Negotiating with the Border Arsonists

Hey, everybody. Thanks for watching The Charlie Kirk Show. Senator Ron Johnson joins us for a rather important conversation. Talk about immigration, border, DeSantis and more. It's really illuminating.

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That's why we are here. Join us now is one of my favorite senators. He is fighting daily in Washington, D.C. Senator Ron Johnson. Senator, thank you so much for taking the time. Your initial reaction to Governor DeSantis dropping out of the presidential race?

I guess I was surprised that he was dropping out before New Hampshire. You know, I don't know why he wouldn't want to just go through the votes, but that's his choice. Now it's down to two. And I'll from my own standpoint, we'll see. Wait until Republican primary voters decide who our nominee is. So the one of the main issues that Republican primary voters are voicing concern about. And I know that this is really coming down to the Senate is immigration. And I want to drill into this with you because you've been so good on this issue. But there's a lot of question of is there a deal being negotiated?

What are the contents of this deal? What can you share, Senator, about the ongoing Senate negotiations regarding the border? Well, first of all, this should not be about immigration. This should not be about immigration reform. This should be about securing our border. And the problem any Republican would have trying to negotiate with Democrats and the Biden administration is they want open borders.

They caused this problem. President Trump, using existing law, no help from Congress, virtually no help, was able to secure the border from his peak travels about 12 months. And then, of course, the Democrat presidential candidates talked about how they were going to end deportation, give free health care, single adults started rising before Biden took office.

But once Biden took office, the border exploded because he opened it up. What I find most disappointing about the current negotiations is I'm a Republican Senator. I called a conference meeting two weeks ago, where we were supposed to have the text. We were supposed to know what negotiators were negotiating. We were supposed to know exactly what the elements are that they're negotiating. So I don't know what red lines, Republican leadership, what Leifert has told them. I am disappointed that apparently Republican leadership took metrics off the table. That was actually John Hoeven's suggestion, but I pushed the fact that if we're going to get crane funding, it should be contingent on thresholds actually being met of securing the border. I thought that should have been table stakes with a lawless administration. But apparently, our leadership said that if we're going to get crane funding, it should be contingent on thresholds actually being met of securing the border.

But we're not even going to consider that. So that wasn't even part of the negotiating mix, which does not make me happy yet. So, Senator, I just have to ask a broader question here. Is this standard operating procedure nowadays in D.C. where I mean, you're a very well respected senator. You've been around for a while where they just kind of cast you aside and they negotiate. I mean, it's bad enough that the American people are not in the room to understand what's going on. In the deal, it's five or six people where they don't they don't even tell you what's going on.

And can you be more specific? Is it Senator Lankford that's involved in this or is it Mitch McConnell or is it Senator Brasso? And I know these are your colleagues. I'm just curious, who are the ones actually doing the quote unquote negotiating? So first of all, this has become standard operating procedure, primarily in how we plunder and mortgage our children's future. But anything big like this, you know, neither side.

Trust the public. And I basically lay the responsibility at Leader McConnell's footsteps here. We've been talking internally about this. I've been pressing hard about details.

I've been pressing hard for, you know, those metrics that have to they have to meet these thresholds if they're going to get Ukraine funding. And he doesn't comment at all. Instead, he apparently tells our negotiator, listen, James Langford, very knowledgeable on the border.

I think he's pushing hard. But again, we're not getting the details of this. They always say it was too complicated. You know, one one element affects another element. And we really can't discuss this right here. It's going to blow up the negotiations.

I think that's total BS. I think the American public deserves to know what are the elements. You know, this is one thing where Republicans I since I've been in the Senate, there's not been an issue where the majority of Americans agree with Republicans on this. So what are we afraid of? We ought to be very upfront.

These are the elements. This is what Democrats are agreeing to. This is what they're not agreeing to. We should be putting applying public pressure because again, we're basically negotiating with the arsonist to put out the fire.

And that doesn't work very well. And my guess is Democrats, they're really not looking for a secure border. Right now they're looking for political cover. Because Mayor Adams said that this is going to destroy New York City. So the mainstream media has had to report on this a little more honestly. So they're feeling the pressure. But my guess is they're mainly negotiating for political cover. I don't know why we'd give them that cover. Let's have this out in the daylight.

