Drug cartels and human traffickers are benefiting from President Biden’s policies as Americans suffer, Rep. Ron Estes (R-KS) said on the Todd Starnes Show.
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The following is a rush transcript from The Todd Starnes Radio Show. Listen to the program live Monday – Friday from 12 p.m. until 3 p.m. Click here to listen to the full interview.
TODD STARNES: [00:42:30] I want to go to the Patriot Mobile Newsmaker Line, and we’re honored to have the guy that represents Wichita in Congress. Our good friend, Congressman Ron Estes, he’s on the Patriot Mobile Newsmaker Line. Hey, congressman, good to have you today. [00:42:43][12.6]
REP. RON ESTES (R-KS): [00:42:44] High Todd, thanks so much for having me on. It’s great to be here on your inaugural day of airing live here in Wichita. [00:42:51][7.3]
STARNES: [00:42:52] You know, as soon as we inked the contracts, I mean, it was decided first guest out of the gate, Congressman Estes, So, no pressure, Congressman. [00:43:01][8.3]
ESTES: [00:43:02] Oh, well, great. Well, I’m glad you’re here. And there’s a there’s a lot of loyal listeners around here, and it’s great to have you on the air. [00:43:09][7.2]
STARNES: [00:43:10] You know, one of the big issues, of course, today President Biden is about to implement his next gun grab. In the meantime, you’ve got everybody focused on another big issue, which is the border and the crisis at our border. I’m curious to know what you are hearing on Capitol Hill as far as the situation down along the southern border in Texas. [00:43:33][22.6]
ESTES: [00:43:34] Yeah, it’s really sad what President Biden’s done, I mean, straight out of the gate, everything he’s done, soup to nuts is just broken. What was working relatively well under the policies that President Trump had put in place, you know, in the last year, plus, President Biden’s had 90 different immigration and border-related executive actions, which basically almost seemed determined to undo and do just the opposite of what President Trump had done. Even the things that were working. And so, what we’ve seen is just the numbers of increases of people that are coming across the border. When President Obama was in office, you know, his Homeland Security said if there’s a thousand people a day coming across, that’s a crisis level. But we’re already up to 7,000 and 8,000 a day. And with this new plan that Biden has to end Title 42, they’re expecting it to be up to 18,000 a day. And basically, what Title 42 is, is it says that, you know, we can send people back because of COVID or other communicable diseases. And so, if they’re not even testing, they’re not even mandating the people have vaccinations as they’re coming across the border. And it’s sad that people that fly into the United States, American citizens that fly in the United States to come back home have to have a vaccine card, have to go through a test 24 hours before they get on a plane, before they can even check in to the plane. [00:45:11][97.0]
STARNES: [00:45:12] And Congressman, just so people can understand the context of what we’re talking about here, that many people a day crossing the border in just under a month, you’ve got the entire population of Wichita, Kansas, coming across that border. [00:45:25][12.3]
ESTES: [00:45:26] That’s right, you know, over the last year in 2021, there were over two million people that came across the border illegally, and it’s not like they’re locking these people up. I mean, they’re saying, well, you came across illegally and yeah, you’ve been trained by your smugglers to say you’re seeking asylum, and therefore, they’re entitled to a hearing because of that, but they’re hearing’s scheduled for five years from now. And so, they’re released into the country until that five year hearing comes up. And in the meantime, you know, we’re also paying to send them throughout the country, Cleveland or Chicago or Miami or anywhere else that they want to go. So actually, aiding human trafficking through that process, because people are being told to go ask for Uncle Joe in Cleveland and in reality, that’s not their uncle. And so, it’s really a sad piece of this that the cartels are making a ton of money off of this. The minimum that they’re getting off of somebody coming across the border is $4,000. So basically, the cartels over the last year have made over $2 billion with the people that are smuggling in through that process. And we’re seeing drugs come as well, we’re seeing fentanyl now, which is the leading cause of death for 18 to 45-year old’s. We just saw the story this morning in San Diego, Orange County, California. They seized enough fentanyl to kill everybody in New York City. [00:47:05][99.0]
STARNES: [00:47:07] Congressman, we’re looking at a brand-new CBS News YouGov poll that was just released, and I mean, President Biden is underwater by double digits on the four key issues: inflation, the economy, immigration and crime. Looking ahead to the midterms, how are things looking there in the heartland as far as sending Republicans back to Congress, electing more Republicans and taking back over control of Congress? [00:47:35][27.9]
