Meet the Press – March 21, 2021


CHUCK TODD:

This Sunday: The migrant crisis.

PRES. JOE BIDEN:

Don’t come over. Don’t leave your town or city or community.

CHUCK TODD:

The U.S. seeing the biggest border surge in two decades.

GABE GUTTIEREZ:

Why do you think it’s picking up?

RENE GONZALEZ:

I think it’s a policy change, honestly.

CHUCK TODD:

Republicans blame the Biden administration.

REP. JEFFERSON VAN DREW:

Mr. Secretary, don’t tell me this isn’t a crisis.

CHUCK TODD:

And the administration pushes back.

SEC. ALEJANDRO MAYORKAS:

A crisis is when a nation is willing to rip a nine-year-old child out of the hands of his or her parent and separate that family to deter future migration.

CHUCK TODD:

This morning, I’ll talk to Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas about immigration and about another problem that has received much less attention: the growing threat from violent extremist groups.

SEC. ALEJANDRO MAYORKAS:

Domestic violent extremism now poses the most lethal and persistant terrorism-related threat to the homeland today.

CHUCK TODD:

Plus, fear in the Asian American community.

CYNTHIA CHOI:

This mass shooting, this premeditated act of violence is reinforcing the sense of, « are we safe?”

CHUCK TODD:

The killing of six women of Asian descent in Georgia places a spotlight on rising anti-Asian violence during the pandemic.

REP. TED LIEU:

I am not a virus, and when you say things like that it hurts the Asian American community.

CHUCK TODD:

Also, those Republican efforts to restrict ballot access.

SEN. RAPHAEL WARNOCK:

This is Jim Crow in new clothes.

CHUCK TODD:

How far are Democrats willing to go to protect voting rights? My guests this morning: Freshman Democratic Senator Raphael Warnock of Georgia and retiring Republican Senator Roy Blunt of Missouri. Joining me for insight and analysis are: Eddie Glaude Jr. of Princeton University; Wall Street Journal columnist Peggy Noonan; Jon Ralston, editor of the Nevada Independent; and NBC News Correspondent Julia Ainsley. Welcome to Sunday. It’s Meet the Press.

ANNOUNCER:

From NBC News in Washington, the longest-running show in television history. This is Meet the Press with Chuck Todd.

CHUCK TODD:

And a good Sunday morning. It’s fair to call the deteriorating situation at the US-Mexican border a crisis, even if the Biden administration refuses to use that word. But it’s more than that: It’s a political crisis for the new president, with no easy way out. Republicans are quick to blame Mr. Biden for the growing number of migrants crossing the southern border, saying it’s his rhetoric and policy shifts that caused this surge in migrants. The new Democratic administration says it was left with a dismantled and unworkable immigration system by former President Trump. Look, conservatives want nothing less than a big wall and some stricter enforcement of the border. Progressives want nothing less than humane treatment for migrants fleeing violence, wherever it is, and a path to citizenship for those that are already here. So far, Americans largely approve of Mr. Biden’s young presidency, and he wants to focus on vaccinations, Covid relief, infrastructure, voting rights, racial inequities and renewing America’s image at home and abroad. But he can’t control the news cycle. Just last week an intelligence report reminded us of the threat from domestic terror groups Mr. Biden must confront, particularly after January 6th. Events and politics have a way of applying their own pressure points, and right now, that pressure is pointed directly at our southern border.

CHUCK TODD:

It’s a growing humanitarian crisis, though it’s not a new one.

GABE GUTTIEREZ:

Why did you cross?

MIGRANT BOY:

Porque Guatemala es muy peligrosa. Hay mucha violencia en Guatemala.

CHUCK TODD:

In the Rio Grande Valley alone, Customs and Border Protection is detaining more than 500 unaccompanied children a day with the facility at more than five times its capacity.

GABE GUTTIEREZ:

How much of an increase have you noticed in the last couple of weeks?

RENE GONZALEZ:

It, it, it’s quite significant.

CHUCK TODD:

More than 5,000 children under 18 are in Border Patrol custody. More than 500 held for over 10 days, far longer than the 72 hour legal limit. Nearly 10,000 more are in HHS care. Surges of unaccompanied minors have been cyclical occurring under Presidents Obama, Trump and now Biden.

RENE GONZALEZ:

It just seems like we just went through this not too long ago, but here we go again.

CHUCK TODD:

But the administration says the U.S. is on pace to encounter more migrants on the southwest border than it has in the last 20 years and is trying new, more aggressive messaging:

SEC. ALEJANDRO MAYORKAS:

Now is not the time to come to the border.

ROBERTA JACOBSON:

Frankly, the message isn’t, ‘Don’t come now,’ it’s, ‘Don’t come in this way, ever.’

PRES. JOE BIDEN:

I can say quite clearly, don’t come.

CHUCK TODD:

That’s after mixed messages on whether the President’s approach may be motivating more migrants to come:

ROBERTA JACOBSON:

The idea that a more humane policy would be in place may have driven people to make that decision.

