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Representative Kelly Defends Greenland Funding
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| We are in open forum. | |
| We will get to your calls shortly. | |
| But before that, we're going to talk to Representative Robin Kelly, a Democrat of Illinois, and she joins us from Cannon. | |
| Good morning, Representative Kelly. | |
| Good morning. | |
| How are you? | |
| And thank you for joining us this morning. | |
| Last week, you introduced a bill that included articles of impeachment against Homeland Security Secretary Christy Noam. | |
| 100 House Democrats have signed on to it. | |
| Can you tell us why you made that move? | |
| Well, I'm proud to say it'll be at least 102 today, so people are adding their names every day. | |
| I made that move because she needs to be stopped. | |
| She's an incompetent leader. | |
| People are dying because of her leadership. | |
| She's really having a reign of terror around many cities in our country. | |
| And specifically, I mean, when you say that she's an incompetent leader, typically that's not grounds for impeachment. | |
| Are there high crimes and misdemeanors? | |
| Is there something specific that you're pointing to? | |
| Sure, she's definitely breaking the law. | |
| She's obstructing Congress. | |
| She's not letting us perform our oversight duties. | |
| She has prevented us from going to detention centers. | |
| My colleagues and I have followed what she said to the letter of the law. | |
| I know when we tried to go to Broadview in Illinois, we did what she said, and then she still prevented us from coming into the facility. | |
| And then she's violating the public trust, picking up people seemingly picked on based on what they look like. | |
| No warrants, no due process. | |
| She's definitely violating the public trust, just yanking people off the streets. | |
| They're taking people out of cars, and then self-dealing. | |
| She has spent $200 million of taxpayer money advertising for new ICE agents, and that money is going to a friend of hers. | |
| And so it seems like that friend just developed that agency a few days or less than a week before that grant money became available, $200 million of taxpayers' money. | |
| And we're still questioning who are the people behind the mask. | |
| Many of us think, I know I think, that at least some of them are the insurrectionists that Donald Trump let out of jail. | |
| Now, there are some of your Democratic colleagues oppose this move. | |
| Democratic Representative Bishop of Georgia said, he's quoted as saying, quote, we've got so many things that the Congress has yet to do, and I'd hate to see us get distracted with side issues. | |
| What's your response to that? | |
| Oh, I don't want to get distracted either. | |
| I know the main thing is affordability, and I know the main thing is health care. | |
| I'm very clear on that. | |
| But actually, when I think about what's happening in Chicago, it is affecting affordability and people's bottom line because so many people are afraid to go to work. | |
| So that hurts their bottom line. | |
| So many people are afraid to go shopping, afraid to go to restaurants. | |
| So that hurts the bottom line of the economics of a community because people are afraid to go out. | |
| They're even afraid, we've heard stories, afraid to go get health care when they're sick because they're afraid to be picked up. | |
| These are undocumented and American citizens that are saying that. | |
| So affordability is involved with Christy Noam and her reign of terror also. | |
| And switching topics now to Greenland, are you in favor of any kind of a resolution to limit the president's abilities to either try to purchase Greenland or to pursue military action there? | |
| Yes, we are filing an amendment so that he cannot either buy Greenland or attack Greenland. | |
| You know, as we just talked about, there's an affordability problem in this country, and he's talking about buying another country and then running another country when you speak about Venezuela. | |
| So we need to pay attention to this country because of the things happening here. | |
| And I mean, do you expect that to get very far in the House? | |
| Do you expect that to pass the Senate? | |
| I mean, it's probably not going to get very far, Congresswoman. | |
| Well. | |
| But you can't stay on the sidelines. | |
| You have to try. | |
| If we do nothing, then it won't, that guarantees it won't get very far. | |
| But I know a lot of my Democratic colleagues and Republican colleagues, it's been shown on the news, they don't want us to attack or buy Greenland. | |
| And as people have said, my colleagues on both sides, Greenland is not for sale. | |
| The Homeland Security Department's funding is up for discussion right now in the House. | |
| Can you tell us where that stands now and where you personally stand on that? | |
| Well, it is coming up for a vote, or it should be. | |
| You never know until it happens. | |
| But I will not be voting for any bill that gives ICE more money or Secretary Noam more money. | |
| I am against that. | |
| Do you fear that this could backfire politically and that it could be equated to a defund the police kind of a movement? | |
| What are your thoughts on that? | |
| No, I don't think it can be equated to that. | |
| And plus, you know, a big issue was made about defunding police, but very few members of Congress even mentioned that, but it got blown up more than was actually mentioned in my opinion. | |
| But no, I don't think the public is concerned about what ICE is doing and the money that they're receiving. | |
| So I think the public is on our side. | |
