House GOP Leaders Give Press Conference 2/14/23 Transcript

Heads up.

Good morning. First house Republicans are so excited to welcome back our majority leader, the legend from Louisiana, Steve Scalise. Welcome back Steve. We’re so excited to have you back. Before we talk about the week ahead, I want to touch on the bombshell reports last week from the special council confirming that President Biden retained and mishandled classified documents for years in unsecured location.

(12:57)
Special counsel Hur’s decision to not prosecute Biden because of his deteriorating mental state, further demonstrates the un-American two-tier justice system that exists in Joe Biden’s America. There cannot be one set of rules if your last name is Biden and another set of rules for the rest of America. And the American people know that if someone is mentally unfit to stand trial, they’re unfit to serve as commander in chief.

(13:22)
Turning to our agenda of this week, house Republicans will continue to deliver on our promises. Yesterday, after a year long investigation led by the House Homeland Security Committee, under the leadership of Chairman Mark Green, we executed our constitutional duty impeaching Secretary Mayorkas for violating his oath to support and defend the constitution, subvert the rule of law, and breach the American public’s trust. Impeachment is just one step. The Senate must pass House Republican Secure the Border Act, the strongest border security bill in history, to stop the invasion at our borders, which we are seeing under Joe Biden’s policies. This week, House Republicans will also bring the Unlocking our Domestic LNG Potential Act to the house floor, stopping Joe Biden’s war on American energy and unleashing domestic energy production. With that, I’m proud to hand it over to Congressman Ronny Jackson from the great state of Texas.

Well, thank you. I appreciate everybody being here. I just want to thank Congressman Pfluger for introducing his bill on our LNG exports. I want to thank leadership. I want to thank Speaker Johnson, Leader Scalise, Whip Emmer, and Chairwoman Stefanik for keeping this oil and gas issue at the top of the thing.

(14:43)
But I want to talk about something else today. What I want to talk about is in regards to the Hur report that just came out. I think this is on the mind of a lot of Americans right now. I want to just state the obvious. If you’re not cognitively fit to stand trial or to answer accusations against you, you’re obviously not cognitively fit to be the president, our commander in chief, and our head of state. I think, at this particular point, we have to start asking the hard questions. I’m glad to see that some of the press is starting to do that. I’ve been saying individually for a long time since he was candidate Joe Biden, that this man’s not cognitively fit to be our head of state and our commander in chief.

(15:18)
We’ve had lots of evidence of that since then. A lot of people are starting to see that now. We have Hur report coming out, which is a completely different angle on this. An objective report from an appointee of his own DOJ, from his own administration, that’s saying that he’s not cognitively fit to do his job. I think that when the president got up the other day and tried to speak to the nation, he just reiterated and reinforced the idea that we are in trouble in this country right now from a leadership standpoint.

(15:46)
Look, this LNG thing is a big issue for us. I grew up in the oil field in West Texas. I know how important this is. It’s a national security issue. It’s an issue for our economy. It is going to punish hardworking blue collar folks in this country. But whether it’s this LNG issue, whether it’s our disaster at the border, whether it’s the disastrous withdrawal from Afghanistan, the crime in our cities, all of the other issues that had just been an absolute disaster during the Biden administration, what it says to us is that Joe Biden is probably most likely not making these decisions. We know this at this particular point. There are radical extremists in the West Wing, whether it’s climate extremist or whether it’s the globalists that are there are making a lot of these decisions. These decisions are not coming from President Biden. These are coming from other folks within the White House with different agendas, with agenda. That’s not America first. That’s not in the best interest of this country.

(16:41)
So I just want to let everybody know that we are going to continue to make this an issue. I will be introducing another letter today. This will be the fifth letter that’ve introduced that I’ve sent to the President. This will go directly to President Biden. It will cc every member of his cabinet and it will insist that he come forward and be honest with us about his physical and his mental capabilities in his exams. He’s supposed to be getting a physical exam done here in just a few months, his annual physical. They’ve already indicated that there will not be a cognitive test associated with that. I think if there was ever, ever a time that we need a cognitive test for a sitting President of the United States, it’s right now.