CHUCK TODD:

Republicans are seizing on what was Donald Trump’s signature campaign issue.

SEN. MITCH MCCONNELL:

They’ve caused a crisis.

SEN. RICK SCOTT:

This is a crisis that is man-made by one man: Joe Biden.

REP. KEVIN MCCARTHY

It’s more than just a crisis.

SEN. JOHN KENNEDY:

If that’s not a crisis, it’ll do ‘til one gets here.

CHUCK TODD:

The Biden administration is pushing back.

REPORTER:

You said “crisis on the border.” Is — was that a —

JEN PSAKI:

Challenges on the border.

SEC. ALEJANDRO MAYORKAS:

A crisis is when a nation is willing to rip a 9-year-old child out of the hands of his or her parent and separate that family.

CHUCK TODD:

Though President Biden ended the Trump administration’s « Remain in Mexico » policy for asylum seekers, he has kept in place Title 42, a pandemic-era rule which allows the administration to expel migrants without due process for public health reasons. Of the more than 650,000 migrants encountered at the U.S.-Mexico border over the last year, fewer than 1% have been able to seek protection, according to the LA Times. Now, as Biden works to restore faith that government is competent.

PRES. JOE BIDEN:

There is nothing, not a single thing we cannot do if we do it together.

CHUCK TODD:

He has asked Mexican President López Obrador to do more to solve the problem. On Friday, Mexico announced a crackdown on its border with Guatemala, after the United States announced it will share 2.5 million vaccine doses with Mexico.

JEFF ZIENTS:

This action will allow our neighbors to meet a critical vaccination need in their countries.

CHUCK TODD:

And joining me now is the Homeland Security Secretary, Alejandro Mayorkas. Mr. Secretary, welcome to Meet the Press.

SEC. ALEJANDRO MAYORKAS:

Thank you. Good morning, Chuck.

CHUCK TODD:

Good morning —

SEC. ALEJANDRO MAYORKAS:

Good to be here.

CHUCK TODD:

— I want to start with something Congressman Vicente Gonzalez, a Texas Democrat who represents South Texas — this is what he told The Washington Post yesterday. « When you create a system that incentivizes people to come across, and they are released, that immediately sends a message to Central America that if you come across, you can stay. » I understand the — on humanitarian grounds, the policy change on unaccompanied minors here. Are you concerned that a market efficiency has been created where — where folks have decided, « Look, my kid’s got a shot at getting, getting in the United States if I don’t go with them? »

SEC. ALEJANDRO MAYORKAS:

Chuck, our, our message has been straightforward and simple. And it’s true. The border is closed. We are expelling families. We are expelling single adults. And we’ve made a decision that we will not expel young, vulnerable children. I think we are executing on our plans. And quite frankly, when we are finished doing so, the American public will look back on this and say we secured our border and we upheld our values and our principles as a nation.

CHUCK TODD:

How can you say the border is closed if there is this — what some would look at as a loophole? And I understand on humanitarian grounds. But if the goal is to get these asylum-seekers to, to seek the asylum in home country — Honduras, Guatemala, El Salvador, for instance — how do you get them to do that if our policy is to let them in at the border?

SEC. ALEJANDRO MAYORKAS:

So, Chuck, we have a short term plan, a medium term plan and a long term plan, and the president and I have spoken to this repeatedly. Please remember something, that President Trump dismantled the orderly, humane and efficient way of allowing children to make their claims under United States law in their home countries. He dismantled the Central American Minors program. So we are rebuilding those orderly and safe processes as quickly as possible. But in the meantime — in the meantime we will not expel into the Mexican desert, for example, three orphan children whom I saw over the last two weeks. We just won’t do that. That’s not who we are.

CHUCK TODD:

How do — okay, I understand that. Is then, is this current policy, though, sustainable? Or are you concerned that the word will go out, and you’ll get unaccompanied minors from all over the world trying to come to our southern border?

SEC. ALEJANDRO MAYORKAS:

Well, it — it doesn’t work that way, Chuck. The system is a complex one. But let me just say that we are operating on parallel tracks. We are safely processing the children who do come to our border. We strongly urge, and the message is clear, not to do so now. I cannot overstate the perils of the journey that they take. And, regrettably, I am all too aware of the tragedies that have occurred and continue to occur along that journey. But in the meantime, and in parallel, we are rebuilding those orderly systems both in Mexico with — in close partnership with the Mexican government — and in the countries of Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador, so that they in fact do not need to take that dangerous journey. We are working in parallel streams to rebuild a process that has been entirely dismantled.

CHUCK TODD:

Are you — do you want to get to a process where unaccompanied minors do not come to the border?

SEC. ALEJANDRO MAYORKAS:

We certainly do, and we’re working expeditiously to achieve that, in partnership with the Northern Triangle countries and Mexico. We’ve had tremendous partnership thus far. And we’re only building on that collaborative effort.

