Fox News "The Ingraham Angle" - Transcript: Interview with Rep. Devin Nunes
Interview
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CHAFFETZ: Here now for an "Ingraham Angle" exclusive, Congressman Devin Nunes, live at the World Ag Expo in California.
Congressman, thank you so much for joining and for your full disclosure. I served with you in Congress while I was there, and it's good for you to be here and joining us here tonight.
REP. DEVIN NUNES, R-CALIF.: Thank you.
CHAFFETZ: This happened in greater San Joaquin Valley where the communities are so tightly knit. A lot of farming activity going on there. But I also want to go back to something that happened less than two weeks ago because also right in your backward, we had another situation. Gustavo Garcia is accused in this reign of terror going through the county. Remind viewers what happened less than two weeks ago.
NUNES: Well, thanks, Jason, and it's great to be on. And let me first say that I have a lot of friends that live in Newman. And so that, for us, was only - I think there's only 12 officers. And so - this is really a tragedy for the valley here, the big San Joaquin Valley, which is the Ag region. I know you've been here many times, not exactly the way that we want to spend our holidays.
So, right before Christmas, we had a very similar situation where there was someone who was in the country illegally, had actually been deported twice, had been arrested just prior and then was released. Because of the sanctuary city law, the Sheriff couldn't hold this Garcia - Mr. Garcia, who went on a rampage for over 24 hours, killed two people, possibly a third. We don't know because I think there is one still in critical condition in the hospital because this person - this Garcia went around the entire county, several communities and was shooting people at random, stealing vehicles, and finally caused a major traffic accident and the car exploded. And he is now no longer a part of the planet here.
But the bad part is that there are two innocents that lost their lives, just like what we experienced in the last couple days just north of here, in Newman, where you had a police officer that was killed. And it's just a horrible situation. And you asked me what can be done. I mean, the sad part is that in the last election in California, these policies were rewarded at the ballot box. So the Democrats who condone these policies had probably their biggest election win ever.
And so something is not making sense. I don't know if people just aren't getting the right information that you would think that at some point politicians would be held accountable for their actions or inactions. And in this case, it's pretty darn clear that these sanctuary city policies are leading to innocent people getting murdered.
CHAFFETZ: Well - and that's the situation with Garcia, the one that happened less than two weeks ago, outright in your - essentially in your backyard, because this person I believe had been incarcerated before and served time for armed robbery. He had been deported twice, and still he's in the hands of law enforcement, but no communication, and he's able to come across the border. And that's what's so infuriating, because both of these cases, at least on the surface, at least from the information we have now, both of these were preventable. Were they not?
NUNES: Yes. Yes. No question that this one - I mean, this is a situation where it's even worse. The situation here in our home county, in Tulare County, is that you had - this person had actually been deported twice.
CHAFFETZ: Yes.
NUNES: And so that's the whole challenge here that things aren't adding up. A lot of the California border actually has fencing on it. And so the key here is that what we've been trying to do in Congress and what the President has been trying to do, I think a very logical solution, which is, OK, let's take the areas where we have some fencing that isn't quite working. Let's build a wall, one that actually works, in those populated areas. Let's make sure we get those secure, first. Then other areas you may not need a wall or fencing.
But then at the same time the president was very reasonable and was willing to solve the DACA problem. We had a vote in Congress where Republicans actually voted to build a wall and reform DACA, take care of the kids that were brought here with no part of their own. We didn't get one Democratic vote. Every Democrat in the state of California voted against this law. Those are for the young people who live here who would have been made legal, but for some reason people here in California and I think all over the country don't realize what a sensible solution was put on the table -- border security, taking care of DACA, putting in a permit system for people to work here that are doing jobs that aren't going to be filled for Americans, very sensible solutions just aren't being communicated I think to the people, and I think the people are making some uninformed decisions.
CHAFFETZ: It really is amazing that DACA was put on the table and the Democrats rejected that. But I want to go and play a clip, because it does seem that Democrats are against this because Donald Trump is for it. And so it wasn't too long ago, just a few years ago, that Chuck Schumer, the minority leader in the Senate, actually believed in a border wall. Watch this tape.
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CHUCK SCHUMER, D-N.Y., SENATE MINORITY LEADER: The American people need to know that because of our efforts in Congress, our border is far more secure today than it was when we began debating comprehensive reform in 2005. Between 2005 and 2009, a vast amount of progress has been made on our borders and ports of entry. The progress includes 9,000 new border patrol field agents in the last four years, construction of a 630-mile border fence, or 630 miles of border fence, that create a significant barrier to illegal immigration on a southern land border.
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CHAFFETZ: There you go. I could play that all day long. He voted to authorize it, but now he won't vote in favor of actually funding it.
Now, Congressman, we only have a minute left, but Nancy Pelosi is in Hawaii. Maxine Waters is off vacationing in the Bahamas. You are in your district, Kevin McCarthy, who is from the Bakersfield area, is at home in his district. How does the president come to a resolution when Nancy Pelosi is working on her hula as opposed to actually negotiating something that's reasonable? Where does this go?
NUNES: And I'm right here in Tulare County at the World Ag Expo. It doesn't get better than this, right here in the Ag Museum. Look, if I was in Hawaii right now, I would be getting killed. If Kevin McCarthy, the new Republican leader, was in Hawaii right now, he would be getting crushed. You have President Trump sitting in Washington, D.C., waiting to cut a deal, and they are off on vacation.
Look, they never wanted to do a deal. They wanted the government to shut down. The second that Donald Trump said, well, look, I'll own the shutdown, or fine, I'll shut it down, they were like, OK, that's it, we'll get out of town, go to Hawaii. You watch on January 3rd when there's a new Congress, they're going to try to pass something, and this is just going to continue. And in the meantime, problems are not being solved.
So the good news is about all this is that now they will have a responsibility to put legislation on the floor that will fix these problems that they have been unwilling to vote with Republicans or support the president's agenda to fix.
CHAFFETZ: Congressman, thanks for your great work. I do think that the Democrats want the issue more than they actually want to solve the problem. And I also wished the Senate would vote on the bill the House passed. Remember, the house to passed the $5 billion. It's the Senate that's not doing it.
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