WASHINGTON — This morning, Speaker Johnson joined Maria Bartiromo on Fox Business’ Mornings with Maria to discuss the SAVE America Act, Congressional Democrats’ attempts to abolish ICE and hamstring lawful immigration enforcement, and President Trump’s tradeagenda.
Watch Speaker Johnson’s full interview here.
On the SAVE America Act:
We’re going to do everything we can to get it to the President’s desk. As you know, it’s a top priority of his and of ours. House Republicans been working hard for years now to ensure the integrity of American elections, because it is essential to maintain a constitutional republic. We passed the SAVE Act in the last Congress, and in this Congress, and the SAVE Act just simply says, you must have proof of citizenship if you’re going to register to vote in federal elections, in American elections.
Well, now we’re going to pass the SAVE America Act. It has that same provision of citizenship proof, now you also have to have a valid photo ID to vote. What a concept. As you said, in some polls it’s a 90/10 issue, even 70% of Democrats agree that that is reasonable and necessary, but the Democrats in the Senate are trying to hold it up. And I’m hopeful that that Leader Thune and our Senate Republicans can get it done and get it to the President’s desk when we send it over.
On Democrat demands to restrict federal law enforcement or shut down DHS:
What Democrats are doing in this process is they’re putting hurdles in the way of the goal, and it hurts the American people. Remember, they forced upon us the longest shutdown in US history last fall, 43 days, and did real harm to the economy and to the American people for no reason. It’s all politics, and we’re asking them to put that aside and do what’s right for the American people.
This idea about the judicial warrants just, for one example, what they really want, what Democrats want, what they’re working towards, is unimpeded illegal immigration. They want to continue the terrible policies of the Biden-Harris administration when they literally opened the border wide and brought in about 20 million illegal aliens into the country over that time period. Many hardened criminals, dangerous persons, they don’t want any of them deported. If you put a judicial warrant in the way, it will impede the entire process. It will add layers and layers of delay and an impossibility to apprehend and remove many people because we simply don’t have the manpower or the time, the court systems to be able to do that. Under the current way the law works, right now, Immigration and Customs and Enforcement have the ability to issue a warrant of removal and to go and apprehend these people. The Democrats want to stop that, and if their policies were enacted, we would just have open borders. We’d have open unimpeded immigration and that is not what the American people voted for and we’re doing the right thing. The President is laser focused on restoring law and order, and it will be one of the great achievements and a big part of his legacy.
On President Trump’s successful trade agenda:
The tariffs have been a tool that the President has used very effectively to level the playing field and put America back on top. And I think it’s wrong for Congress to step in the middle of that. Also, remember, this is pending at the US Supreme Court. There’s a big case pending that we’ve all talked about so much, and that decision could come down on any day, and the court will decide on this as well. So, I just think we need to pause Congress’s consideration of this and not get in the way of the President and what he’s trying to achieve, because it’s been great for the economy. All boats are rising, you know, you talk about it every morning. We’re ushering in a new golden era and the President’s trade policies, and his strategy is a big part of what has brought that about. So, we need to allow it to continue.
America is back. We’re the greatest nation in the history of the world. We’re the strongest nation. We have now fixed that disparity in trade because we have a Commander in Chief who’s bold enough to call it out, and he has. His bold action is what’s gotten us back in a good position on the economy. Inflation did not go through the roof, as everybody, you know, said and expected that it would because the tariffs, we are moving up. The economic growth numbers are off the charts. Literally. The CBO was saying just several months ago that they were expecting a 1.8% economic growth rate, and in the fourth quarter of last year it was over 5%. And we’re expecting more going forward.
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