Meet the Press - May 14, 2023
Interview
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Yeah, thanks for having me.
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So, Title 42 is required to be lifted, by law, right? Title 42 allows you, during a pandemic, to stop individuals from presenting at the border and applying for asylum. And now that the pandemic is over, the president doesn't have discretion to keep Title 42 in place. So, for all of these Republicans who are complaining that the president acts outside of his authority, in this case, they seemingly want him to violate the law and turn people around at the border. The president has not been sitting on his hands, like Republicans would allege. The president has actively -- has been actively engaged in trying to manage this crisis. He has negotiated important agreements with Mexico so that Mexico takes more of these migrants. He has surged thousands of troops and asylum officials, and border patrol to the border to handle this emergency. And he's put in place a really tough new rule that some frankly say goes beyond his authority to say to migrants, "If you don't apply for asylum before you get to the United States, we're going to turn you right back around." Now, that doesn't mean that you aren't still going to have a lot of people showing up at the border because that's just the consequence of having two years in which males, single adults, couldn't apply for asylum. But it's just simply not true that the president hasn't done enough to try to be as ready as possible.
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Well, Republicans have had multiple opportunities to come to the table and pass immigration reform that would fix the problem at the border. And my belief is that while you have a small group of Republicans who legitimately want to engage, the majority of that party delights at chaos at the border. You saw some of my colleagues on Tuesday. As soon as votes were done, rush down to the border to take smiling photographs with the border patrol, essentially celebrating the fact that there was chaos because they believe that there was political gain to be had. So I think Americans know that it's Republicans, not Democrats, that have been sitting on the outside when it comes to fixing our broken immigration system.
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I -- I'm not because that just pushes the problem down the line. Like, that just gives you one or two more years of individuals being denied entry. Whenever Title 42 is lifted, you are going to have this temporary prob -- problem of massive numbers of new people arriving at the border. And, by the way, Republicans have been castigating the president for not lifting COVID restrictions fast enough. The only COVID restriction Republicans seem to want to keep in place is the one that keeps people from -- people that don't look like them from coming into the United States.
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So, despite my tough words for how Republicans approach this issue, I think there is still an opportunity, at least in the Senate, for bipartisan immigration reform. Maybe not the size of the bill in 2013, but I do think there are a group of Republicans in the Senate who recognize that we have this massive labor shortage. Everywhere in the country, you see, help wanted signs. And that there is an ability to help the American economy by letting more people into the country legally. So, I wouldn't be surprised if you see some discussions begin in the Senate in the wake of the House action last week to try to find some common ground on immigration reform.
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Yeah. I think right now, you've got to do the pieces that are most urgent. And, to me, that's border security. That's asylum reform. And then, that's doing something about the Dreamers who are here and need some help.
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Well, if we want to get serious about deficit reduction, then you have to put tax increases for billionaires and corporations on the table. That's why I'm pretty skeptical that there's going to be an agreement in the next two weeks. And what worries me --
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Well, what worries me is that Chuck Schumer, Joe Biden, even Mitch McConnell have said that, "If we can't get an agreement in the next few weeks, default is off the table." The only leader who says, "We are going to light the American economy on fire if we can't get an agreement in the next ten to 14 days," is Kevin McCarthy. And that is deeply worrying to me because there's an opportunity to talk about their really unpopular agenda of cuts, but the time to do that is when we're negotiating the budget.
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You know, I don't want to give Joe Biden advice, but I think we should do our job. I think that's a precedent to just absolve Congress from being adults.
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Right now, the Supreme Court has made it clear, under Heller Decision, which still controls, they say there is a right to private gun ownership, but there is also an ability for Congress to regulate who owns weapons and what kind of weapons are owned. I think we have to continue to operate under that construct. And I'm -- and I really see progress, right? We broke a 30-year log jam last year by passing the first major gun safety initiative. You have seen Republican states like Tennessee looking at red flag laws, Texas considering raising the age to buy assault weapons. I think our movement is in a position to win. Does it worry me, what some of these district courts are doing? Absolutely. But right now, I think our focus is about -- has got to be about growing the movement and continuing to capitalize on the progress of last year.
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Well, listen, if the Supreme Court eventually says that states or the Congress can't pass universal background checks or can't take these weapons off the streets, I think there's going to be a popular revolt over that policy. A court that's already pretty illegitimate is going to be in full crisis mode.
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So, when we broke that 30-year log jam, 30 years of inaction on guns, there was a month in which we were negotiating that piece of legislation. Joe Biden was intimately involved in that process. I talk to Joe Biden probably every three or four days. He made a bold decision to go to the country and speak directly to them when many of his advisers told him not to. That bill would not have passed with Joe Biden's personal involvement. And so I have seen how effective this president is. And this narrative that Republicans are spinning is just their best argument against him because they can't argue on the merits, they can't argue on the policies that he's passed because he's had one of the most successful policy agendas of any president in their first two to three years.
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And, and what Joe Biden reminds us that elections are not a referendum, they are a choice. And as you pointed out, Donald Trump is advertising every single day what an irresponsible choice he is.
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Thank you.
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