CHUCK TODD:

I want to put up a tweet from — you went to — you visited the border yesterday. I believe it was in El Paso with a bipartisan group of senators, including Senator Chris Murphy, Democrat from Connecticut. And this is what he tweeted: « I fought back tears as a 13-year-old sobbed uncontrollably, explaining through a translator how terrified she was having been separated from her grandmother and without her parents. » But he also said he saw overcrowded facility. And that — and frankly, I guess my question is why did he — why can he see it and not the American public, and certainly not the news media?

SEC. ALEJANDRO MAYORKAS:

So if I can address a number of the points that you made, Chuck. Number one, can you imagine expelling that 13-year-old girl whom Senator Murphy held in her hands, crying? That’s, that’s not who we are, number one. Number two, we have dedicated FEMA, the Federal Emergency Management Administration, to assist Health and Human Services to build the capacity so that we relieve the pressure on the Border Patrol stations, which I have said accurately, quite frankly, that that’s no place for a child. And third, we are in the midst of a pandemic. We are focused on our operations in removing children from those crowded Border Patrol stations to the Health and Human Services facilities that can best shelter them. And we are also working on providing access so the American public can, in a safe way, without jeopardizing our operations, see what is going on. We’re working on that.

CHUCK TODD:

Well, what does that mean? I mean, right now, we have no access to or photos of the conditions in the facilities. There have been no ride-alongs with agents. All inquiries are routed through Washington. There have been strict controls on sharing data. Local Border Patrol folks feel like they can’t even talk to our folks down there. Is there a gag order?

SEC. ALEJANDRO MAYORKAS:

There is not. That is unequivocally false, Chuck. And let’s be clear here. We are in the midst of a pandemic. We are, because of the extraordinary leadership of the president, climbing out of it more rapidly than ever before. But we are still in the midst of the pandemic. There is central — CDC controls in place. And Border Patrol agents are focused on operations, on securing the border, on addressing the needs of vulnerable children. We are not focused on ride-alongs right now.

CHUCK TODD:

Speaking of the pandemic, Title 42. Senator Kamala Harris thought it was unconstitutional. It is still in place. Why?

SEC. ALEJANDRO MAYORKAS:

Chuck, Title 42 is a public health authority of the Center for Disease Controls. It is not an immigration tool. And in the prior administration, it was used far differently than we are using it now. We have made a decision in — to serve the public health imperative to continue to expel families, to continue to expel single adults because of the pandemic. But we have made a decision that we can address the public health imperative while addressing the humanitarian needs of vulnerable children. We are using it as the Title 42 authority was intended and not as a bludgeoning tool under immigration law that the prior — the prior president used.

CHUCK TODD:

You have enough test kits down there to test all the unaccompanied minors in these shelters?

SEC. ALEJANDRO MAYORKAS:

The unaccompanied minors are in fact being tested. They — when they arrive in the shelter of Health and Human Services, they are tested, isolated, and quarantined, all of them.

CHUCK TODD:

Finally, this interview’s been all about one part of your job at DHS, which is the southern border and immigration. Can we expect DHS to be able to walk and chew gum at the same time with this current crisis at the border, with also dealing with the rise of domestic extremism?

SEC. ALEJANDRO MAYORKAS:

Never underestimate the talent and dedication of the Department of Homeland Security workforce. Most certainly, we do. We are very focused on domestic violent extremism. It is the greatest threat, terrorist-related threat, that we face in our homeland. We are very focused on it. We’ve done a tremendous amount already. We have plans to do more. And I must say, when you mentioned that, Chuck, I just have to express the fact that our hearts and our prayers go out to the victims of the tragic killings in the area surrounding Atlanta.

CHUCK TODD:

Secretary Mayorkas, I do have a lot more to ask. You’ve got a lot on your plate. But I’m out of time. I appreciate you coming on and sharing your perspective with us. Thank you, sir.

SEC. ALEJANDRO MAYORKAS:

Thank you very much, Chuck.

CHUCK TODD:

Coming up, the shootings in Georgia that were just referenced have refocused attention on violence against Asian Americans. Plus, the new warning about domestic terrorism. I’m going to talk to Senators Raphael Warnock and Roy Blunt when we return.

CHUCK TODD:

Welcome back. President Biden and Vice President Harris traveled to Atlanta on Friday to show solidarity with Asian Americans there after the shooting deaths of eight people, six of whom were women of Asian descent. Mr. Biden made a point of highlighting the rise in violence against Asian Americans over the past year.

[TAPE BEGINS]

PRES. JOE BIDEN:

They’ve been attacked, blamed, scapegoated and harassed. They’ve been verbally assaulted, physically assaulted, killed.

[TAPE ENDS]

CHUCK TODD:

In a moment, I’ll be speaking with Republican Senator Roy Blunt of Missouri. But first, I’m joined by freshman Democratic Senator Raphael Warnock, whose home state of Georgia was the site of the violence. Senator Warnock, welcome to Meet the Press, sir.