(17:17)
As you remember, President Trump got one. I think he set the precedent. It was a large part because of the press, his insistence that he have that included as part of his physical exam. I would like to see that same type of enthusiasm and insistence from the press right now that President Biden submit to a cognitive exam as part of his physical exam. If he thinks he’s fit to lead this country, prove it to us with some objective data that says so. With that, I just want to turn it over to, my friend and chairman, Mark Green from Tennessee. Thank you.

Last night the House of Representatives voted to impeach DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas for high crimes and misdemeanors, specifically for his willful and systemic refusal to comply with the laws and his breach of the public trust. This action, this is the culmination of nearly a year’s worth of investigations and hearings, was necessary to deal with a rogue DHS secretary whose lawless actions have caused and perpetuated the worst border crisis in American history. A border crisis that has devastated communities all across our country.

(18:26)
Secretary Mayorkas has shown throughout his tenure that he will defy, he will ignore, and he will replace the laws enacted by this Congress. His actions have not only shown a disdain for the Constitution, but for the Congress, the law, and the American people. The constitutional case against Secretary Mayorkas is sound. The historical record is unambiguous. The framers were united in their belief that the executive branch officials must defend the constitution, respect the separation of powers, and enforce the laws passed by this body. If they fail to do so, they should no longer hold office.

(19:10)
If we’re all being honest here, we all intuitively understand this. When an executive branch official rejects, unilaterally replaces the laws passed by this Congress, we have to act. And last night we did. I want to thank Speaker Johnson for his support, his leadership, the entire leadership’s team for their support over the months for my committee. I want to thank the members of the Committee on Homeland Security and our staff who has done a fantastic job. They and this Congress, this Republican Congress, have worked to hold this lawless secretary accountable. It’s now time for the Senate to do its duty to step up, hold a trial, and convict Secretary Mayorkas. With that, I’ll be followed by the gentleman from Minnesota.

Thank you, Mark. The American people elected our House Republican majority to undo the damage the Democrats have done and to hold the Biden administration accountable. Thanks to our members and the diligent work of Chairman Green and his Homeland Security Committee, we are once again living up to that mandate. This week, under Secretary Mayorkas leadership, Americans have experienced the worst border crisis we’ve ever seen. Yesterday, House Republicans said enough. We did not take our impeachment vote lightly. It was the product of a very thoughtful, fair, and deliberate investigation lasting nearly a year. The evidence was clear, as you’ve heard the chairman say this morning, Secretary Mayorkas willfully refused to enforce federal law, repeatedly lied to Congress and breached the American people’s trust. Because he failed to do the honorable thing by resigning, House Republicans fulfilled our constitutional duty by voting to impeach. I can only hope my colleagues in the Senate will step up and do the same on behalf of the American people.

(21:17)
At the end of last week, we also all read what was a very alarming report about President Joe Biden. You heard Dr. Jackson, our colleague from Texas, talk about this this morning. Not only did it conclude that he, “willfully retained and disclosed classified materials” it also did not recommend criminal charges because his memory has such “significant limitations”. There were two takeaways from the Special counsel’s report. A man unfit to be held responsible for mishandling classified information has zero business occupying the Oval Office. It exposed the two-tiered justice system that indicted one president

… president with politically motivated charges while carrying water for another over similar allegations. House Republicans will ensure Americans get answers they deserve on both of these issues. Lastly, I want to give a special welcome back to our fearless majority leader, Steve Scalise, maybe the toughest man in Washington DC. Steve, we are so grateful to have you back here with us today in complete remission from cancer and right in time for Mardi Mardi Gras, in true Steve Scalise fashion. Your grit, determination, and resilience have been an inspiration to each and every one of us, and it’s good to be fighting in the trenches with you again. So with that, I proudly turn it over to the toughest man in Congress, Steve Scalise.

Well, thank you, Whip. It is great to be back. And even more importantly than that, it’s great to be in remission from cancer. It’s been a long battle, about six months long, but God answers prayers and there’ve been a lot of prayers. And thank everybody for the support and prayers along the way. You surely don’t get through this alone. But I was looking forward to coming back and now it’s great to be back, it’s great to see all of you. Happy Valentine’s Day to everybody. Especially Happy Valentine’s Day to my wife, Jennifer, she’s back home.