Let's talk about what elements. Let's see. Is this going to actually secure the border or is the goal really just providing the tools for a serious president to secure the border, which, by the way, would not be trivial. But it's certainly not the expectations of the public right now in terms of these negotiations. Senator, you hit it perfectly. They have no interest in actually solving the problem. They want to just check an imaginary box, say that they have some sort of bipartisan thing and move on and potentially if the contents of the deal that Chuck Schumer and Lankford are negotiating are true, which we don't know because no one's seen text.

But if the rumors and if the sources are correct, it would undermine a future president from actually being able to do his job. For example, issuing millions of work permits. Well, that is soft gateway drug amnesty, essentially, meaning that that is the first step towards amnesty once you give work permits to people that should not be here in the first place. I've been taking balance of nature for several years and I feel the energy level of twenty seven. I endorse it.

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Go to balance of nature dot com and get this exclusive holiday offer by using discount code Charlie. So give us some insight into a temperature check of rank and file Republican senators when it comes to doing a deal with the Democrats that actually wouldn't secure the border. So it completely depends on what the deal is. First, I think there is a fair amount of a sympathy for the fact that Democrats are talking about making concessions on border security that they've never even talked about without amnesty. So there's probably progress being made. The problem is this administration, these Democrats and Congress don't want to secure border. They want to cover and Republican negotiators as well as the Republican conference have to understand that. But again, the arguments being put forward that we couldn't even possibly get as good a deal if we had the presidency, less than 60 senators and the House.

That's probably true. But I'll remind everybody that President Trump, under existing law, was able to secure the border. So how important are those? Listen, you'd be helpful to President Trump if we pass a higher standard than credible fears, if we had elements in place. But again, the expectations right now is if there's going to be a deal done, particularly in exchange for Ukraine funding, it better secure the border.

And that's no small task. That's not easy because when President Trump finally got Title 42 authority, he'd already secured the border down to 1200 people a day, which is still massive. But now it's 10,000 people a day on average in December. During the entire Biden administration, it's been 7500 people per day.

It's an order of magnitude worse. Do we have the personnel even to implement what good language they may end up negotiating? But do we have enough people to actually utilize that language to secure the border?

Those are the questions not being answered yet. And you make such an important point. And I really hope that we can get your perspective into the mainstream networks, which is they act as if we need this new deal and we need all this new stuff. The laws are on the books. They need to enforce the law. Senator, can you riff on a second? It seems as if some very cunning and dare I say, definitely deceptive, borderline evil intellectual on the left realized that if you control the executive branch, you could just ignore enforcing the law and say you're doing it anyway.

It's almost their new glitch in the system. It's as if they just have Mayorkas say, oh, no, no, the border is secure. We're enforcing the law. In reality, they aren't.

Can you riff on that? Because it seems as if this is their new way to undermine the republic is they don't control the House. They're not able to get big transformational change for the Senate. So they just have cabinet secretaries turn a blind eye and say, you know, we just we get to enforce what laws that we like. Your thoughts on that?

Sure. Well, the Democrat Party, these administrations have been lawless. I mean, they first engaged in something called sue and settle, go to a friendly court, sue the agency to get the policy change you want.

The court blesses it. And all of a sudden, we're doing things that you never could pass during Congress. This particular president. Well, the lawlessness really started under Obama. The way he abused discretionary prosecution or prosecutorial discretion. He did that with DACA. You know, prosecutorial discretion should be meted out on a case by case basis, not for hundreds of thousands of people. This administration did the same thing with parole. Prior to this administration, generally, we were granting parole to about 5000 people a year. Parole should be used for humanitarian reasons.

If you've got cancer, you need treatment, you come in temporarily, and you go home or you come in for a funeral, and you go home. This administration has given it to hundreds of thousands, if not more than a million people. But just say, look at what else this president has done this lawless. The Supreme Court rules that eviction moratorium is unconstitutional. He extends it anyway. They rule that forgiving student loans is unconstitutional.

He continues to forgive them. So that's the other point with Republican negotiators. Why would anybody think that this lawless president would implement any agreement that they negotiate?

That's that's why you need metrics. That's why you need to make the funding of Ukraine contingent on them actually securing the border. I think that's just a table stake that Republicans should have embraced. But unfortunately, Mitch McConnell didn't want to.

Why? Why doesn't Mitch McConnell want to? Because his top priority is funding Ukraine. I guess he's more concerned about Ukraine's border than our own. He doesn't apparently figure that the open border in America is a clear and present danger and should be our top priority as every American to get control of our border and try and reduce the risk. But that risk already exists.

