TRANSCRIPT April 07,2024 NEWS PROGRAM SEN. J.D. VANCE (R-OHIO) SEN. J.D. VANCE (R-OHIO) IS INTERVIEWED ON SUNDAY MORNING FUTURES VIQ Media Transcription, Inc. 20 East Thomas Road, Suite 2200 Phoenix, AZ 85012 asc.info@viqsolutions.com Copyright 2024. Provided under license from VIQ Media Transcription, Inc. All materials herein are protected by United States copyright law and/or license from VIQ Media Transcription, Inc., and may not be reproduced, distributed, transmitted, displayed, published or broadcast without the prior written permission of VIQ Media Transcription, Inc. You may not alter or remove any trademark, copyright or other notice from copies of the content. SEN. J.D. VANCE (R-OHIO) IS INTERVIEWED ON SUNDAY MORNING
FUTURES
APRIL 7,2024
SPEAKERS:
SEN. J.D. VANCE (R-OHIO)
MARIA BARTIROMO, HOST SUNDAY MORNING FUTURES
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
REP. MARJORIE TAYLOR GREENE (R-GA): If Speaker Johnson really wanted to secure the border, like he promised all of us he would and promised the American people, then he would have told Chuck Schumer, we will not pass any government funding bills until our border — our border and funding bills have the H.R.2 in it or the Laken Riley Act, or at least some measures within them.
But he didn't. He completely failed in that.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MARIA BARTIROMO, FOX NEWS ANCHOR: And that was Georgia Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene on this program two weeks ago, as Congress was leaving for Easter break.
Now, Congress returns this week, with the House holding on to a slim majority and the Democrats in control of the Senate, as Americans are unhappy with the Biden agenda.
Last week's FOX News poll shows 61 percent of voters and citizens are disappointed with Biden's handling of the economy. President Donald Trump is favored by 15 points on who would do a better job on the economy.
And while the administration was celebrating what appeared to be a blockbuster jobs report on Friday, showing 303,000 jobs created in the month of March and the unemployment rate down to 3.8 percent, the bad news in this report is that most of the jobs over the last year have gone to illegal or foreign-born workers.
Here's former Council of Economic Advisers head Kevin Hassett with me this weekend on FOX Business. Watch.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
KEVIN HASSETT, FORMER CHAIRMAN, COUNCIL OF ECONOMIC ADVISERS: Over the last year, that table reports that there were 615,000 jobs created only.
And of those 615,000,1.3 million were people who almost surely are illegal aliens. They're aliens, for sure. And, in fact, people who were U.S. residents a year ago, about 650,000 of them have lost their jobs this year.
And so what's going on is that there is an employment boom that's coming from these people who are streaming across the border.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BARTIROMO: Wow.
Joining me right now in this "Sunday Morning Futures" exclusive is Ohio Senator J.D. Vance.
Senator, it's great to see you this morning. Thanks very much for being here.
Your reaction to the jobs report on Friday?
SEN. J.D. VANCE (R-OH): Well, I think, unfortunately, Kevin Hassett is exactly right.
If you look not just over the last year, Maria, but over the last three or four years, much of the job growth from the Biden administration has gone to the foreign-born. And many of those, of course, are illegal aliens.
You contrast that, with the Trump economy, Maria, which was about productivity enhancements, higher wages for American workers, more manufacturing, and, ultimately, better good-paying jobs for American workers, with the Biden economy, where so much of the economic growth has gone to the foreign-born, has gone to illegal immigrants, while American workers struggle to feed their families and struggle to buy homes, struggle to actually live the American dream.
It's a really, really sad state of affairs. And while President Biden wants to flag-wave about how well the economy is doing, I have been home for the last two weeks, Maria. People just don't buy it. People recognize that it's getting harder to live your dreams under the Biden economy.
And it's, unfortunately, because a lot of that net job growth has gone to the foreign-born. What a disgraceful commentary for the president to be bragging about an economy that's benefiting illegal immigrants more than American citizens.
BARTIROMO: That is just astounding, Senator.
And all day Friday, we heard all this celebrating about this jobs number. You have been home for two weeks talking with constituents. Tell me what's most important to the people you have spoken with in Ohio.
VANCE: The two things I hear most about is that it's still really, really hard to afford a good life in this country, Maria, from car payments, home payments.
A lot of the major indexes of inflation undercount the ways in which people are struggling day to day. Larry Summers, the Obama administration economist, has talked a lot about this, that, if you actually look at what most people are spending their wages on, prices are not coming down. Inflation is still a very serious problem for American workers.
On the other hand, of course, you have a crime, public safety, and illegal immigration problem that's making people feel less safe in their own communities. So, on the one hand, they can't afford to get by in this economy and with this administration. On the other hand, they don't feel safe in their own communities.
BARTIROMO: Wow.