(23:24)
But I tell you what, we got right into the business of what this Congress and especially what this majority has done, and that’s taken our job seriously and doing the tough work. We brought back up the impeachment of Secretary Mayorkas. I want to thank Blake Moore for giving us the opportunity to reconsider the vote and him procedurally making sure we had that opportunity so that we could send a statement once again that we, this House Republican majority, care about border security. And in a town where everybody should be concerned about what is one of the biggest crises facing our country, the fact that we’ve had millions of people come across our border illegally, including people on the terrorist watch list, drug dealers from Mexico, the cartels having operational control of our southern border, our southern border, to the point where they’re bringing drugs in that are killing 150 young people in America every single day.

(24:20)
That should matter to everybody, especially the President of the United States and especially the Secretary of Homeland Security who, as Chairman Green’s committee did a methodical job of pointing out over months and months of building this case that this secretary has failed to do his job. He’s let down the American people. And the American people want a secure border. And people have asked, “What’s the point of impeaching the secretary if the Senate’s just going to discard it?” I don’t know what the Senate’s going to do. I gave up predicting what the Senate might do. But I will tell you this, if the Senate just discards this like they do so many other important issues like H.R.2 that we sent over six months ago, where we came together as a Republican majority and passed the toughest border security package that we’ve ever seen come out of Congress at least since the 1980s, and the Senate won’t even take that bill up.

(25:16)
The Senate can’t even pass their own bill. And if they ignore this and just throw it in the trash can without taking it as seriously as the American people do, then there will be accountability and consequences to that action. So it’s on the Senate. They have to do their job. But the good news is this house Republican majority, as razor-thin as it is, once again did our job. We are going to fight to secure the border. We’ve got a speaker who continues to call on President Biden, and I’m sure he is going to talk about this, to just sit down and meet to talk about this major crisis. The President cares about all these other things going on around the world, as we do too.

(25:56)
But if you don’t care about one of the biggest crises facing our country to the point where the President won’t even sit down with the Speaker of the House to talk about a ways to solve this problem, when we’ve laid out a number of different options, not just laid them out, we passed them, which is not easy to do. We’re going to take this seriously as we have for months and months and continue to focus on those needs of the American people, even if this president and his administration refuses to.

(26:24)
One other issue that we’re going to be bringing up this week and there’s others. FISA is going to be a big fought out issue tomorrow. But on Friday, it was talked about earlier, August Pfluger’s bill on the LNG exports, when President Biden just a few weeks ago said he was going to ban LNG exports in America all that does is embolden our enemies around the world. If he does it because the far left extremists on the left and environmentalist groups are threatening him and saying, “Stop supporting fossil fuels in America”, I don’t know if the president knows this or not, but let me tell him if it’s not the first time he’s heard it, I sure hope it’s not the first time he’s heard it, there is nobody in the world that produces energy cleaner and more efficient than the United States of America.

(27:11)
And stop attacking American energy, Mr. President. Because when we make energy, we do it better than anybody else in the world and it allows us not only to lower prices here at home for families who are struggling, but it also allows us to send that energy to our friends around the world. And when President Biden takes that energy off of the market, that just means countries like Russia and Iran become more emboldened because those countries still need that energy. We still need that energy. And when he shuts down LNG exports, it also stifles production in America, that kills jobs here at home. And again, the cleanest place to produce energy in the world and it raises prices on families who are struggling. Why on God’s Earth would you want to do that? We have a bill to reverse that ridiculous, crazy, insane policy and we’re going to have that vote on Friday as well. So we’re going to keep doing our job here in this majority. And the guy leading the way is our speaker, Mike Johnson. Take it away.

Thank you. Good morning, everybody. Thank you for being here. It is Ash Wednesday and also Valentine’s Day, as has been mentioned. The American people are not feeling very loved right now though. They’re not feeling heard by the Biden administration. And I’m going to recap a few of the things that you’ve heard here this morning already. First of all, regarding this fitness for Office of the President. Americans have been speaking out about the president’s mental acuity and the double standards within his Justice Department. On Thursday, as you know, the special counsel confirmed that President Biden mishandled classified materials in a way that presented serious risk to national security. He broke the law, but he’s not going to be charged. Why is that?

