Fox News "Hannity" - Transcript: Interview with Rep. Steve Scalise

Interview

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

HANNITY: All right. As we continue our Hannity watch on the border crisis. That was President Trump from earlier today during his meeting with cabinet officials. Now, this afternoon, there was a briefing inside the Situation Room with congressional leaders about the border.

Republican Congressman Steve Scalise, he was a part of that meeting and he joins us now.

It's interesting and we go back a couple years ago, all these Democrats supported building wall, now they don't support building a wall. But the problem is people like this officer in California are dying because we are not enforcing the law.

How does Congress justify what I believe is aiding and abetting by releasing people that we know broke our laws and should be sent back?

REP. STEVE SCALISE, R-LA.: Well, Sean, it's good to be back on with you. And what you saw today in the White House with the meeting we had with the president was an example what we've seen for a long time. A lot of these Democrats who -- as Chuck Schumer did back in 2006 voted for a wall, voted for, by the way, $25 billion for the wall. Now, the president is saying we need $5 billion next year and they are opposing it because of Donald Trump. Not because of any policy issues.

What do they say to Officer Singh and his family, which a horrible heartbreaking story and unfortunately live it happens over and over every single day at the border?

By the way, our Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen was getting ready to give a briefing on all of the problems, the crisis at the border, at the beginning of this White House briefing and Pelosi, Schumer, kept interrupting her because they didn't want to hear the numbers. The numbers, Sean, by the way are alarming. You've seen these.

Last year alone, over 3,700 known or suspected terrorists were stopped from entering our country. Thousands of criminals, not just people coming over to seek the American dream like many would have you believe, but people who are actually convicted criminals were stopped, and those are the ones we stopped. How many got across where we don't know about, where we don't have walls?

And when we have walls, by the way, there's over 90 percent decrease in that kind of criminal activity and illegal crossings. So, this is a national crisis we have. The question is going to be, are they for border security or not, because they can't say they're for border security and then oppose the very things our experts say they need to the secure the border. And that's what this funding battle is all about.

HANNITY: Do you think based on what their prior position was, versus where they are today, that this is all personal, that this is all politics? Because at the end of the day, if you have a criminal alien that's supposed to be deported, but you don't hand them over to ICE as a matter of a sanctuary city or state policy, aren't they aiding and abetting whatever future crimes are committed, in this particular case murder. Did they aid and abet?

SCALISE: Well, clearly you've got some of that blood on your hands if you are okay with that kind of policy. You can't deny what it does, because here in a sanctuary city like you saw in California sanctuary state, they are not allowed as the sheriff said. They're not allowed to turn those kind of criminals over when they're released from prison - over to ICE. They're not allowed to share some of that information with our border agents who are tasked with keeping our country safe.

And look, a lot of these democrats appear in Congress, they don't even want ICE. Last year alone Sean, our ICE agents, our border agents on the interior of our country stopped and saved over 900 kids from being sexually assaulted and human trafficked.

That's going on at our border and they're stopping it, but they're surely not stopping all of it, and so why would they oppose this kind of funding it's because they're not for border security. You can't say you're for border security and then oppose the very things that everybody - all of our experts are saying it's going to take to keep this country safe.

HANNITY: All right, Congressman Scalise. Thank you for sharing your thoughts what's going on in the House, what happened with the President. Joining us now with more on the battle over the border the so-called big government shutdown, which is never really a shutdown, South Carolina Senator Lindsey Graham is with us.

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Source