Republicans Speak to Press on Budget Bill

Good morning. The American people are relieved that President Trump is safe following the unbelievable second assassination attempt in a period of weeks on his life. We, as House Republicans, extend our gratitude to the hardworking law enforcement officers who are working to keep President Trump, his family, and his team safe. However, we have to ask ourselves how this was possibly allowed to happen, not once, but twice. How were there two assassination attempts on President Trump in as many months? How were these armed and dangerous individuals allowed to get so close to the former president and current Republican presidential nominee and likely next president of the United States?

(00:47)
And I want to point out Democrats violent statements have fueled this, like a very junior freshman member of the New York delegation who said about President Trump, “He should be eliminated.” It is uncalled for. You should call the Democrats out in the media for fueling this violence against President Trump. There must be a clear explanation of what happened this weekend in Florida as well as answers for what happened in Butler, Pennsylvania and changes must be made to ensure this does not happen again. That’s why we’re so proud that the Speaker set up that committee and broadened it from not only the investigation into Butler, Pennsylvania, but also what happened this weekend in Florida as well.

(01:29)
On Friday, we kicked off early voting and Americans started to cast their votes in the most consequential election of our lifetime. The American people have to ask themselves one important question. Are you better off today than you were under President Trump? The answer is a resounding no because people understand our nation is in crisis. Kamala Harris and far-left Democrat policies have threatened the American way of life, making our nation weaker, less safe, and less prosperous. With four years in office, Kamala Harris has failed to deliver results for the American people.

(02:03)
We had the strongest economy in history under President Trump, the most secure border in modern history, and a peace through strength foreign policy that brought global security. President Donald Trump is the leader the American people need to bring them out of the crises created by Joe Biden and Kamala Harris. Look at where we are today. The highest rate of inflation in my lifetime and Kamala Harris was the deciding vote for Joe Biden’s Inflation Expansion Act. The most wide open and dangerous border in modern history, in the history of our country. That’s because Kamala Harris failed as Joe Biden’s open border czar. And take a look around the world, you have the catastrophic withdrawal from Afghanistan where Kamala Harris was the last person in the room with Joe Biden. You have Putin invading Ukraine. And of course, the deadly terrorist attack against Israel on October 7th by Hamas.

(02:52)
Lastly, since this is a political press conference, I want to touch on the bombshell report from the Associated Press. In key targeted districts across the country, Democrats are illegally interfering in elections by recruiting shadow candidates to deceive voters and disrupt the will of the American people. These are blatant and unconstitutional attempts to undermine our democracy and election integrity. And we are joined today by two of those districts that they, the Democrats, have illegally targeted. That’s Congresswoman Jen Kiggans from Virginia and Congressman Zach Nunn from Iowa. These are amazing members of Congress and combat veterans who represent districts where these Democrats are trying to undermine elections and are undermining our elections. And these districts have been directly impacted by far-left Democrat policies of Kamala Harris as well. I want to first turn it over to Zach Nunn from Iowa’s Third District.

Thank you, Chairwoman. Thank you, Elise. My name is Zach Nunn. I represent Iowa’s Third District. And today, I’d like to share briefly a story, A story of a man from Iowa with a brain injury who was targeted by Democratic operatives to get his name on the ballot. Despite this man not even being able to drive, they recruited him, they targeted him over the course of a year. Impersonating members of Congress, deceiving him that he was in direct conversations with Donald Trump so that he would run in a Make America Great style party to try and get on the ballot. In my home state of Iowa, Democrats who are on the ballot have said that they cannot win unless they have a spoiler on the ballot. That was just out this week.

(04:30)
Tragically, they lied to him because they knew they could deceive him. They push-pulled, paid for it. When he arrived in Des Moines, they picked him up in an electronic vehicle and then dropped him off at the Secretary of State’s office. They handed him a pile of binders that had been paid and recruited for by a democratic operative firm so that he could get his name on the ballot. They studiously avoided being on security cameras and when he asked to have their picture taken together, they refused to take that photo. Democratic law firms notarized his information and handed it in to the Secretary of State. The only intent was to steal an election from Iowans. And as a combat veteran who, when I first ran, Democrats stole my military records and we saw it happen time and time again with no punishment or even consequence by the Department of Justice. Democrats have stepped up their game to use truly shady tactics that not only are a direct threat to our democratic institutions in Iowa, but they are trying to manipulate and deceive Iowans. And this is where I draw the line.