(28:50)
Well, special counsel said that it decided not to indict the president in part because there are significant limitations on his memory and a jury wouldn’t convict him because he would be presented as, quote, “an elderly man with a poor memory.” That did not inspire confidence among the American people. It’s of great concern to us. Ultimately, they’re indicting, remember now the DOJ is indicting one president with politically motivated charges and they are now carrying the water for another amid very similar allegations. A man too incapable of being held accountable for mishandling classified information is certainly unfit for the Oval Office. And everyone in this room, if you just ask yourself that question, you will come to the same conclusion.

(29:36)
On energy, this isn’t the only issue that the Biden administration is facing criticism for. Americans have expressed their frustration with his attacks on energy independence. We say all the time here that energy security is national security. The two things are directly related. It’s also the lifeblood of the US economy in so many ways, but the President has paused pending approvals on exports of liquified natural gas. Why? Why would he do that? It’s completely counterproductive for our country and it is dangerous. My home state of Louisiana happens to be the largest producer of America’s LNG. We try to export that around the world, but he is stalling LNG export terminals like Calcasieu Pass 2. It’s nothing but a political ploy to appease radical climate activists at great cost.

(30:24)
Job creators and energy producers are going to have to pause their projects. It’s going to jeopardize thousands of US jobs. And our partners in Europe who were promised an alternative to Russian energy will now have to source fuel from Moscow. They’re going to line Putin’s pockets. If we don’t send American LNG to our friends and allies in that part of the world, they will have to go to Moscow to get it. They’ll have to turn to energy sources that aren’t as clean, our European friends and allies will turn to these sources that are not as clean. Russian gas is not as clean as US gas, to make up for all those losses. And that’s why this week the House is moving on legislation to depoliticize the LNG permitting process. House Republicans are going to do our job. We’re listening to our energy producers who are standing for energy independence, which is good for every single American.

(31:14)
Regarding the border, talk about the American people not being listened to. They’re crying out to the Biden administration to secure the border. This is not a Republican issue. It’s an issue for every single person and everybody knows it. We know the stories of children being poisoned by fentanyl and cities being overwhelmed by migrant surges. We know House Republicans have shown that we are listening to and holding the administration accountable for this catastrophe. We’re listening to the people. We’re taking action to hold Biden accountable. Last night, the House voted to approve articles of impeachment against Secretary Mayorkas. Desperate times call for desperate measures. We had to do that. He has abdicated his responsibility. He’s breached the public trust and he’s disregarded the laws Congress has passed.

(31:58)
But much more has to be done, of course, to secure the border. And what the Senate produced this week is silent on that issue. Senator McConnell and I have spoken about this in frank sessions. And let me be clear here again this morning, the Republican led House will not be jammed or forced into passing a foreign aid bill that was opposed by most Republican senators and does nothing to secure our own border. It’s time for Washington to start showing some love to Americans. On Valentine’s Day, this is a good day to point this out. You need to listen to the American people and the needs and take action, and that’s why House leadership will continue to govern with Americans’ interests at heart. With that, I’ll take some questions.

Speaker Johnson?

Back row.

Speaker Johnson, last night there was about a nine point swing from Republican to Democrat in New York 3. Does that mean that House Republicans have a challenge in keeping the majority? And what should House Republicans do?

No. The result last night is not something in my view that Democrats should celebrate

… celebrate too much. Think about what happened there. They spent about $15 million to win a seat that President Biden won by eight points. They won it by less than eight points. Their candidate ran like a Republican. He sounded like a Republican talking about the border in immigration because everybody knows that’s the top issue that is on the concern the hearts and minds of everybody. That incumbent had been a three-term member of Congress and he had 100% name ID and a deep family history in the district. Our candidate was relatively unknown in that comparison and had a very short runway. She ran a remarkable campaign. There was a weather event that affected turnout. There are a lot of factors there. That is in no way a bellwether of what’s going to happen this fall. We are absolutely convinced. I’ve been to 17 states in the last 12 weeks.

(33:45)
I’m telling you, whether I’m out West, on Long Island, in the deep South, Mid-South and Midwest, it doesn’t matter. There is a fervor among the American people and it is bipartisan. People know that this country is on the wrong track. 74% in the latest poll believe that the country’s on the wrong track. Why? Because of the leadership from the White House. They see what is happening. President Biden has the lowest approval rating of any president who has ever run for reelection. I think it’s 37% in the latest poll. It goes down precipitously. And the reason is because of all the things we’ve talked about today. It is a total lack of leadership. And now, more and more Americans have made their own opinion about his fitness for office, and so I think that’s going to have a big effect in the fall as well. So New York Three was what it was, but that has nothing to do on the efforts going forward.