| They don't want to see our taxpayer money going to people attacking undocumented plus U.S. citizens. | |
| And then finally on Venezuela, what are your thoughts regarding Venezuela and any future action there? | |
| Well, I don't think that, you know, Maduro is a bad president. | |
| He shouldn't even have been the president. | |
| But I don't think we can become the world's police and take out every person we consider to be a bad president. | |
| A lot of people consider Donald Trump to be a bad president. | |
| I don't want people coming and yanking him out of office. | |
| You know, I don't think that was the right move. | |
| And there's other things that we could do. | |
| We've never seen any proof that the ships they bombed were actually carrying drugs. | |
| So I just think we cannot become the world's police, even though yes, I totally agree that he was a bad guy. | |
| He wasn't doing the right thing. | |
| I feel very sorry for his people and sorry for the Venezuelans that felt like they had to leave their own country and let's help them, you know, those that are coming to the border, let's help them. | |
| Instead of going to the country for oil, I would add not really for the right reasons that he, well, he didn't claim that. | |
| He said oil and that we're going to run that country when we need to look at our own country and what's going on here. | |
| All right, that's Representative Robin Kelly, a Democrat of Illinois and a member of the Energy and Commerce Committee. | |
|
Welcome to Congress
00:04:12
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| Thanks so much for joining us today. | |
| Thank you for having me. | |
| But joining us right now is Representative Matt Van Epps, a Republican of Tennessee. | |
| Welcome to the program. | |
| Good morning. | |
| Good morning. | |
| Thank you so much for having me. | |
| Excited to be here. | |
| And you were just sworn in. | |
| In December, you were replacing Representative Mark Greene. | |
| So I should say, welcome to Congress. | |
| How's it been so far? | |
| That's right. | |
| Been here for about a month and a half. | |
| I'm the brand new guy, number 435. | |
| And it's just a complete honor to be here, represent the Tennessee 7th Congressional District. | |
| I live in Nashville. | |
| It's an incredible district. | |
| I'm so proud of all of our folks from there. | |
| And it's been a, you know, still, we're still building the plane a little bit as we fly it, but it's just been an amazing experience. | |
| All of the other members have been so helpful to get me on board and up to speed quickly. | |
| Leadership has been great. | |
| That's good to hear. | |
| And one of your current committee assignments is Homeland Security. | |
| That's right. | |
| You have oversight over ICE. | |
| Just wanted to get your reaction to the shooting death of Nicole Good. | |
| Sure. | |
| Well, ICE is executing an incredibly critical mission, and we have to stand with our law enforcement. | |
| We've got to stand, that's how I was raised. | |
| I served in the U.S. Army, was a special operations helicopter pilot. | |
| Our men and women in uniform are doing incredible work for our country to protect our communities, to keep us safe. | |
| And when we look at Tennessee, we see a really great example of ICE and other federal assets that have gone into Memphis that are working with state and local leaders to keep the community safe. | |
| Crime is down there, and it's a really great example of that mission being executed. | |
| And we've got to protect our law enforcement as they do a really critical job to protect us and our communities. | |
| I want to share with you some numbers from a CBS poll. | |
| This was following Renee Goode's death in Minneapolis. | |
| They found this. | |
| 61% of Americans describe ICE's operations as too tough when stopping and detaining people. | |
| And 56% say that the Trump administration's deportation program is targeting more than just dangerous criminals. | |
| What do you make of those numbers? | |
| Well, this is, again, this is a critical mission. | |
| When we look back under the Biden administration, we had four years of failed policies at a totally porous border that allowed criminals to come into our country. | |
| And now ICE and other federal assets, in conjunction with state and local leaders and law enforcement, are conducting missions that are critically important. | |
| I mean, we look at the number of people who have criminal records, over 70% of those detained have pending or current convictions or pending charges in the United States. | |
| And those are the ones that we know about. | |
| Just this past weekend, we saw two folks detained, one from Laos, one from Guatemala, who had charges criminal homicide and others. | |
| And so it is critical that we execute this mission. | |
| It's both the safety and security of our families. | |
| I want my family and the families of those who are watching to be safe, to be able to go to lunch and dinner and go to church and do that in a way that is safe and they feel secure. | |
| You know, I think the other really important piece here, too, is that those criminals coming across our border, again, with just a porous open border under Biden that the Trump administration has fixed, but those folks are using safety net resources that should be going to Americans. | |
| That's another really important piece here, too. | |
| You mentioned the mission of deporting. | |
| Live down to a news conference with House Democratic leaders. | |
| This is live coverage on C-SPAN. | |
| In 2025, American families paid $310 more on groceries and $1,625 more overall compared to 2024, thanks to Donald Trump's tariffs. | |