SEN. RAPHAEL WARNOCK:

Thank you so much. Great to be here with you, Chuck.

CHUCK TODD:

I appreciate it. I want to start with something that the FBI director said this week. Director Wray said it does not appear the shooting was racially motivated. So, this is now the FBI director. We’ve heard local law enforcement. What are your — are you hearing the same thing from law enforcement that you’ve been speaking with?

SEN. RAPHAEL WARNOCK:

Well, first of all, let me say that our hearts go out to these families as they are dealing with unspeakable loss. I think it’s important that we center the humanity of the victims. I’m hearing a lot about the shooter, but these precious lives that have been lost, they are attached to families. They’re, you know, they’re connected to people who love them. And so, we need to keep that in mind. I know that — look, law enforcement will go through the work that they need to do, but we all know hate when we see it. And it is tragic that we’ve been visited with this kind of violence yet again, and I’m going to be doing everything in my power as a United States senator, to make sure that families don’t have to endure this kind of violence in the first place.

CHUCK TODD:

Is there a necessary legislative response here? Is this a — you know, President Biden said, “Look, we’ve got to change our heart.” And there’s no doubt there’s a, a morality aspect to this. But is there a legislative change you’d like to see make? Is it reporting on hate crimes, gun reform, police reform?

SEN. RAPHAEL WARNOCK:

Well, I’ve long pushed for hate crimes laws here in the state of Georgia. It took entirely too long to get one on the books here. But thankfully, we do have that law on the books right now. In addition to that, we need reasonable gun reform in our country. This, this shooter was able to kill all of these folks the same day he purchased a firearm. But right now, what is our legislature doing? They’re, they’re busy in the — under the gold dome here in Georgia, trying to prevent people from being able to vote the same day they register. I think that suggests a distortion in values. When you can buy a gun and create this much carnage and violence on the same day, but if you want to exercise your right to vote as an American citizen, the same legislature that should be focused on this is busy erecting barriers to that constitutional right.

CHUCK TODD:

Do you think if you were not a U.S. senator right now, these changes would be going through the Georgia legislature?

SEN. RAPHAEL WARNOCK:

Well look, I can tell you this, that the people of Georgia stood up in a powerful way and they sent the first African American senator and the first Jewish senator to the United States Senate. And when they did that, that was revolutionary not just for Georgia, but in a real sense they saved the country. We would not have passed the American Rescue Plan, had I not been elected. And I think it’s unfortunate that some politicians have looked at the results and rather than changing their message, they’re busy trying to change the rules. It will not stand, which is why I’m pushing through the For the People Act, which I’m co-sponsoring, which will make it easier, not harder for people to vote. And, it’s the reason why we have to pass the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act.

CHUCK TODD:

Let me ask you specifically on that, look, H.R.1. and then there’s the version you just said, that’s a very big, comprehensive bill that, frankly, has a lot of — there’s folks that argue even on the left side of the aisle that it maybe needs some changes. The voting rights — the updating of the Voting Rights Act, that has been something that has been fairly easy to get done in a bipartisan way in the past. Should that be the focus first?

SEN. RAPHAEL WARNOCK:

Well, like the fact that you put out that voting rights traditionally has been bipartisan. The last time we reauthorized the 1965 Voting Rights Act, George W. Bush was president. And it passed the United States Senate 98 to zero. I think the onus is on my colleagues to explain why they’re not supporting voting rights. Voting rights is not just one issue alongside other issues. It is fundamental. It is foundational. It is who we say we are as an American people. It’s the covenant we have with one another. One person, one vote. And so we’ve got to do everything we can to pass voting rights.

CHUCK TODD:

Is that — I understand that. What does that mean with the filibuster? You have said you’d like to see a carve out. Have you had a conversation with Senators Manchin or Sinema about the idea of a democracy carve out?

SEN. RAPHAEL WARNOCK:

I’m talking to my colleagues all the time. I’ve been in the United States Senate a few short weeks. But, Chuck, I have to tell you, I know that folks are focused on the filibuster, but this language about the filibuster is language much too puny as an appropriate frame to talk about something as vital and as precious as voting rights. We have to pass voting rights no matter what, and it’s a contradiction to insist on minority rights in the Senate while refusing to stand up for minority rights in the society. As someone who served as the pastor of Congressman John Lewis, who literally laid his life on the line crossing a bridge in order to secure that right for us, I’m going to do everything in my power to convince my colleagues to support voting rights. It’s the reason — it’s the only reason why any one of us is in the Senate in the first place. Somebody voted for us. And right now, in real time, we’ve got 250 voter suppression bills all across our country. We cannot allow this to happen. We have to secure our democracy.