But on the issue of immigration in New York Three, the candidate there seized upon the fact that you guys rejected this bipartisan border security deal in the Senate. Did you mishandle this issue and effectively give Democrats something to campaign on?

No, not at all. Look, the American people are with us on this issue. They are with us because they understand you have to actually solve the problem, and the product that was produced by the Senate did not solve the problem. You’ve all heard us hammer over and over H.R.2. That was our signature piece of legislation we passed many, many months ago, last year. And the reason that all those components are important again is because they have to fit together. That’s got to solve the problem. You have to address all of them. The Senate bill didn’t do that and that’s why it was rejected over there. We have to do it. It’s been mentioned that I’ve been requesting a meeting with the president for weeks now. A month. I’ve been asking to sit down with the President to talk about the border and talk about national security.

(35:32)
And that meeting has not been granted, and I’m going to continue to insist on that because there are very serious issues that need to be addressed. And if the Speaker of the House can’t meet with the President of the United States, that’s a problem. I don’t know why they’re uncomfortable having the president sit across the table from me, but I will go in good faith because we have to solve this issue and do every single thing we can. And as you know, he has a broad arsenal of executive authority that he could use right now, he could have used yesterday, he could have used months ago, to stem the flow. That’s not our view. That’s what the law says. And we’ve spelled that out. We also documented 64 specific actions that he took from the day he walked into the Oval Office and his agencies to open that border wide and create this catastrophe, and that is why we have a problem. We got to get to it. Scott, in the back.

Thank you Mr. Speaker. You’ve challenged the president’s cognitive ability. You’ve said he is not fit to be president, don’t believe he can do the job. Why do you think a one-on-one meeting with the President of the United States would solve all of these problems?

Well, that’s a very good question, but I have to do everything that I can. And he is the commander in chief right now, as uncomfortable as it makes most of this country, and I have to work with what I have. I have to do my job and I’m going to insist to continue to do that. The House Republicans are going to continue to do our job. We’re going to continue to move the ball forward. We’re going to continue to demand that before we take care of issues all around the world. We take care of our own first. And I’m telling you, that is not a campaign message. That is the truth, and that is what resonates in the hearts of the American people. We are on their side and it’s the side of common sense. It’s the side of security, it’s the side of stability, it’s the side of sanity. And the President of the United States will not acknowledge that, and it is of great alarm to us. I’ll take one more.

Last question. Thank you.

Welcome back. You have said that you want a meeting with the president, as Scott was saying. H.R.2 is dead in the Senate. You yourself are part of killing the Senate compromise, but you called it dead on arrival from what you do. So my question to you is, while you say there need to be solutions, what are House Republicans doing to get to a solution on the border and on Ukraine? Or are you going to actually do nothing? What is your proposal? What are you doing?

No, we’re addressing each of those issues. There are important issues on the table. We are not going to be forced into action by the Senate who, in the latest product they sent us over, does not have one word in the bill about America’s border. Not one word about security. The reason that the other one was dead on arrival is because it did not meet the moment. It would not have solved the problem. You can’t leave giant loopholes and codify some of the things that have gotten us into this situation. So what we’re doing right now is the House is working its will. The House Republican Conference, we just met an hour ago with all the members, and there are lots of ideas on the table of how to address these issues. We will address the issues. We’ll do our duty on that matter, and all that begins in earnest right now. We have to address this seriously. We have to actually solve the problems and not just take political posturing as has happened in some of these other corners. With that, thank you. Thank you.

What about government shut down, sir? Can we get those spending bills done in time?

[inaudible 00:40:40].

All right. I can run a mic check for you guys if you want, but let’s see. Aguilar is like… Should be good. Should be.

How’s everything here, guys? Audio good? Nice. Love to see it. Love to see it. Sweet.

I’d like to see a little more energy.

Okay, I got you. I got you. I got you. I’m going to find it within. And then Wellesley, would you like a mic check before?

Yeah.

I got you. Maddie, how’s everything for you?

Great, thank you.

Love to see it. Got you. Got you.

Would you mind grabbing the recorder when you’re up there?

Yeah, it’s not…

Oh, okay.