Sen. Thune Criticizes Biden Team for Ignoring Border Fix Recommendations, Citing Report

Senate Republican Whip John Thune criticized the Biden administration’s handling of immigration policy, citing a news report he says highlights repeated missed opportunities to address the border crisis. Speaking to reporters, Thune referenced a weekend article claiming President Biden and his senior advisers “rebuffed recommendations” that could have accelerated efforts to stabilize the situation.

#JohnThune #BidenAdministration #BorderCrisis #ImmigrationPolicy #USPolitics #Senate

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00:00Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman. Thank you to the witnesses for being here.

00:04Ms. Woods, I want to start with you, and I just want to say to you and to your husband,

00:08thank you for your courage and your advocacy, and thank you for sharing with us just a little

00:14piece of the life of your beautiful son. I'm a father of three myself, two boys and a little

00:19girl, and my oldest boy is now a teenager. He just turned 13. And so as I look out at the

00:27landscape that he is coming into in social media, I'm terrified by it. But I just know

00:32parent to parent, your son's life is changing the world. He is changing the world. And you

00:41giving him voice, as you and your husband are doing, that's the only thing that's going to

00:46make change here in Washington, D.C., I can tell you. Because who currently has a hammer

00:51hold on the United States Senate are the big technology companies who spend endless amounts

00:55of money to control the Senate? And let's just be honest. We may as well put a sign on the floor

01:01of the Senate that says, property of big tech, because nothing moves across that floor, in

01:06my observation, nothing that they don't want. They spend money to control and to buy access

01:12and influence. And the only thing that will break that, I believe, is the truth of experiences

01:18like yours and the voice of your sons to confront lawmakers with the fact that unless we act and do

01:26something, unless we stand up to these corporate interests, more and more children like yours

01:32will lose their lives, will lose their futures, will lose their hope. So I just want to say thank you,

01:37because you are the tip of the spear. I mean, you are what is making the change. I noticed in your

01:41testimony, your written testimony, I was reading it just a second ago, I noticed you pointed out that,

01:46as to your boy, no system protected him, no platform stopped it. And then you pointed out

01:53Meta, for example, has features that flag all inappropriate language that we use when making

01:57posts. And all that happens almost instantaneously. But as you said a moment ago, nobody flagged anything

02:03for you. None of those systems were deployed to help your son. And I think the reality of that is,

02:09is that Meta didn't care about deploying systems to help your son because it didn't make him any money.

02:14If it makes him money, they're happy to do it. But it didn't make any money for them to help your son.

02:20And so they just stood by. And I just want to point out something that Meta is doing right now.

02:24Let's take a look at the Meta chatbot policy. Not only is Meta not protecting kids like your boy,

02:32Meta actually is looking to make money by targeting children who are your son's age and younger. This is

02:39a document that was leaked by a Meta whistleblower that is their policies when it comes to chatbots

02:45with children. And if you look here, the first line, it says, it is acceptable. This is Meta's own words.

02:50It is acceptable to engage a child in conversations that are romantic or sensual.

02:55So here Meta is with a deliberate policy to target children, teenagers, your boy's age and younger

03:02for the purposes of exploiting them. Why? So they can make money. What are the consequences of that?

03:08Well, let's, let's look at another young man who is just a few years younger than your boy.

03:13Sewell Seltzer was his name. Sewell was 14. He's a handsome kid. This, this, this was a great kid.

03:20I've gotten to know his parents and much like your son is what I mean, this is, this is just a fantastic

03:25kid. He also was the victim of sextortion. The difference with your son was, is that his sextortion

03:31was pursued by a chatbot. That wasn't even human. You know, your son's killers are beyond the reach.

03:36They're in a different country. They're hiding behind all of the various laws and treaties. And

03:42of course the, the platforms themselves, this, this young man's killer, an AI chatbot can't be held

03:48accountable because they've got special protections that no other corporation in the country or in the

03:52world gets. The chatbot that engaged with, with young Sewell engaged him in sexting activities

03:59and then urged him to commit suicide, told him how to commit suicide. And tragically he, he did it.

04:06And his parents, much like you now are giving voice to him, to his legacy,

04:10but the true justice that will come for boys like Sewell, for young men like Sewell, for young men like

04:17your son, James, and for other, other young Americans out there is we'd have to be able to hold

04:22these technology companies accountable. And that is why I've introduced legislation

04:27that will prevent the AI companies from targeting minors with chatbots. It is time for this committee

04:34to mark up this bill. Senator Britt is a co-sponsor. Senator Blumenthal is a co-sponsor.

04:41Senator Murphy is a co-sponsor. My point is it's bipartisan. This committee needs to mark that bill

04:45up and we need to protect our kids from the profiteering of these corporations. And we need

04:52to do something else. This committee passed unanimously, unanimously legislation that would

04:57allow the parents of victims of child sex abuse material, allow them to sue companies that put that

05:05child sex abuse material online, that host it knowingly or recklessly. We passed it unanimously.

05:11It is languishing on the Senate floor. Unanimously out of the Judiciary Committee months ago. And it is

05:17sitting on the floor of the Senate. Why? Because big tech fears it. They don't want it to move. I call

05:24now today on Senate leadership, which is controlled by my party. I call on them to put that bill on the

05:32floor. Listen to the testimony of Ms. Woods. Heed, heed the witness of her son. Heed the witness of Sewell

05:41Setzer. Listen to the young Americans whose lives have been lost and destroyed by predators. Put this

05:49bill on the floor. There is no excuse for further delay. No amount of money from big tech can ever

05:56sanction or make right our inability to act, our failure to do so. This committee has acted. It is

06:02time for the Senate to act. And it would be a travesty, inexcusable for this Congress to close out this

06:08year without taking action to protect our children. Thank you again all for being here. Thank you,

06:13Ms. Woods, especially for you. Thank you.

Sen. Thune Criticizes Biden Team for Ignoring Border Fix Recommendations, Citing Report | APT

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