all those additional border patrols, because we've solved the problem.

02:28The problem with government is, once you start spending, you continue to maintain those spending levels.

02:33So, can you just address, you know, how are you going to look at those budgets?

02:37You know, what kind of information you're going to provide to us?

02:40Because I'm hoping you'll be confirmed before we actually pass, whether it's a big, beautiful bill,

02:44or do it in segments the way my preference would be.

02:48Will we have the detail in terms of exactly what CBP needs to do its job,

02:55which is going to be somewhat separate, what we're going to need for ICE and the deportation efforts as well?

03:00So, if confirmed, I will do everything in my power to make sure that you get that information.

03:05One of the things I highlighted as chief, and I will do again if confirmed as commissioner,

03:09is ask a lot of questions and mandate that any proposal or even any daily work that's going on

03:16can be directly tied back to the border security mission, and not with some gray dotted line,

03:21a pretty good solid line.

03:23One of the examples within border patrol that we got out of that by looking at it

03:27was the border wall system, for example.

03:29When we tested that and proved it out in San Diego sector,

03:32we were able to show that it freed up 150 agents every 24 hours

03:37that could then be shifted to other areas that were more remote.

03:40That was a $28 million return on investment for the life cycle of that border wall,

03:44and it's examples like that that I will push and drive as requirements for asks for CBP.

03:50Similarly, at the port of entry, that non-intrusive equipment can show how we save man hours,

03:55but the most important thing you mentioned already is reducing the flow of illegal activity

03:59so we can focus on those bigger threats with the resources we have.

04:02But do you agree with me?

04:03And again, I'm absolutely amazed at how quickly the border has basically become secure.

04:10A secure border will actually reduce the amount of money we need to spend, correct?

04:14I mean, actually, a secure border will save us money.

04:17It's not going to require additional funds.

04:20I believe a secure border will save this, save all of America a ton of money and a ton of lives.

04:28Okay.

04:29Again, look forward to working with you.

04:30And again, I apologize for the smear campaign.

04:39All right.

04:40Thank you, Senator Johnson.

Ron Johnson To Nominee After Grilling From Dems: 'Why Do You Think They're Trying To Smear You?'

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