(05:36)
When you try to steal an election in my state, we fight back. We’ve exposed them, and I’m grateful for the AP’s investigative story. These are not my words, this is their investigation into what a shady democratic firm has done to try and steal an American election by putting false flag candidates on the ballot. Now in our case, as a counterintelligence officer, we were successful, but this threat has not abated. And tragically, we have seen in states like Minnesota, Montana, and with my dear friend Jen Kiggans in Virginia, their attempts are real. They are paid for by independent expenditures and they’re operated in the shadows by firms directly tied to Democrats.

(06:17)
So whether you’re a Republican or a Democrat, this does not matter. Everyone should universally say these tactics are illegal, they’re unacceptable, and they must be stopped. We must all work together to call out this type of deceit. Because when I worked in Eastern Europe and saw Putin’s playbook on how they distorted elections in real democracies, they were effective. That cannot happen here no matter whose party it is. So with that, I’d like to introduce my great friend, Jen Kiggans from Virginia. Jennifer.

Thank you. Good morning. I’m Congresswoman Jen Kiggans. I proudly represent Virginia’s Second Congressional District. Once again, Democrats are resorting to shady tactics rather than talking about issues that are important to Americans. This week, an AP news story shed light on Democrat-aligned firm who not only scouted, but also collected signatures for and helped a third-party candidate on the ballot against me in Virginia’s Second Congressional District. The games they’re playing in my race are unfortunately not isolated to my district, and this is happening in other competitive races throughout the country.

(07:20)
My message to Democrats is this, your shady and deceitful interference in this election will not deter nor detract my mission of taking care of this country and securing America’s success. While Democrats pretend to be defenders of democracy, they’ve proven yet again that they will resort to lying and cheating in an attempt to trick voters. They know that they cannot beat me in a fair fight straight up on my record and policy priorities so they resort to unethical and shady tactics like this. Make no mistake, the voters of Virginia’s Second District will not be fooled. They know the Democrats cannot run on their failed priorities that have resulted in record inflation and open border, less safe communities, and a weakened America on the world stage.

(08:04)
Democrats need to know this as well, I’m not intimidated nor deterred and will continue to fight for our country to serve her in this capacity, holding this elected office and will lead with integrity and truth, something they obviously do not understand. There’s no place for this type of unethical behavior in politics and Democrats should be ashamed of themselves. I served this nation in uniform-

… bipartisan task force will get to the bottom of this. Meanwhile, the sitting president of the United States has said, President Trump needs to be put in a “bullseye”. Kamala Harris continuously calls President Trump “a threat”. And Congressman Dan Goldman, as was referred to earlier, has even called for President Trump to be eliminated. But that’s not what you’re hearing about from the mainstream media. Why? In fact, NBC News had the audacity to call the second attempt on President Trump’s life in two months, a mere golf club incident. And the mainstream media seriously wonders why Americans trust in you has fallen to historic lows.

(09:13)
Needless to say, Democrats so-called leaders and the partners in the media need to get a grip and the Secret Service can and should do more to protect President Trump. We cannot normalize what has happened to an American president and our current Republican nominee. Just look at what Donald Trump has been through, from the Russia hoax to sham impeachments and indictments to two attempts on his life in just two months. It’s incredible that President Trump has come out on the other end of all of this with motivation to keep fighting. To me, Donald Trump is the patriot of the 21st century. He will never surrender, nor should he. And with that, I’m going to turn it over to our leader, Steve Scalise.

