Face the Nation: Sen. Mark Kelly

Interview

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Thank you.

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Well, Margaret, thank you for having me on.

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This was my second trip to Ukraine. I went in April. I had the chance to meet with commanders, U.S. military commanders, Ukrainian, Polish. The aid that we are giving them is critical. If this was the stop, they would lose, and Putin would win.

So, I am motivated to get this done in the United States Senate -- there's bipartisan support for this -- in a C.R., providing funding for Ukraine. And so we've got to get this across the finish line, or this would be a disaster.

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Hey, for -- for years, when we've done C.R.s, they've been bipartisan.

Senator McConnell feels like we should continue to support Ukraine, Senator Schumer as well. Working across the aisle in the Senate, you know, we can get this done. The dysfunction in the House is unprecedented. You know who really cares about whether or not we fund Ukraine or not and continue to provide the support? It's the Chinese president.

This has implications across the globe. You know, I cannot -- I -- I'm -- I spent some private time with President Zelenskyy, you know, just this last week, and tried to reassure him that this is coming.

And if we do -- if we fail at this moment, there's a chance that we -- a year from now, two years from now, we wind up in a situation where we could be in direct conflict with the Russians. We do not want that.

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Yes, I mean, this conflict's been going on for a year- and-a-half now.

And, in the beginning, we provided artillery, ammunition, eventually HIMARS. F-16s are not like other weapons systems. They're complicated. You have to train pilots. You have to train maintainers. I worked with the administration on that. We've gotten them cluster weapons now. ATACMS is an additional capability. There were some issues we had to work through.

They've been, you know, stressing the need for this over -- over a period of time now. And we're at the point that we're going to provide them this capability. And I think it's going to be helpful.

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Well, an artillery shell goes about 18 miles. An ATACM missile goes about 190 miles. So, there was concern, where -- where and against what targets would they use them?

We don't want this to escalate. But we're at the spot right now where they need an additional capability to maintain some more progress. The progress on this counteroffensive, it's been good. You know, I talked to Ukrainian commanders.

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There are things that are, you know, starting to provide some, you know, problems, but we're making progress there.

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Well, these are serious and shocking charges, bribery, corruption.

I have never seen anything like this. He stepped down from being chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee. That's a serious step. I think Senator Menendez is going to have to think long and hard about the cloud that's going to hang over his service in the United States Senate.

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Well, I mean, he's -- he's going to be in...

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I was going to say, he's going to be in court next week.

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And he's -- he's got to figure out whether he can adequately serve the people of New Jersey.

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Margaret, here's the thing. I mean the border in my state and others has been in a crisis for - I mean it's generations, decades now.

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And we've spent billions of dollars on border security, and it, you know, it's still a problem. I'm on the phone with mayors and sheriffs and the border patrol agents frequently. I spoke to Secretary Mayorkas about this just three times last week. They're making changes. Border security is national security. I'm really concerned about next week and the government shutting down. If there's a government shutdown, border patrol agents are not going to get paid. This is going to - I mean if we think it's bad today, just think about what that looks like.

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Well, border patrol agents are on the front line of this crisis. I mean so are - so are sheriffs. He mentioned sheriffs. But we've got thousands and thousands of border patrol agents on the border enforcing our laws and also processing, you know, asylum seekers. If they stay home, I mean this crisis will be compounded by an order of magnitude.

You know, it's unconscionable to think that Republicans in the House are going to allow the government to shut down under the circumstances we're under today. I mean there's always been bipartisan support for stop-gap spending bills. Having a government shutdown, I mean, it takes off -- you know, the growth of our economy is affected. It's going to affect our air traffic control system. If you're - if you're going to travel over the holidays and there's a government shutdown, I mean that's going to impact you. Kids don't get meals when there's government shutdown. The military doesn't get paid. So, these things -- these things are connected. We've got a crisis at the border and what the speaker is allowing to happen in the House of Representatives could make this worse.

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