Republican Rep. Adam Kinzinger asserted that those who disagree that there is a crisis at the southern border are “doing damage” to the country in a Thursday interview on “Morning Joe.”
“I went down neutral on the idea of a national emergency,” Kinzinger shared about his time serving in the National Guard at the border. He continued:
I came back supporting it. This is my fourth deployment to the border. Three other times were in Texas under President Obama. So all these democratic governors that are pulling the guard, the guard is the technology that Democrats claim they want on the border. They don’t want a wall, they want technology. That’s what the guard does. So what I saw was a number of groups obviously crossing. You would see the coyotes which are the guides from the cartel. They would leave these groups out in the middle of nowhere if they got spooked.
After providing some background on the existing threat to national security and the war on drugs, the Republican rep. went one step further and argued that to deny that such things happen is to damage the country. (RELATED: Rand Paul Says 10 Republican Senators Will Vote Against Trump’s National Emergency Declaration)
“You would see different people, if you see ones or twos going on, they’d always drop a bundle,” Kinzinger continued. “A lot of times those were drugs so drugs and human trafficking, the two main income sources for the cartel is exactly what’s happening over the border and I think it’s — people may dislike Donald Trump but to deny that that’s happening is doing everyone a little bit of damage.”
President Donald Trump declared a state of emergency at the border that could clear the way to use military construction funds to create more border bollard-type fencing in critical areas.
House Democrats used a clause in the National Emergencies Act that allows Congress to pass a resolution effectively canceling any emergency declaration by the president. That measure passed the House and will see the floor in the Senate for a vote. It’s expected to pass, but it’s unlikely Congress could overturn a presidential veto on the measure.