Well, thank You, Whip. And before I talk about that, we have a very busy agenda on the floor this week and the Speaker will talk about some of that, especially the CR with SAVE Act. But today, one of the other bills we’re going to be voting on is a bill that says if someone is here illegally and they assault a woman, we’ve seen people come here illegally and murder women, and that seems like the only time where some of these woke prosecutors will actually arrest the illegal. But there’s so many other horrible things being done to women by illegals. The bill says if they assault a woman in any kind of way, it’s a deportable offense. Now, I’m curious to see how this vote’s going to be. Everybody, everybody on the House floor should vote for that bill. But if any Democrat dare vote against it, they’re going to have to explain to people back home who are watching this be carried out in every community in America, why they would rather stand with illegals than women in their own districts that they represent. That’s going to be today.

(10:59)
Tomorrow, we’re going to continue moving forward on our agenda, continue going after wokeness, continue to stand up for families who are struggling. And then Friday, we’re going to be bringing a few bills. One CRA on tailpipes. Kamala Harris has always been for eliminating the combustion engine and mandating EVs. Her values haven’t changed. That’s what she’s been for her whole life and it’s crushed thousands of jobs in states like Michigan. So John James from Michigan, who has seen the devastation of these horrible policies coming out of the Biden-Harris administration is bringing a bill to reverse that, to end that mandate on the tailpipe emission which was designed to kill the combustion engine, fossil fuel cars in exchange for mandating EVs. People don’t even want to buy the EV cars. The batteries are made in China and yet they continue their drumbeat, so we’re going to stand up for American workers Friday in that vote.

(11:57)
But one of the last votes we’re going to have, this is what I really want to talk about, is a bill by Mike Lawler that will ensure that both nominees for president, not just Donald Trump, also Kamala Harris, get the same level of Secret Service protection as the President of the United States. As has been talked about by so many already, it’s unacceptable that now we’re at two assassination attempts on President Trump. And luck cannot be a strategy by the Secret Service to have stopped these attempts. He came within inches, as we all know, on the first assassination attempt where shots actually rang out. If not for the advanced Secret Service agent seeing that muzzle just barely coming through a chain link fence, we may have been talking about something very different right now. Luck cannot be a strategy. Clearly, I think there’s divine intervention. I know the Speaker has said that too, but at the same time, the Secret Service has to do better.

(12:59)
And keep in mind as we talk about adding… Rhetoric needs to dial down, and I’m one of those who says it too. Rhetoric needs to dial down, and I’m one of those who says it too, but this isn’t generic. There is very specific rhetoric we can now point to that we know is triggering some of these people who are unhinged, who take it the wrong way and want to carry out what is being sent to them by Democrats talking about this. We all know Kamala Harris, her quotes where she says Trump, “Trump is a threat to our democracy and fundamental freedoms.” She’s said this over and over again, not just before the first attempt, even after the first attempt on President Trump’s life, there might’ve been a two or three day pause and then they went right back to it. In fact, just days before the second assassination attempt, Kamala Harris made that quote, and then the second shooter, attempted shooter, he was regurgitating the same language as Kamala.

(14:02)
So this is no longer a dog whistle, which it’s been on the left, it’s now being received by some unhinged people as a call to action when Democrats say this. Kamala needs to stop saying that President Trump is a threat to democracy. There are unhinged people that are taking that as a call to go and try to eliminate President Trump. She needs to stop it now. Leadership starts at the top and then you’ve got to go down. President Biden has said that as well along with the quotes, and you’ve heard it from others, it’s important to repeat. President Biden, “It’s time to put Trump in a bullseye.” The president of the United States said that. And then two now, two different people have taken that as a call action. Where is the real scrutiny coming from the press to ask them, “Do you now denounce what you said, because people are taking it the wrong way and are actually trying to carry it out?” It’s not just rhetoric. We almost lost President Donald Trump. And it shouldn’t happen on either side, but you’re seeing this language from the other side get higher and higher.

