Georgia Governor Brian Kemp, a Republican, had a straightforward message for his fellow Republicans in Congress who opposed the bipartisan border bill last week: “It’s time to simply secure the border!”
During Sunday’s episode of ABC’s This Week, Kemp had a conversation with Jonathan Karl.
Karl inquired about the Republicans’ collapse in Congress regarding the bill negotiated by Senator [James] Lankford and endorsed by the border patrol union. He wondered if it was a mistake to sabotage a measure that those on the border, responsible for guarding it, believed to be a positive move.
“It was a rather unproductive week in Washington, D.C., for both the Congress and the president,” lamented Kemp. “And I believe that’s what truly frustrates people when they observe the state of affairs across the nation.” Kemp further emphasized his point by stating:
“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.