Senate Republican leaders hold their weekly press briefing.
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NewsTranscript
00:00SECRETARY TILLERSON Well, good afternoon, everyone.
00:08My assumption is the President is either speaking now or just has recently spoken about the
00:14border.
00:15Too little, too late.
00:16This is the biggest unforced error of this administration, in my view.
00:25All of this crisis goes right back to when the President was first sworn in, the policies
00:32he pursued created the crisis at the border, and it will not be solved by any executive
00:39step that he takes this late.
00:42SECRETARY BLINKEN You can tell the season we're in, the political
00:48season, based upon what the Democrats and the Senate are and are not spending their
00:54time and energy considering.
00:56Clearly, the goal of Senate Democrats and Senator Schumer is to have a summer of show
01:03votes.
01:04We had one of those already on the border.
01:07We're having one this week on contraception.
01:09I'm sure there will be more votes like that to come, none of which, I might add, have
01:14an objective of actually getting a result, getting an outcome, or getting something signed
01:18into law.
01:19They are purely and simply designed to give vulnerable Democrats political cover on issues
01:25that they know that they are vulnerable on.
01:28You can also see what they're not spending their time on and what we're not spending
01:31our time on here in the Senate.
01:33We're not spending our time on increasing energy production or making the permitting
01:39process easier or streamlining it.
01:42We are not spending our time, obviously, on reducing spending to combat and attack
01:49inflation.
01:51And those are the types of things that we ought to be probably arguably talking about
01:55– energy, the border, inflation, national security, issues like that.
02:01That's not what the Democrats are interested in talking about simply because it doesn't
02:05suit their political purposes.
02:07So we are in this period right now, this political season.
02:10We know that.
02:11Nothing more, nothing less.
02:12And I expect we're going to have a lot more show votes this summer.
02:16We believe that the Democrats ought to be talking about the issues that are important
02:20to the American people, and those are the cost of living.
02:23The Democrats are the party of higher prices.
02:27Joe Biden is the president of higher prices.
02:30We ought to be talking about energy.
02:31We ought to be talking about what we're going to do to secure the border and what
02:34we're going to do to keep this country safe.
02:36Those are the things the American people care about.
02:38They are not on the Democrats' agenda.
02:42Well, the prosecution of President Trump was 100 percent political.
02:50It wasn't about justice.
02:51It was about weaponizing the Justice Department to go after and attack a political opponent.
02:57And the American people see through this completely.
03:01They know that this was all politically motivated, and they unfortunately are now seeing a two-tiered
03:06system of justice in the United States.
03:09The Democrat-controlled Justice Department is desperately trying to throw a lifeline
03:15to President Biden, who is failing and flailing.
03:18And the Democrat machine is orchestrating all of these attacks, and you may say, why
03:23is that?
03:24Well, it's pretty clear.
03:25They're trying to distract the American public and the American voters from the pain
03:30that they're suffering each and every day across the country, and it's the pain of
03:34high prices.
03:35It's the pain of the concern that the country is heading in the wrong direction.
03:40And it's the pain of a hundred of ten million illegal immigrants who have come across flooding
03:45across our border, and the real risk of danger and damage to our country as a result of that.
03:53The Democrats don't want people to remember the low prices of the previous administration
03:58or the secure border or the strong economy.
04:01Americans are united, united in getting the country headed in the right direction.
04:06The Democrats are afraid of our agenda.
04:09And what's that agenda?
04:10Well, it's lower costs, lower prices.
04:12It's a secure border, and it's unleashing American energy.
04:16That's what the American people want and need for the next four years.
04:21Well, we've seen about three and a half years of absolute chaos in this administration,
04:32both at home and abroad.
04:34It has been one crisis after the next.
04:37And so what we've seen the Democrats do, they've resorted to weaponizing the justice
04:43system against President Trump.
04:46And as I was out and about doing my river-to-river tour this last week, I found out, you know
04:51what, Iowans are really tired of this.
04:54They are tired of not just the prosecution of Trump, but the persecution of President
05:00Trump.
05:01And so what is our takeaway?
05:03Our takeaway is that Democrats have nothing to run on this fall.
05:08So what are they doing?
05:10They've started the fear-mongering process.
05:14So they will bring up a bunch of these show votes, and we are going to see that this week.
05:20And what they are saying out there is that, you know, oh, those Republicans, they're going
05:24to try and take away your access to contraception.
05:28Well, that can't be farther from the truth, folks.
05:33And I have a bill that is proof of that.
05:36We've got many, many Republican sponsors on it.
05:39And instead of allowing abortion on demand, what my bill will do is actually provide greater
05:45access to over-the-counter contraception.
05:49And instead of giving access to dangerous drugs without doctor supervision, what my
05:55bill will do is provide greater access to safe, over-the-counter contraception options
06:03that many young women will be able to easily access.
06:08We have a lot of lies coming from the left, folks.
06:10I want you to be aware of that.
06:12We're going to see it in upcoming weeks, over and over and over again.
06:16But Republicans do support safe access to contraception.
06:22Well, we saw just a short time ago today that President Biden has just finally tried to
06:33at least put a face on that he is trying to meet the challenges at the border.