(15:17)
Got to say it again. Congressman Goldman, “It is destructive to our democracy and he, President Trump, has to be eliminated.” Does anybody need an interpretation of that? One unhinged person hearing that and what does that mean to them? That they’re going to carry out as a call to action what they’re being called to do. Cannot happen. It cannot happen. Congresswoman Plaskett, “Trump needs to be shot.” Has she been scrutinized on that quote? Are other Democrats being asked to call her out and stop doing that kind of thing that is being taken the wrong way? I’ve seen it personally. When people are called to action, one person is all it takes to take it the wrong way and then look at what could be. We don’t want this to happen again, but they, the Democrats that are saying this, starting with Kamala Harris, have to stop the language they’re saying. Talk about your policy differences, but stop all of this language about threats to democracy and Hitler comparisons, and he needs to be shot. Enough is enough.

(16:36)
With that, I want to bring up the Speaker of the House.

Thank you so much. Sorry about the heat and humidity in here. That’s Steve’s fault. He’s from Louisiana. Listen, we’re 48 days out from the election and we are continuing, the Republicans are continuing to draw the contrast between our agenda of liberty, opportunity, and security for everybody and the Democrats destructive agenda and their radical left policies. You will see that on display on the House floor this week and in the weeks ahead. In the meantime, let me give you just a quick update on the second assassination attempt. The second assassination attempt. It sounds surreal to say so. As fate would have it, my wife Kelly and I were at Mar-a-Lago to meet with President Trump. We were supposed to meet earlier after the shooting attempt. We joined him immediately thereafter. We spent almost three hours with the president. I’ll just tell you, and you may have heard my personal reflection on this, he was completely unrattled by the experience.

(17:31)
Donald Trump is a strong individual and he’s a strong leader. And I don’t think anyone can argue the case that there’s been anyone, and certainly in the modern political era, probably throughout our history, who’s been so aggressively attacked and yet he remains so resolute and so committed to keep fighting for the American people, and I was very inspired by that. And I know that we all understand, we’ve got to get down to the bottom of this. The Secret Service has dropped the ball and it’s inexcusable. We have a task force that has been investigating the events of Butler, Pennsylvania. As our conference chair, Elise Stefanik, noted, we’re going to expand the scope of the task force to look into the events that happened in Florida on Sunday as well. We have got to get down to the bottom of this. We’ve got to ensure that this doesn’t happen again.

(18:12)
If they need additional funding, Congress will supply that, but we’re told it’s a manpower problem. Even if we gave them $3 billion tomorrow, it’s impossible to hire 2,500 new Secret Service agents in a short period of time. We have less than 50 days out from the election. We need Donald Trump to be protected as any candidate of his stature would be. I called the White House yesterday. I made a demand to the White House, President Biden, supply for President Trump the same degree of protection that a sitting president has. He’s a former president. I believe he’s going to be the next president. And right now, he’s a candidate under the greatest threat of any candidate in modern political history. It justifies that level of protection. I think the White House, I hope the White House will see the wisdom in that and I hope that they’ll do everything they can because the buck stops at the White House in the Oval office and President Biden has an obligation of that.

(19:02)
Third, and finally, I don’t want to reiterate what’s been said so clearly and concisely here, but everybody needs to turn down the rhetoric. You just heard the selection of quotes, the threats that have been made by leading Democrats in this country. It is inexcusable and it is dangerous. It is leading people to be triggered. When members of Congress or the nominee for President of the Democratic Party says that President Trump must be eliminated or that he’s a threat to democracy or they compare him to Hitler, there are people who are unstable and it makes them do crazy things. This is common sense. Let’s apply common sense. Let’s have a vigorous debate on the policy differences on the records, but let’s turn the rhetoric down because we’re not going to be able to sustain that.

(19:43)
Also this week, you heard from our dear colleagues here, the AP uncovered the latest example of election interference by the Democratic Party. Certain Democrats, the Patriot Run Project is what it’s called. Everybody needs to look more deeply into this. Secret group, connections to the democratic political firms and liberal donors has been trying and been preying on independent candidates with disabilities or tragic life stories. You heard Congressman Nunn talk about the situation in his district. They’re trying to register these people as third-party candidates and siphon votes away from Republicans in swing seats. This is dirty politics. It’s unethical, it’s immoral, it’s illegal. It must be stopped. No one should have to cheat to win an election. We want a free, fair, and safe election. We have to do everything within our power to make sure that happened. We know for a fact that this has impacted seats across the country.

