Sep 21 2021

ICYMI: Graham Discusses Border Surge, Afghanistan, And More

WASHINGTON — U.S. Senator Lindsey Graham (R-South Carolina) today joined Fox & Friends to discuss the latest news on the border crisis, Afghanistan, and upcoming budget reconciliation.

BORDER CRISIS:

  • GRAHAM: “Everybody’s coming to seek asylum.  If you said you can’t apply for asylum in the United States – we no longer accept asylum claims inside the country – they'd all stop coming. Trump did that and it went to a 45 year low...If you’re from the Triangle Countries, you have to apply there. If you come from some other place, we send you back to Mexico, you sit in Mexico, you make your application, you can’t come here until your hearing which is three or four years down the road.  It would all stop overnight. Nobody’s going pay a bunch of money to sit in Mexico for five years.” https://youtu.be/RlHYPMroFJ4?t=12
  • GRAHAM: “There’s a perfect storm brewing – the chaos in the Middle East is going to come to us here at home through the border if we don't change soon. How easy would it be for a terrorist group to hire some cartel to take them into the United States through the southern border, get in the middle of this humanity. Like the Haitians – they're not sending Haitians back, they're sending men back and the women and children are staying. So nothing changes until you change our asylum law, but I'm really worried about the narrative out there that America was defeated in Afghanistan. Every jihadist is going to Afghanistan, and there will soon be an effort to infiltrate this country through the southern border if we don't do something about it.” https://youtu.be/RlHYPMroFJ4?t=113
  • GRAHAM: “[Biden] chose poorly at every turn. If he had done nothing on the border, we would be okay. He changed the remain in Mexico policy, he did away with the asylum agreements with the Triangle Countries. Guess what – we're overrun, like the Border Patrol told the [Biden] transition team in December and January. If he had left the troops at Bagram, never closed Bagram Airbase, we wouldn’t have the Taliban in charge. If you keep spending money like this, we’re going to have inflation through the roof. All of this is self-inflicted.” https://youtu.be/RlHYPMroFJ4?t=83

AFGHANISTAN:

  • GRAHAM: “Al-Qaeda and the Taliban are one in the same. There will be an effort to normalize relationships with the Taliban, it will be a disaster. Any money you pay them doesn't go to the people of Afghanistan, it goes to them, and they will give safe haven to al-Qaeda because they believe the same. They have a common purpose.” https://youtu.be/RlHYPMroFJ4?t=169
  • GRAHAM: “Who in the world takes all the military out then hopes you can get the civilians out later? This is a case study on just screwing up how to withdraw from a country.” https://youtu.be/RlHYPMroFJ4?t=206
  • GRAHAM: “Everybody in [Joe Biden’s] circle said ‘leave a residual force, leave the 2,500, keep Bagram. It’s an insurance policy against another 9/11.’ It was Joe Biden and Joe Biden alone who decided to pull all the troops out. Trump told me a couple of nights ago, he'd have kept Bagram. If you had kept Bagram and the CIA post down along the border, the Taliban could never take over and al-Qaeda wouldn’t come storming back like they are today. So this is ‘General Biden’ knowing more than all the generals combined. He was told by everybody to leave a residual force. It was his decision to pull the plug, just like it was in Iraq with him and Obama.” https://youtu.be/RlHYPMroFJ4?t=237

RECONCILIATION AND IMMIGRATION:

  • GRAHAM: “Nobody is more happy about [the Senate parliamentarian’s] ruling than the Democrats. If you actually put DACA legalization in a reconciliation package where you only need 50 Democratic votes, they would own legalizing probably a million people. Can you imagine the run on the border if the word get out tomorrow, ‘hey they just gave a million people legal status, hurry on down’ …if you legalize one person before you secure the border and reform a broken immigration system, the run on the border will be worse than it is today.” https://youtu.be/RlHYPMroFJ4?t=303

Watch Full Interview Here

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