06:39And instead of talking about what we're doing here in the Senate, we should have been talking
06:44about seriously addressing this issue, and the President should have been doing what
06:48he's doing today several years ago to stop the flow.
06:52So I just got back over this past week.
06:54We went with congressional members over to do a national security congressional trip.
07:01Our first stop was Finland.
07:03Finland has an 800-mile border with Russia.
07:09And guess what they did?
07:11They shut down their border in Finland because Russia was sending plants and scurrilous individuals
07:21across the border into Finland to get into Finland then and into Europe and then into
07:26wherever they want to stir up trouble.
07:30And Finland finally decided they'd had enough.
07:33So we went out to see the wall they built.
07:35It's a metal wall, it's about 15 feet high, it's got wire on the top, it's got all kinds
07:41of security cameras, it's got a road right by it, they cut the trees down and everything
07:47to secure their border.
07:50They shut down the entry points, and guess what?
07:53Nobody's entering Finland on that border.
07:55Nobody.
07:56So you can have policies if you have the will and you believe in the danger that unchecked
08:04immigration or immigration into your country can really – what the challenge of that
08:11is and the security of that.
08:13So I think President Biden maybe ought to take a trip over to Finland and see exactly
08:17how they're doing it and how effective it is and how it could be used here in the United
08:23States to move forward with our legal immigration and make sure that the flow stops.
08:30I would like to point out one thing that happened shortly before we left.
08:35We have a great advocacy group in the state of West Virginia, as I'm sure every state
08:39does, by people and families who are afflicted with Parkinson's disease.
08:44It can be a very debilitating, sad, and very tough disease that doesn't have a lot of
08:50answers in a lot of ways.
08:52And so we joined together bipartisan in this past – right before we left – a plan to
08:57end Parkinson's disease.
08:59And I want to thank my West Virginia advocates.
09:02I went to their boxing classes.
09:03I've talked with them in the grocery store.
09:06Everybody – there's a spectrum of affliction that comes with Parkinson's disease.
09:12I want to thank Michael J. Fox and the Michael J. Fox Foundation for their advocacy.
09:18And we are very hopeful that this can be a great first step to ending a really devastating
09:24disease that affects so many Americans, and that being Parkinson's.
09:28Thank you.
09:35Some of you might remember Evel Knievel.
09:38Evel Knievel was a daredevil.
09:40He was a stunt artist.
09:43He was from Buttes, Montana.
09:46And he attended some pretty crazy stuff.
09:50Joe Biden, Chuck Schumer, and their Dem allies are giving old Evel Knievel a run for his
09:56money when it comes to pushing the envelope on crazy.
10:01Let me give you just a few of the recent latest and greatest hits.
10:06The Trump trial.
10:09Let's be clear.
10:11President Trump would have gotten a fair trial in Honduras.
10:16The Dems have weaponized the justice system.
10:20They held a trial worthy of a banana republic with a judge who donated to Joe Biden's
10:27campaign.
10:28It was a total and complete sham.
10:32And then just before we left for the Memorial Day recess, Chuck Schumer put a border bill
10:37on the floor.
10:39It was all for show because the Senate Democrats' border crisis has now become a significant
10:44political crisis.
10:47And Biden knows it, too.
10:49Which is why three years after he rolled back all of President Trump's policies and helped
10:56secure the border, he finally decided to do something today.
11:02But it's a little too late.
11:05The American people see through it.
11:07They know better.
11:08They know the border is Joe Biden and the Senate Democrats' fault.
11:12They know record inflation is President Biden and Senate Democrats' fault.
11:18And they know President Biden and Senate Democrats' foreign policy is a disaster which has incited
11:25chaos around the world.
11:28They know a stunt when they see it, which is why they are going to hold President Biden
11:33and Senate Democrats accountable five months from today for all their failures.
11:42Well, in what has become a weekly tradition –
11:46Manu?
11:47All right.
11:48Now that you have not weighed in about your support for Donald Trump and the aftermath
11:53of this conviction, now that he is a convicted felon, are you 100 percent behind him?
12:00What I said last week, I will say again, this is a case that never should have been brought
12:05in the first place and I think will be overturned on appeal.
12:12I used to probably know some of your Republican colleagues are circulating a letter asking
12:18for signatures, basically pledging not to confirm any Biden political appointees or
12:23judicial nominees or to work with Democrats on anything not related to national security.
12:28What's your reaction to that?
12:30The solution is to have a Republican majority and then we'd be in a position to determine
12:35what the agenda was going to be.
12:38There are opportunities when you're a minority, but not to set the agenda.
12:42MODERATORS – The RNC co-chair criticized Larry Hogan's response to the Trump verdict
12:48last week.
12:49Did you think that was appropriate for her to do?
12:52SECRETARY TILLERSON Well, what I think is we need more Republican
12:54members of the Senate, and whether you're Mike Lee or whether you're Susan Collins,
13:03we need more Republicans in order to set the agenda.
13:06So obviously, I support all the Republican candidates, and certainly Governor Hogan
13:13would be among them.