Are we going to make it worse? Hi, I'm Adriana, a politics major at Hillsdale College. Here's Hillsdale President Dr. Larry Arnn with a Constitution Minute. America's founders recognized an obvious fact of life. Human beings differ in terms of physical attributes and talents.

Because of this, some people will be better at some things than they are at others. But they also recognize that the tall and the short among us, the swift and the slow among us are still human beings if we are recognizable as human beings. And therefore, we are equal in terms of the rights that pertain to human beings, rights attached to human nature, rights that come from God. The Declaration of Independence names three of the big ones, life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. Exercising these rights is necessary if we are to be truly free. In our own time, many influential people believe that only government can decide what our rights should be. This is dangerous. Understanding our rights and how the Constitution protects them is vital to our freedom.

To learn more and get a free pocket Constitution, visit Constitutionminute.com. So, Senator, I'm going to ask you about one of your colleagues, the curious case of John Fetterman. He has been more outspoken about securing the border than some Senate Republicans.

Can you help me understand? Have you spent any time with him? Part of me wonders, is this a shtick so that when Biden wants to win Pennsylvania, Fetterman can win over MAGA-type voters to give credibility? What's going on with Senator John Fetterman? Quite honestly, I really don't have a relationship with him. He still has problems communicating. We don't run into each other too often other than in the hallway and pleasant.

We say hello to each other, but that's about it. Let's face it, in the realm of politics, everything's political. So it was surprising, some of the statements he's being made, which quite honestly kind of surprised me as well, would probably be trying to appeal to Pennsylvania so we can get elected to another term. That seems to be the primary motivating factor of far too many people in Congress was just re-electing. So you'll be willing to say or do anything to achieve that goal.

That's really not my motivation. I like your cynicism. I share it completely and that's a great answer. Senator, I want to close here talking about the great state of Wisconsin. The electoral math that has been in front of us for the last year and a half and that people are starting to realize is that there are very few paths to the White House if you don't win Wisconsin. You are the most qualified to give us the wisdom of what's happening, what's not happening in Wisconsin. You have won three times when you have had hundreds of millions of dollars each time spent against you from Russ Feingold to the gentleman last time that you beat despite all the money and the abortion issue.

Give us a little bit of an analysis. Do you think that Republicans are making the proper investments in the state of Wisconsin? Do you think that we are doing what is necessary or is it time to sound the alarm and deploy more energy and attention in the great state of Wisconsin?

I remember Pat Toomey always used to talk about Pennsylvania being Philadelphia and Pittsburgh with Alabama in between. And yeah, I think an awful lot of states are like that, including Wisconsin, so it's a lot easier for Democrats. They've got Milwaukee, they've got Madison, they gin up those voter bases with an issue like abortion. Republicans have to go and get votes from every little town throughout the state. It's just a much more challenging task. So we need to spend money on a ground game. Less money on advertising, you need it, but really focus your more sufficient dollars spent is going to be on a ground game, having paid field staff, members of the community that will talk to their friends, family, and neighbor. It's about getting votes one at a time.

And can you just add a little more? I mean, you did this amazingly county by county. What are the swing counties that we should really emphasize?

I look at Waukesha, Kenosha. These are the ones that are kind of up in the air that, you know, that kind of Wisconsin moderate sensibility we need to win over. But your focus on the border, I imagine, is driven by your constituents emphasis on the border. Speak about the counties and the issue set that you think is going to be decisive coming into this later this year.

Well, we've had a bleed in some of our strong Wau counties from inner city Milwaukee as they head out. But again, on a statewide election, that doesn't really factor in. You've got to get votes everywhere.

So we need to, my name is Vinny Vosa out of Madison, Milwaukee. We need to make sure we've got the poll workers, which we have now. We recruited a lot of poll workers to keep an eye on the process to make sure there's, or as best as possible, guarantee there won't be cheating.

And then again, it's just every county, every little city is important. You need the data, you need to follow up, but spend money on that ground game, on the data and extracting every vote. We're all into early voting now. We're encouraging absentee balloting.

Get those banks so that we can spend our time on Election Day focusing on the people who haven't voted for us. Senator Johnson, thank you for your excellent work. And if I was in charge, which I'm not, I would deploy you to be in charge of all Wisconsin strategy.

Nobody knows Wisconsin like you do. And you have the battle scars to prove it. You have defeated the national Democrat machine time and time again. And you have such wisdom to share. Senator, keep fighting. Thank you so much. I will. Take care. Thanks so much for listening, everybody. Email us as always. Freedom at CharlieKirk.com. Thanks so much for listening. God bless.