CHUCK TODD:

I want to ask you about the controversy regarding some comments Senator Ron Johnson made. He defended himself from these comments saying that he would be — he wouldn’t have — he wasn’t afraid of the insurrectionists that were there, but he would have been if they’d been Black Lives Matter, Antifa protesters. And this is what he wrote in the Wall Street Journal defending himself. He goes, “It was also sadly predictable that liberals would hurl the accusation of racism. This isn’t about race. It’s about riots. The rioters who burned Kenosha weren’t of any one ethnicity; they were united by their radical leftism.” What would you say to him and have you had a chance to, to explain to him why you believe what he said was racist?

SEN. RAPHAEL WARNOCK:

Listen, I’m a pastor and I’m happy to talk to my colleague. I think he’s clearly misguided. But, you know, Chuck, I’m one of only three African Americans in the United States Senate in 2021. I’m only the 11th Black United States senator elected in the history of our country. And so, I think that part of what this underscores is that representation matters. And when you are inside of a kind of privileged echo chamber, you can say things and not understand the implications of what’s going on. Let’s just — this is the reason why we’ve got to stand up for voting rights in our country. We’ve got to make sure that people from diverse backgrounds, with their life experience, that they bring this to the great debates about the direction of our country. And that’s why we’ve got to pass the John Lewis Voting Rights Act. And we’ve got to pass the For The People Act.

CHUCK TODD:

Senator Raphael Warnock, a new Democrat from the state of Georgia. Thank you for coming on and sharing your views with us. I know on most Sundays you have another job you do. So, I appreciate you spending a few minutes with us.

SEN. RAPHAEL WARNOCK:

I’m headed to church, Chuck. Great to be with you.

CHUCK TODD:

All right, thank you, sir. And joining me now is the chairman of the Republican Senate Policy Committee. It is Roy Blunt of Missouri. Senator Blunt, welcome back to Meet the Press, sir.

SEN. ROY BLUNT:

Morning, Chuck.

CHUCK TODD:

Hey, I want to talk about the insurrection itself. And why is it that we cannot get a bipartisan sort of 9/11-style commission here? I understand the Republican critique of Speaker Pelosi is that it wasn’t equal. All right, let’s assume it’s equal. It — why is there — why can’t we get past that? It seems like we can’t get past the scope, forget the makeup of this commission.

SEN. ROY BLUNT:

Well, Chuck, as you know the Rules Committee that I’ve chaired, that now I’m the top Republican on, and the Homeland Security Committee, we’ve held hearings on this, two hearings so far. I’m for holding more of those. We’re doing a lot of in-depth interviews. I’m not opposed to a commission. But, you know, Speaker Pelosi has never suggested after her first suggestion that it would be overwhelmingly controlled by one side that there’d be a bipartisan commission. I’d also think that this is a case where, in terms of the security of the Capitol, whether the police board is functioning or not — not the Capitol Police, but the board that, in my opinion, got in the way of decisions that need to be made that day — we know those facts. And I think the Congress itself could move forward and make the changes that need to be made. It’s unlikely that the next thing we need to be worried about is going to be exactly like the last thing we needed to worry about. But clearly security from either a domestic terrorist or other — or outside terrorist are things we should be concerned about. And I think the Congress itself has the capacity here to move forward. That doesn’t mean I’m opposed to a commission, but frankly, I would believe that commission would probably be a reason to wait and not do the things that we know we need to do right now.

CHUCK TODD:

Well, I, I am curious, do, do you believe that any commission, that the scope should be about specific security measures for the Capitol? Or should it also dive into what motiv ated this, this crowd of radicals to do this?

SEN. ROY BLUNT:

Well, I don’t know. That’s certainly different than any commission we’ve ever had, where you have a commission that tries to become psychoanalyst of what went on. If you’re going to look at what happened, why it happened, where the problems were, that’s one thing. I think your — that suggestion really steps this up to a very different level, and certainly a level that the Congress shouldn’t wait on to decide how we move forward with the security needs of the Capitol and the country. But that’s, that’s not the kind of commission, I don’t believe, that’s been discussed. And I haven’t heard that discussion.

CHUCK TODD:

I want to play, sort of, two different, sort of, takes on what happened on January 6th, both from Republicans, Senator Blunt. Take a listen, let me ask you about it on the other side.

[BEGIN TAPE]

SEN. RON JOHNSON:

I knew those were people that loved this country, that truly respect law enforcement, would never do anything to break a law. And so I wasn’t concerned. Now, had the tables been turned and President Trump won the election and those were tens of thousands of Black Lives Matter and Antifa protesters, I might’ve been a little concerned.

FMR. PRES. GEORGE W. BUSH:

I was disgusted. I was sick to my stomach. And then to see our nation’s capitol being stormed by hostile forces.

[ENDS TAPE]

CHUCK TODD:

I’m sure you recognize both voices. Senator Ron Johnson was the first voice, former President George W. Bush there. Ron Johnson called the insurrectionists people that loved this country. Former President Bush called them hostile forces. What — what’s your view of this?