ESTES: [00:47:37] This is really set up to be a big wave year for Republicans to take over the House, and we have a good likelihood to take over the Senate as well. But certainly, in the House, I expect we’ll pick up 30 to 40 seats through that process because, you know, when a president comes in and does as many extreme things as are being done by the Biden administration, that’s not what the American people want. I mean, there may have been some disagreements on President Trump and whether it was a policy or a show of his or just his style of communication. But it’s not what they wanted to throw out America and to claim America as a racist country and say that we’re not for American citizens. And so, we’re seeing it in the polling numbers. We also have to work to say this is what we’re for, and the Republicans in the House, we’re working to build a Commitment for America, to talk about, these are the things that we want to campaign on. These are the things we want to do to help keep America strong and moving forward. And we’re going to roll that out this summer and talk about it in the campaign, and we’ll be ready to move forward in January to implement those things. We’ll also have a lot of oversight committees. So, you know, the Democrats now in the House and the Senate, I mean, they’re not looking at anything that the administration is doing as wrong. And, you know, that’s one of the key roles for the legislative branch is to be that check and balance on the executive branch. And so, we’re going to be very active in our oversight. [00:49:16][99.4]
STARNES: [00:49:17] And hopefully get to the bottom of the Hunter Biden scandal. And I know the media likes to focus on the salacious, the sex stuff and that may or may not be criminal. That’s for the investigators to determine. But my concern is how all of these lawmakers up on Capitol Hill are able to become multimillionaires many times over when all they’ve done through their lives is be in public service. That needs to be investigated. [00:49:44][26.3]
ESTES: [00:49:46] It really does. And when you look at what’s coming out now about Hunter Biden and how he used his position as the son of then Vice President Biden and introduced him to these foreign leaders and then got contracts for making $50,000 a month as a consultant. And at the same time, you know, emails are talking about how he introduced them to Vice President Biden and wanted to make sure that the process going forward is that he maintains his contract and gets paid for that. And then Joe Biden and Hunter Biden shared a bank account. They shared credit cards. So basically, there’s trading on the influence and that’s not the American way. [00:50:30][44.0]
STARNES: [00:50:30] No, it’s not. On the Patriot Mobile Newsmaker Line Congressman Ron Estes from Kansas here in our Liberty University Studios. And I think that frustrates a lot of people. Congressman, I know you, and I know you’re a hardworking middle-class guy, and you know, we work hard to pay our bills. And then you have people like the Pelosi’s of the world and a lot of these Democrats, Joe Biden and the family crime syndicate. And they’re making hand over fist millions and millions of dollars. And I suspect that we the people are the ones getting the short end of that stick. [00:51:03][33.0]
ESTES: [00:51:05] It really is. It’s a sad state when somebody uses a position of public service as a means to make themselves rich, and it’s sad to see some of those things happen, and you just can’t really explain how does somebody who, you know, makes the salary that we do as a member of Congress come out with millions or tens of millions or hundreds of millions in wealth? And even though it’s reported through our ethics reports, that doesn’t explain how that phenomenal growth happens for people that are using their leadership position. [00:51:42][36.3]
STARNES: [00:51:42] Alright Congressman, probably the most important question I’m going to ask here, because we are going to be coming to Wichita. We’ll be doing a book event and wanting to meet all of our folks. I just need – what is the one place when I go to Wichita, I’ve got to be able to eat a meal at this one place. Do you have a recommendation? [00:51:57][15.2]
ESTES: [00:52:01] There’s lots of great places. I could recommend several. I mean, we could go to the B and C Creations if you want great barbecue. There’s a couple of great steakhouses, you know, Scotch and Sirloin or Chesters. I mean, there are great places that you can visit, depends what you want to eat. [00:52:16][15.5]
STARNES: [00:52:17] Well, This is not a vegan crew here, Congressman, and we’re coming from barbeque country in Memphis, but I’m liking the steak ideas, so we’ll have to commiserate over that over text messages, and we’ll have to share a good meal when we get up to Wichita. [00:52:30][13.4]
ESTES: [00:52:31] Well, that sounds great. I like that idea. [00:52:33][1.6]