Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp (R-GA) had a plainspoken message for Republicans in Congress who sunk the bipartisan border bill last week: “Just secure the dang border!”
Kemp spoke with Jonathan Karl on ABC’s This Week Sunday,
Karl asked, “What did you make of the way the Republicans imploded in Congress on this question of the bill that Senator [James] Lankford had negotiated, endorsed by the union, the border patrol union. I mean, was that a mistake to tank something that at least the people who are on the border, guarding the border, thought would have been a good step?”
“Well, it was not a very productive week in Washington, D.C., whether it was for the Congress or for the president,” Kemp said. “And I think that’s what frustrates people when you look around the country.” Kemp continued:
“You know, I talked yesterday about what Republican governors are doing and showing leadership on issues and getting things done. I think people in D.C. ought to be voting on policy, not what somebody’s telling them to do. That’s just my personal opinion. I’ll let each of the representatives and the senators speak to that.
But, also, I think for President Biden trying to pass the buck and blame Republicans now about the issue at the border is just a simple lack of leadership. You know, over a year ago I was at the World Economic Forum with Senators [Chris] Coons, [Joe] Manchin, and [Kyrsten] Sinema, and I told them — they were thinking about passing a bipartisan immigration reform bill — and I said, look, while you’re working on this — and, by the way, people have been working on this for the last 10 or 20 years — just secure the dang border! That’s what the people want.
The governors are willing to help in those efforts. You can see how successful it has been with what Greg Abbott’s done in Texas, but we can’t just secure one state’s border; we gotta secure the whole southern border, and it takes the president to do that. He could do that or start doing that today, quit passing the buck on some legislation that didn’t pass this week when we’ve been dealing with this issue for years now.