(20:34)
Our Republican incumbents like Mariannette Miller-Meeks in Iowa, Don Bacon in Nebraska, Ryan Zinke in Montana, Jen Kiggans in Virginia, who you heard from this morning. They’ve been the targets of this. And in Minnesota, too, we know that they have worked to boost Democrat Angie Craig. It’s unacceptable. The American people ought to call it out. It’s unethical. Play by the rules, Democrats. Play by the rules. We’re going to win this fair and square and we’re going to make sure. There’s another election interference effort that Republicans are fighting right now, and that is to make sure that non-citizens are not allowed to vote in the election, and that is why we’re bringing the SAVE Act again to the floor today. We’re attaching it to the continuing resolution. Why are we doing that? It’s very simple. Congress has two very important assignments right now immediately to be done. One is to make sure the government is funded and the second is to make sure our elections are secure.

(21:25)
I’ve been traveling the country nonstop. As of last weekend, I’ve done campaign events in 206 cities across 39 states, 40 states, I think now. I lose count. Every single public setting, when we turn to audience questions in these big gatherings, the first or second question, almost without exception in every city, every town, every place in the country is, “What about the election? Can we count on it? Is it going to be free and fair and safe?” We have to guarantee that. Congress has a role at the federal level to make sure federal elections are secure. It is against federal law for non-US citizens to vote in US elections, but we have no mechanism right now to ensure that in the States, because they’re not allowed to ask for proof of verification of citizenship when someone registers to vote. We’ve had a number of states already do audits. They found thousands of illegals already on the rolls.

(22:14)
This is a serious problem because some of our elections are decided by razor-thin margins, and everyone in this room in the Hill Press Corps knows. Mariannette Miller-Meeks won her first race in 2020 by six votes. Her nickname around here is Six Pack because of that. We had members, John Duarte in California won by just over 200 votes his first time. If you have a small percentage of the millions and billions of illegals who came over the border in the last four years under Border Czar Kamala Harris’ policies, they could throw an election, they can throw the majority of the House. It could affect a presidential race. It’s very, very serious stuff and that’s why we’re going to do the right thing. We’re going to responsibly fund the government and we’re going to stop the non-citizens voting in elections.

(22:53)
Last thing, this is woke week on the floor. This week, you’re going to see a number of bills that expose the Democrats’ woke agenda that’s hurting our students and our banks and our country at large. House Democrats have consistently embraced the DEI, anti-energy, and anti-American nonsense, and American people are fed up with it. So we want our banks to be fiduciaries, not social justice warriors. We want our schools to be places of education, not indoctrination. So we’re going to be voting on bills to keep our banks, banks and our schools, schools. I think that’s common sense. We’ll also vote to deport illegal aliens who commit violence against women and children. These are monsters that have no place in America. And finally, we’ll tell sanctuary cities that the federal government will not bail out their dangerous policies. With that, we’ll take a couple questions.

The former president, last week, posted that if you are unable to get what you want in what he calls election security, then you should in no way, shape, or form move forward with a continuing resolution. So are you going to listen to Donald Trump if you don’t pass this with the SAVE Act tonight?

No. Look, President Trump and I have talked a lot about this. We’ve talked a lot about it with our colleagues. We’re building consensus on the plan. Look, we all believe that election security is of preeminent importance right now. In fact, we demonstrated this. We put the SAVE Act on the floor, as you all know, in the summer. We passed it with only five Democrats voted in favor of that, 198 House Democrats voted against the SAVE Act. Remember, all the SAVE Act does is guarantee that only citizens can participate in the election. We’re going to give them another chance. We’re going to let them try to vote with us to secure the elections and we’ll see how that goes. That’s the play we’re running.