SENATOR ROY BLUNT:

Well, I’m much more in agreement with the George W. Bush view of this. I think it was a terrible day for America. I think it was absolutely unacceptable, and we can’t let that kind of thing be repeated again in our country. All over the world people saw that, at what people around the world would see as the citadel for democracy. Two weeks later, I’m standing at the exact spot where a lot of that fighting occurred at the inauguration itself. But totally unacceptable. And we need to understand that that’s, that’s an underlying principle of what happened on January 6th — that we don’t need to try to explain away or come up with alternative versions of. We all saw what happened. We know what happened. We know we can’t let that happen again.

CHUCK TODD:

Well put there. I want to put up a quote you said on the day you announced your retirement — you’re not seeking reelection. You said this: « I think the country in the last decade or so has sort of fallen off the edge with too many politicians saying, ‘If you vote for me I’ll never compromise on anything,’ and that’s a philosophy that particularly does not work in a democracy.’ » You know, it struck me though when I heard you say that, Senator — you’re more likely to be replaced by somebody who has a philosophy that you are saying isn’t constructive. How do you stop this trend? I mean your — in your own state, you and Josh Hawley, I think, view this very differently.

SEN. ROY BLUNT:

Well, Missouri voters get to decide who replaces me. And I’ve been saying this, you and I have talked about this before — this idea in a democracy that you run for office saying, « This is exactly what I’m for. I won’t accept anything different than this. » I don’t know how people even begin to think that’s a position you can logically take in a democracy. A democracy is very diverse people coming together and trying to reach the solution that can be reached at that time. I hope we get back to that. Now, you know, if there are two or three things, and because of your life history or your faith, that you know you can never compromise on, that’s one thing. But when you come up with a long list of things that it’s either my way or nothing happens at all, you basically ensure that nothing’s going to happen at all. This is a — democracy is give and take just like, frankly, at work, at church, at home. If you’re not willing to have some give and take, you’re not going to have a very successful or satisfying life or, in this case, not a very successful or satisfying United States of America.

CHUCK TODD:

How much of this change in sort of how politics is conducted here in Washington influenced you in not seeking another term?

SEN. ROY BLUNT:

Well, I don’t think it did. You know, I’m optimistic about the future. I’m grateful for the chances to serve. I’ve actually been able, particularly in this last two years, to get a lot of things done: a lot of things related to the vaccine and testing, mental health reform is moving dramatically in the right direction, health care research, what we’re doing to try to do a better job figuring out how we can keep up with the Chinese and others. You know, at the end of this term, I’ll have been in the Congress for 26 years. And 20 years in Missouri politics before that. If fifteen general election victories is not enough to satisfy even the most needy politician I don’t know what would be.

CHUCK TODD:

The Voting Rights Act. It has been supported bipartisan for a long time. I know where folks are on H.R.1. I’m not asking about H.R.1. Voting Rights Act, are you going to support this if it comes to the floor?

SEN. ROY BLUNT:

Well, I’m for the — I’m for the Voting Rights Act and always have been. I’m for people participating. What I’m not for is a federal takeover of the election system. I believe that the election system works as well as it works because of local responsibility and diversity, and I’m for that. Now in this bill, there are a lot of things that go beyond that, too. There’s a partisan FE — federal elections commission, where for the first time ever instead of being an equal number of Republicans and Democrats, it’s three of one side and two of the other. There’s money out of the federal treasury for politicians, for their campaigns. There are a lot of things to talk about here that don’t have anything to do, in my opinion, with access to the ballot or security of knowing that what happened on election day is what voters actually wanted to see happen.

CHUCK TODD:

Well, that’s why I wanted to split out the H.R.1 conversation in my question there. I’m going to let, let you go. Senator Roy Blunt, Republican from Missouri. It did sound like, though, there’s room on the Voting Rights Act itself. I think that’s where there is going to be room here. We shall see. Senator, thank you.

SEN. ROY BLUNT:

Well, now the Voting Rights Act is the Voting Rights Act that I voted for in the past. And that’s the Voting Rights Act I’m talking about right now.

CHUCK TODD:

Fair enough. Good to know. Thank you, Senator. When we come back, how will President Biden tackle these two crises facing the country right now, the border surge and domestic terror? Panel is next.

CHUCK TODD:

Welcome back. The panel is with us. Eddie Glaude Jr. of Princeton University; Wall Street Journal columnist, Peggy Noonan; Jon Ralston, editor of the Nevada Independent; and NBC News correspondent, Julia Ainsley. And Julia, the border, immigration has been your beat. And I want to start first with the media situation. He says there’s no gag order — no official gag order there. But he also said they’re not prioritizing ride-alongs. Did you find that a bit dismissive?