VANCE: We just had — 15 miles from where I grew up, Maria, here in Southwestern Ohio, we had an illegal immigrant who was arrested who murdered somebody in Hamilton, Ohio.
So, when people say — Hamilton, Ohio, has about 60,000 people, by the way. When people say that Ohio is not a border state, we're certainly dealing with the problems caused by Joe Biden's open border. This has got to stop.
And unless you stop it, I don't think you're going to give people any sense of real safety in their communities.
BARTIROMO: Senator, you just relayed one of the horrible stories that we hear over and over again as a result of the unknown attached to the wide-open border.
You have been to the border plenty of times. Why is it that the Republicans cannot really move the needle on securing the border? You're coming back to work next week, this upcoming week, after your Easter recess, and it sounds like the priority is money to Ukraine.
There's a $95 billion foreign military aid package. Maybe it comes to the floor not this week, but next week. Regardless, when can you secure the border, and how?
VANCE: Well, let me just say, first of all, Maria, this illustrates the need for a President Trump round two.
We know that the Biden administration has thrown open the floodgates here. They have undone a lot of Trump era immigration policy, and we have seen the effects. But I don't want to let congressional Republicans off the hook here, because we actually do have leverage. We just have to be willing to actually use it.
I think Speaker Johnson is a good guy, but if he brings up a foreign aid package, sending billions of dollars to Ukraine, without doing anything on the southern border, it will be a disgrace and a massive betrayal, not just of Republican voters, but of the entire country.
Why would people elect Republicans if Republicans are more focused on the border of another country than the border of our own country? So I hope Speaker Johnson really shows some steely resolve here, pushes back against the craziness, and tells the Biden administration, you don't get a dime for your foreign priorities until you do your job and secure the border.
And, in the meantime, we have got to do everything we can to reelect Donald Trump, because if we had him, we wouldn't be dealing with a president who wants to have an open border.
BARTIROMO: So, can you effect change in the Senate?
Because you just heard Marjorie Taylor Greene talking about exactly what you just said, Mike Johnson, a good guy, but really need him to be more serious and more aggressive in terms of securing the border. What can be done in the Senate? And who do you want to see in terms of the replacement for Mitch McConnell come November?
VANCE: Well, we will see who actually runs, Maria.
What I want is somebody, first of all, who could work with a future Republican president. That's very important. But you also need somebody, I think, who is willing to use the leverage that we have. And it's very simple.
The way the framers set this up, Maria, is, Congress has the power of the purse. We cannot force Joe Biden to do anything. We can't order the military around. That power vests with Article 2 president of the United States. What we have is the ability to say, you don't get money for your priorities unless you do what the American people need you to do.
And, unfortunately, whether it's Mitch McConnell or, unfortunately, too many House Republicans, there's been an unwillingness from our leadership to use that leverage. If we put our foot down, Maria, if we said to Joe Biden, you don't get another dime for your priorities until you secure the border, he would do it because he would have to.
Unfortunately, you have way too many Republicans who want to accommodate the president's policies, instead of actually push him to fight for the American people.
BARTIROMO: By the way, increasingly, I'm hearing the issue about the census.
Is the wide-open border helping Democrats get more congressional seats?
VANCE: This is a huge issue, Maria, and something we need to talk about more.
So, Ohio in the last proportionment lost a congressional seat. California has between three and five congressional seats that it shouldn't have. Why? Because the census counts illegal aliens when it hands out congressional representatives.
So, when you import millions of people into this country illegally, you're actually destroying the American people's power and their own democracy. You're taking away congressional representation from American citizens and giving it to illegal aliens.
My colleague Senator Hagerty, great guy from Tennessee, actually had an amendment to try to force the change on this issue just before we broke for the Easter recess. Every single Democrat voted against it. So there are things that we can do. We just have to fight for the American people.
BARTIROMO: So, in other words, they want it that way, your colleagues? They have no problem with the fact that the wide-open border, even if it has these national security threats, they're OK with it because it's giving them more congressional seats?
VANCE: That's exactly right, Maria.
This is the secret to why Democrats love an open border. We see it in rising fentanyl rates. We see it in rising crime rates. We're dealing, of course, with the consequences of it. But Democrats see an opportunity to massively transform who votes in American elections and who gets congressional representation.
They are using it to subvert American democracy by changing out the people who currently live in this country with other people. It's a disgraceful attack on American sovereignty. It's, unfortunately, what the Democratic Party is committed to. It's the most important issue confronting our country, because, if American citizens don't control who represents us and who actually makes the laws for us, then we have been effectively — we have ended our national sovereignty as a people and as a country.
It's one of the reasons why the Democrats' open border is such a disgraceful assault on American sovereignty.
BARTIROMO: Unbelievable.
Senator, it's great to have you this morning. Very important conversation, and we appreciate your time.
VANCE: Thanks, Maria. See you.
BARTIROMO: OK, Ohio Senator J.D. Vance joining us.
END
