Fox News "The Ingraham Angle" - Interview with Reps. Mark Meadows and Jim Jordan

Interview

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CHAFFETZ: Joining me now for an "Ingraham Angle" exclusive. House Freedom caucus member Jim Jordan and Mark Meadows, gentlemen, thank you for being here. I had the honor and privilege of serving with you so it's always good to be back with you.

REP. MARK MEADOWS, R-N.C., CHAIRMAN, HOUSE FREEDOM CAUCUS: Good to be back with you.

REP. JIM JORDAN, R-OHIO, HOUSE JUDICIARY COMMITTEE: Good to have committee back together.

CHAFFETZ: Yes, that's right, that's right. I want to start with Mark Meadows, here. Congressman, I got to tell you, there's been some tweeting out there and some reports that you've been working pretty closely with Lindsey Graham trying to figure out how to get - figure out the right compromise. Where are we at tonight?

MEADOWS: Well, I can tell, you said earlier, the President has been working around the clock, he and his team, I can tell you. I was on the phone with him twice. Yesterday, I was on the phone with him on Christmas Eve. Senator Graham has done the same, doing great work, really offering a number of options.

It's interesting, the whole narrative is that the Republicans won't compromise and the Democrats will compromise but I can tell you there's been at least three substantial offers, both directly and indirectly that have been made on behalf of the Republicans that really come up against a wall.

It is a wall of really undeniable resolve where they're saying 0 money for border security. Let's have open borders and the American people won't support that.

CHAFFETZ: I want to play this clip and then Jim Jordan react to it. This is Nancy Pelosi on another network.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Are you willing to come up and give him some of this money for the wall because apparently that's the sticking point.

PELOSI: No, nothing, we're talking about border security.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Nothing for the wall but that means--

PELOSI: But we can go with this all back and forth. No, anyway how many more times can we say no, nothing for the wall.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CHAFFETZ: What's your reaction?

JORDAN: Well, I mean, this is Nancy Pelosi, this is the same lady who said, you got to read the Bill before you know what's in it and she passed a Bill before you know what's in it. This is the same Nancy Pelosi who three weeks ago in the Oval office said, there aren't the votes on the House to pass a Bill with border security, border wall funding in it and a few days later it was 217 to 185.

So when she says she's not going to do it, I say let's take the case to the American people just like the President's doing. Ask some families who've seen terrible things happen by people who came in this country illegally. Ask Molly Tibbett's family.

Ask the law enforcement officer, just a few weeks back so this is important, we need the border security wall, the President's been clear on that as Mark just indicated, he's willing to compromise but the Democrats have said nothing. Just like Nancy Pelosi, nothing for the well, that's the problem.

If you want to deal with the drug problem, the gang problem as your previous guest said and the human trafficking problem, you need your border security wall, that's all we're saying and we're only asking for $5 billion and we were willing to come down some on that.

So let's - let's just get off the positions, Speaker to be Pelosi and let's do what the American people -

CHAFFETZ: I don't know how the Democrats can be successful because you're trying to do what the border patrol wants, the border patrol wants the impediment of people coming north, they're the ones that have to deal with it. Jerry Nadler, the congressman from New York is the incoming Chairman of the House Judiciary Committee which does have jurisdiction here. Listen to the comments he made.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. JERRY NADLER, D-N.Y., INCOMING CHAIRMAN, HOUSE JUDICIARY COMMITTEE: With this shut down that President Trump has initiated proudly, he claimed it, it's really blackmail of the American people because he is feeling abandoned so what this shut down is really is an extremist policy designed to appeal to an extremist base and hold the whole country hostage.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MEADOWS: You know, it's interesting, most people back home, most of your viewers tonight, they believe that they need to have a safer community and a secure border. We're a nation of laws, lets uphold the laws and yet here we are, border patrol agents, you just heard it there.

Border patrol agents that say they need a barrier, they need the tools to do that, we need to do that, listen, the President has waited two years, he campaigned on this, you know that, Jason. He's waited two years, he says enough is enough, now is the time to do it. Let's make sure that we get a border wall.

JORDAN: Here's the fundamental problem. The Democrats are much more focused on stopping the President than they are on doing what's best for the country. The agents want the wall, the American people want the wall, people whose families who've had loved ones harmed by people here illegally want the wall.

Mr. Nadler, he's much more focused on impeachment proceedings, he's much more focused on the emoluments clause on Trump's tax returns and all those things. Let's do what's best for the country here.

CHAFFETZ: I don't know how a Democratic Party succeeds when they want to abolish ICE. They say the wall is immoral, they're in favor of sanctuary cities and then when you try to fund the things that they voted in favor of previously, they're not willing to do the appropriations.

MEADOWS: Exactly, many of these same Democrats, you saw Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer, many of them have voted for border fencing and walls previously. The only difference now is President Trump is in the White House and they can't stand to give him that.

CHAFFETZ: Okay, so how do you get over that hurdle?

MEADOWS: I think one, you have to continue to give options which the President is doing, you have to make the case to the American people, we're trying to sign - get a petition going, we've opened up borderwallnow.com where we're encouraging grassroots from across the country, just started today, where they're going to sign a petition and say, we're standing with the President, we want border security.

But it's really going to be your viewers and people like them across the country that have to speak up.

JORDAN: A GoFundMe page, Brian Kolfage, I think it's $19 million already.

CHAFFETZ: One of our colleagues, House freedom caucus member Warren Davis has got a Bill which would enable that money to actually go to the treasury and help build the wall, it is as Bill has called, buy a brick, build the wall.

Those are the kind of thing that Americans - because that's good common sense, that makes good sense, let's continue to make the case and let's get this done for the American people.

CHAFFETZ: Yeah, it is. It's almost $19 million, it's unbelievable. I got to transition to a little bit oversight, something the three of us sat on and I was the former Chairman of and you're going to be the new ranking member working alongside Elijah Cummings who will be the new Chairman of that committee.

I think the Democrats have laid out some 80 plus investigations that they already - how are you going to deal with that?

JORDAN: So I mean, they've talked about 80 different investigations they want to do, they had 54 different subpoenas that they issued, that they wanted to issue this Congress, this past Congress and just two weeks ago, Mr. Cummings announced 51 letters on all kinds of things he wants to investigate.

So we'll see, do they - I think the President said this best, do they want to legislate or do they want to investigate? It sure seems like they want to investigate, it sure seems like they're more focused on stopping President Trump than they are in helping the country so we'll see what Chairman Cummings and some the other chairman do.

CHAFFETZ: You know, what I thought was interesting, I was very proud of the fact that we had evidence of something that was wrong and then we pursued it as opposed to presupposing the end result and then trying to go back and fill in the facts later.

MEADOWS: And we - I'll still call you Mr. Chairman and you're exactly right because what happened there Jason is, we have an oversight responsibility, not an investigative responsibility, it's very different. When wrongdoing or this suspicion of wrongdoing is brought to us, then indeed we can properly investigate, conduct oversight and do the like.

But yet here we have is a fishing expedition, where we're going to say everything that you could possibly have done wrong, we're going to investigate even if it was prior to you becoming the President of the United States. It's just wrong.

JORDAN: We just got to focus on the truth.

MEADOWS: Yeah.

JORDAN: Focus on getting to the truth, doing our proper oversight, holding the executive branch accountable but focus on the truth, if we do that, I think we'll be fine and we'll serve the taxpayers.

CHAFFETZ: Well, gentlemen, we appreciate what you do so I appreciate your service and I know personally, how much time you sacrifice away from your beautiful families that you have and I thank you for joining us here tonight.

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