JULIA AINSLEY:

Yeah, I did, Chuck. I mean, as we know, it has never been an official gag order. There was no memo that went out. But we know that in the past there have been ride-alongs, I’ve gone on ride-alongs, I’ve had access to facilities where children have been held. And yes, we are in a pandemic now. But as we’ve seen, local law enforcement is allowing media to do ride-alongs. They wear a mask. And at the very least, we see pictures, even if they’re government pictures, of the conditions inside these facilities. Specifically, the overcrowded Border Patrol stations where we now understand there are more than 5,000 children in custody. That is far past their capacity. We know in Rio Grande Valley they had over 3,300 immigrants in a facility built for 250. We need to know how are these children able to sleep? Are they getting outside? And it’s really hard to do without access. At the very least, we could get pictures or a ride-along. And this data, the numbers I just gave you, Chuck, those — that’s data that we have to dig for. Those are internal numbers. Those are not freely given up by this administration right now. And I think it comes down to them not wanting to make this a central issue. They have so many things they wanted to accomplish in the first 100 days, but this is the issue they were handed. And more transparency, I think, is what would be in the interest of everyone right now.

CHUCK TODD:

I want to play a bite from former President Bush about immigration. It may be the understatement of the — of the, of the show, Peggy Noonan. But take a listen anyway.

[BEGIN TAPE]

FMR. PRES. GEORGE W. BUSH:

One of the problems is immigration has become overly politicized. And it’s really a rebuke of Congress’ inability to come together to get something done on immigration.

[END TAPE]

CHUCK TODD:

Like I said, Peggy, maybe the under — an understatement of the year there with that when it comes to this issue in Congress. They’ve had all these shots at it. And they always find a way not to do it.

PEGGY NOONAN:

Yeah, they’ve been finding a way to mess it up, actually, I was thinking the other day, for more than a generation. For at least 20 years. The parties — party leadership in Washington just hasn’t been able to get their hands around this. I have wondered in the past if it’s because they really don’t want to. Donors feel one way, the base feels another. There’s lots of disagreements, not just between Reps and Dems, but inside those parties. But, Chuck, it seems to me the first thing is that this is a real crisis for this three-month old administration, which has been tooling along okay and has had a big bill passed and has had much to talk about in terms of mood. But this is a crisis. Here is one thing I think we forget, and then I’ll throw it back: Immigrants, legal and illegal to the United States, are intelligent. They are smart. They’re hardy. We know that. But they follow things. They pick up what’s going on. They keep a sense of what’s going on politically in America. You know from the moment Donald Trump was defeated that they concluded that illegal — that those who want to come here illegally had concluded that illegal entry is more likely to work now. And so they came. They figured it out. This was based on evidence. And so we’ve got the biggest surge in 20 years in the middle of a pandemic — and with the U.S. unemployment kind of high, not as high as some feared, but kind of high. So I think the president really should step in in a different way here. I think, first of all, he should stop the press blackout. Americans don’t like that when they see that’s going on. And also admit you got it wrong. Something was coming. He couldn’t see it. He sees it now.

CHUCK TODD:

Eddie, is this — is there error here in not anticipating this? Is — or is the error in sort of messaging and communication?

EDDIE GLAUDE, JR.:

It might be a combination of both. I’m not — I don’t want to suggest that they didn’t anticipate it. But if they didn’t, of course, that’s a problem. And the messaging is really clear here. I mean, it’s important that, you know, you just can’t simply add the adjective “humane” to the noun “detention of children” and think that settles matters. And, look, we must understand that it takes a lot for a parent to send their child away. Something is happening in Guatemala, something is happening in Honduras, something is happening in El Salvador. And we have to understand — I think I need to get a better sense in terms of the messaging, Chuck, of what are the underlying principles of the immigration policy of the Biden administration? Has he changed the center of gravity? What is he keeping and why is he keeping it from the Trump administration? What are holdovers from the Obama administration? But more importantly, what’s the — what are the fundamental principles guiding immigration policy on the part of the Biden administration? He needs to make that clear as we move forward.

CHUCK TODD:

Jon Ralston, the fact of the matter is immigration is — can be political kryptonite at times. Your state, you know, it can move — it can move politics for a short period of time. Does Biden have something to fear here politically?

JON RALSTON:e

Well, I think so, Chuck. And I think the real issue here is that, listen, he’s using his rhetorical bully pulpit in a different way, talking about being humane and talking about having a heart. I was struck by how the secretary said, « This is not who we are. This is not who we are. » And that’s certainly better than implying that there’s murderers and rapists and that every undocumented immigrant is a member of MS-13. But Chuck, anyone who has covered this for a while knows how complicated it is. And while the rhetorical tools of the administration are important, it’s a hopelessly complex problem. I mean, just a few years ago, Chuck, you had Marco Rubio talking about a path to citizenship, right? And to what Roy Blunt talked about. That kind of talk by a Republican now would be banned, right? You can’t even do that now. And so you have the political shackles, and then you have the absolute — the actual substantive shackles on making good policy here.

CHUCK TODD:

Well, both excellent points there. I’m going to pause it here. When we come back, President Biden figured his 36 years in the Senate was going to help him cut some deals with Congress. But this is not Joe Biden’s Senate anymore. That’s next.