To follow up on [inaudible 00:24:32] question, would you listen to Trump and let the government shut down If, I mean, this bill’s not going to pass likely. I mean, there’s 15, there’s over 10 Republicans that said they’re going to vote against it. So will you let the government shut down?

We’ll see what happens with the bill, all right. We’re on the field in the middle of the game. The quarterback’s calling the play. We’re going to run the play. I’m very confident. I know that all the Republicans believe in election security. We have some people who dislike CRs. You know what, I dislike continuing resolutions as well. But here’s the problem, and everybody needs to remember. It is not the house, it’s not the house majority. It’s not house Republicans that put us in this situation. We ran all of our 12 appropriations bills through committee. They did an extraordinary job, our appropriators. We funded over almost 73% of federal spending off the house floor and complete in total votes. The process bogged down. You know why? Because Chuck Schumer and the Senate have not put one approps bill on the floor. They have not even begun to do their job.

(25:28)
So here we are at the fiscal cliff, at the end of the fiscal year, September 30th is right upon us. We don’t have two sets of bills as is supposed to be the system for the House and Senate to go and negotiate together because the Senate brings nothing to the table. So it is the Senate that has put us in a situation to have to have a CR, to not shut the government down, to not discontinue all government services. We are the responsible governing party here and we are doing the right thing. The right thing right now by principle, by law, by the Constitution, is to ensure that our elections are secure. That’s a number one concern, I think, for most of the American people. It’s an 88% issue on the latest polling. It’s not even a partisan issue. So we are going to force that with the last train leaving the station, which is the CR, and we’ll see what happens. Chad.

[inaudible 00:26:13] Thank you. You have passed multiple interim spending bills, CRs late last year and early this year. Again, as been suggested here, this bill might not pass. Characterize what’s your concern though? You say, I’m not going to have a plan. I’m sticking to this, but if that bill fails, then what that means for you later in the year, if you have to go and negotiate with Democrats or something that comes from the Senate.

We do the right thing day-by-day and we have a thick playbook, of course, with all sorts of ideas in it. But when you’re on the field and you’re calling the play, you run the play.

[inaudible 00:26:43] the same play. This is two weeks, that’s not expanding the play.

You asked me what concerns me, Chad, I’ll tell you this. What concerns me is having the smallest majority in US history with our one vote margin for five months and still operating with a three or four vote margin on any given day. The solution is for us to grow the majority. And I’m so glad you’re here in our building today, we could talk about politics. We feel very bullish that we’re going to get that done. In fact, all the pollsters and everyone who looks at this, the prognosticators give us the edge. We’re going to run like we’re 10 points behind, but we have the greatest stable of candidates that we’ve recruited that are in the field, many of them here today, that are going to help us get the job done. They’re going to make my job a lot easier, Chad, because we’re going to have a bigger margin and we won’t have to do this all the time.

(27:21)
Also, I’m going to tell you this, and I’ll commit this to you. In the first part of next year, when we have unified government, when the Republicans are delivered the levers of power and we have the White House, the Senate, and the House again, we’re going to govern responsibly. We are going to do 12 separate appropriations bills. We’re going to follow the timeline that’s prescribed by the statutes. In the days and years ahead, we’re going to get back to the role that Congress is supposed to play so we’re not up against these deadlines and we don’t have to talk about continuing resolutions. We need the Senate to do it as well, and I’m confident when they deliver the Republican majority, they’ll give back to that role as well. We’ll do it in a bicameral fashion and we’ll return good governance to the people, and that’s what this is about. I’ll leave you with a thought.

(27:58)
In the room upstairs, we had all of our candidates, incumbents there. We had a great, I call it a pep rally. People are in a very good mood, very encouraged, very enthusiastic, as are the donors around the country, and I don’t know if this has been said anywhere, but we just collected upstairs, almost 10 million additional dollars from members in the NRCC. We’re as motivated as the donors are to save this country, and that’s what we’re about. I’m so grateful for this leadership team. Thank you.

How’s he doing?

He’s doing better than I would have expected [inaudible 00:28:39]