The situation at the nation’s southern border is “more than just a crisis,” and has become a “human tragedy” that President Joe Biden is not addressing, according to House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif.
McCarthy led a delegation of GOP House members to El Paso, Texas, earlier this week to witness the surge of migrants to the U.S.-Mexico border.
“Two weeks ago, I sent [Biden] a letter, asking him to talk about this crisis, and ways to solve it,” McCarthy said Friday on Fox News’ “Fox and Friends.” “The president didn’t even respond to the meeting nor did the administration respond.”
McCarthy said he sent another letter Thursday after traveling to the border with his colleagues, and added solutions to the message, calling on Biden to be “very clear” when telling people not to come to the border.
He added that during the June presidential debate, Biden “told immigrants to immediately surge the border.”
But the president still can take action to alleviate the situation, McCarthy said.
“He needs to finish the wall, to reinstate the ‘Remain in Mexico’ [policy], to keep Title 42,” McCarthy said he told Biden in the letter.
McCarthy added that during their trip, he and the other lawmakers saw a 98,000-square foot facility built under the Trump administration that was already too small to meet the current needs.
“They thought they would never hit capacity,” he said. “On Monday, they hit capacity. You saw children everywhere. It would break your heart.”
At the same time, thousands of migrant children are being sent to other areas nationwide, but “they are not testing them for COVID,” McCarthy said.
He also commented on the heated argument that took place Thursday between Dr. Anthony Fauci and Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., about the need for immunized people and others with natural immunity to continue wearing masks.
McCarthy said he has heard Fauci change his mind on the matter several times.
Last January, as the COVID pandemic was starting to ramp up, Fauci was “telling me not to wear a mask because it would cause more problems,” McCarthy said.
He said he pointed out in a letter to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., that 75% of Congress has been vaccinated, and another 30-40 members have already had COVID-19. He asked why House members had to wear masks when nobody is around them, but in the Senate, members do not.
“When can we stop, when can we start meeting in committees again and doing work?” he said. “It is hard to give up control and power, and that is one thing COVID allowed Democrats to do. Even when the vote was for speaker, Nancy Pelosi got the medical doctor to allow members of Congress who had COVID to give her the chamber. It is only convenient when they want it and they change the rules each and every time.”
McCarthy also discussed his push to remove Rep. Eric Swalwell, D-Calif., from the House Intelligence Committee, given the security questions surrounding his connection with accused Chinese spy Christine Fang.
“It is not political,” he said. “The Intel committee is different than any other committee we have. … I got a classified briefing from the FBI along with Nancy Pelosi. She knows what I know and knows he doesn’t deserve or should belong on this committee.”
The Democrat-controlled House on Thursday beat back an effort to remove Swalwell virtually along party lines by 218-200.
Source: Newmax