CHUCK TODD:

Welcome back. Data Download time. Some people believe Joe Biden’s experience in the Senate and knowing the players might make bipartisan deal-making a bit easier for his presidential administration. But so far, that has not been the case. And if you look at the makeup of the Senate today, it’s because there aren’t many faces this president would recognize from his Senate days. In total, roughly one-third of the senators currently in office ever worked with Senator Joe Biden. Sixty-eight have left. They either lost re-election, retired, or died. And more than half of those Senate departures were Republicans. And the trend is continuing. In fact, as of now, five Republicans are bowing out of the 2022 midterm elections. They’re not all champions of bipartisanship, per se, but they largely represent what I like to refer to as the “governing wing” of the GOP. In reality, that part of the Republican Party has been in retreat for a while, accelerating since Donald Trump announced his run for president. 13 Senate Republicans arrived with Mr. Trump in 2016 or have won their seats since, most bringing a more defiant Trumpian tone with them. And with the five announced Republican departures, the post-Trump number is going to reach at least 18 Senate Republicans. And there could be more departures to come, either forced with a primary or retirement. All of which is to say the initial hopes about Biden being able to build bridges were based on a Senate that doesn’t really exist anymore. And even if the Democrats hold or grow their majorities in both houses of Congress in the midterm, the path to bipartisanship, well, that doesn’t look like it’s going to get any easier. When we come back, confronting the surge of violence against Asian Americans.

CHUCK TODD:

Welcome back. This week gave — brought home to the fact that we’ve had a rising issue in this country with Asian American hate incidents. I want to put up a graphic here to just show even though hate crimes were down overall in 2020, they were up over 100% when it came to Asian people, as you can see here. 42% reported by Chinese Americans, two and a half times of the reports were more women than men. Eddie, I feel like this week has been one of those, you know, the Asian American community has been talking about this for a year, basically, since the start of the pandemic. And it really took the rest of sort of collective political intelligentsia to take notice, sadly, after the tragedy of this week.

EDDIE GLAUDE JR.:

Right. I mean, look, they’ve, they’ve, you know, that community has always had to deal with two kind of contrasting notions. Them being viewed as a model minority and being viewed as a permanent foreigner. And we see that when there’s these moments of crises in the country, the idea of them being permanent foreigners, subjects them to a kind of attack. Let me say that there’s a through line through the show today, and that from, from immigration, to voting rights, to DNI report, to now, and that through line is this kind of panic around the whiteness of this country. And I think this is, we have to understand it’s within that frame, Chuck.

CHUCK TODD:

Peggy, respond to that. Because it, look, it does, you know, there are times I look at these debates that we’re having, and it’s like, we’ve been having them since the founding of this country, which is, who is an American, and who can be an American.

PEGGY NOONAN:

Yeah. The, and, and, and certainly Asian Americans have been under stress in this country and under various laws and strictures many times over this century. One of the things I think, bottom line, is that when a people tell you that they are feeling more threatened and that their position has become less secure in America, just stop and believe them. People don’t report that for no reason. There were rallies around the country this week. That sounds sort of proforma. I don’t think so. I think it was a very good thing. What is needed very much now as we go through this huge cultural reckoning is a sense, I think, not only of affection and respect, but a sense of ‘we’ve got your back.’ You can’t say it enough. We’ve got your back, we’re all in this together. That’s one thing. Another thing, very quickly, is that every time we deal with one of these violent episodes, it reminds me that we are in a mental health crisis in America. Gun control won’t, won’t solve everything. We’re in that crisis. And at the center of it is our young men.

CHUCK TODD:

Jon Ralston, being on the west coast, there’s, there’s certainly the Asian American populations are larger, more integrated, and yet, we’ve been seeing these hate crimes out there too.

JON RALSTON:

Well, we have, indeed, Chuck, and it’s all very distressing. And even though, as you pointed out, it’s unclear whether the Atlanta shootings were a hate crime or not, it’s good that this discussion is occurring. You know, Eddie said there’s a through line in, in this program. I think it is that words matter, Chuck. And while this existed long before Donald Trump, the fact that he has, he had an utter lack of empathy during Covid, and that he was so desperate to escape political responsibility that he continually used phrases like “the China Virus,” that clearly has exacerbated these problems based on the stats that you just put up there, Chuck. And, and no law is going to solve that. And this is a place where Joe Biden and especially Kamala Harris can do a lot of good, I think.

CHUCK TODD:

Well, look, unfortunately, I’m out of time there. And all these elected officials, when they talk about China, the country, as a rival and an adversary to this country, be careful of your words. That matters too. And I know there’s a lot of fear that as the rivalry heats up with China, that these, these hateful incidents will also increase here. That’s all we have for today. Thank you all for watching. We’ll be back next week. Enjoy the first full day of spring. Because if it’s Sunday, Meet the Press.

Laisser un commentaire