Rep. Mark Green (R-TN) tells Todd Starnes that the chances of a government shutdown are pretty high. Green also gave Todd an insider’s look at today’s contentious meeting between Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) and the GOP conference. Listen to the full interview above. Following is a rush transcript of the interview. Click here to pre-order Todd’s new book, “Twilight’s Last Gleaming: Can America Be Saved?”
TODD: Congressman Mark Green is on the PATRIOT MOBILE NEWSMAKER LINE. He is a great American patriot from the seventh Congressional District here in Tennessee. Also, he is the chairman of the Homeland Security Committee. Congressman, I hope you’re doing well today.
REP. GREEN: [01:45:08] Thanks, Todd. It’s always great to hear your voice and be on your show.
TODD: [01:45:12] You know, Congressman, before we jump into all of this, a lot of headlines being made by the meeting earlier today with Speaker McCarthy. Curious to get your take on how that that all turned out.
REP. GREEN: [01:45:24] Well, it was a really good lay down by the three chairmen who are investigating the Biden side. I’m investigating the Mayorkas side of the chaos of this administration. But the three committees that are investigating Hunter Biden and, of course, the nexus to the then vice president, now president, each gave a presentation and it was very informative. I think we’re headed in the right direction and an impeachment inquiry. I mean, we needed that weeks ago, but we got it now. We’re moving forward.
TODD: [01:45:57] Two other quick questions. First is the is the speaker’s job safe?
REP. GREEN: [01:46:04] You know, I think it is, but it’s because he still has the vast majority of the people supporting him. So what will happen if there is a motion to vacate the chair? It’ll just throw it back into continuous votes because I think the majority of the conference is with Kevin. And so however many people demand a vote, it’s still going to be a vote for Kevin. But that process will work itself out and we’ll see. But again, my perception is that the vast majority of conferences is with him.
TODD: [01:46:40] And how are we looking for a government shutdown here? You think that’s going to happen? Are we going to be able to reach some sort of an agreement?
REP. GREEN: [01:46:47] The challenge is going to be, of course, the Senate, where we’re probably going to hopefully I mean, I, certainly told them I wouldn’t vote for it unless it was on there – get the border security bill that I passed earlier this year on the continuing resolution. If we can do that, then I’ll support a continuing resolution. But the Senate, of course, you know, it’s run by the Democrats and they see a government shutdown as a win for them. So the chances of a government shutdown, I think are pretty high.
TODD: [01:47:21] All right. Congressman Mark Green on the PATRIOT MOBILE NEWSMAKER LINE. Congressman, you have reintroduced some legislation that would address this obscene material in classrooms and libraries. Let’s talk about that.
REP. GREEN: [01:47:36] Yeah. You know, I’m excited about this because there’s one – an incredible need. The American Library Association is run by a bunch of Marxists who want to poison our children with pornography. They’re pushing this to libraries, and the books are showing up in Tennessee, and they clearly meet the standards for obscene material that our state has established. So we wrote a bill. And as you know, Todd, I’m a big Constitution guy. So I, I like the separation between the federal government and the state government. My goal was to write a bill that that left the states in charge. But basically where the federal government spends money – I want to control that. So, you know, ultimately, I’d love to see the federal Department of Education undone. We don’t need a federal Department of Education. But while we have it and while we’re writing checks, we should not send any money to a school system that’s violating its own state obscene obscenity laws and pornography laws. So we’re letting the states sort of set the standard, but we’re going to pull the federal dollars if you’re violating your state’s standards. And I thought that was the best way to be as federalist as possible. And and and and so, yeah, we’ve got that bill. And in the midst of this debate, we’re hearing this all over the country. I think we got a strong chance of that passing in the House.
TODD: [01:49:06] Well, I’m a big fan of this. And, you know, we were were talking about it earlier in the program. There’s a school district in Virginia that the school said, moms, dad, you have no right to know what we’re teaching your preschoolers. And they went to court and a judge agreed and said, parents do not have that right. So I think at some point we’re going to need some commonsense legislation to protect these kids in the classroom and really restore the rights of moms and dads.
REP. GREEN: [01:49:38] You know, the fact that a court would rule that state obscenity laws can be violated for for this purpose is just incredibly and I mean, it’s just unbelievable. I can’t imagine on appeal that that wins at the Supreme Court and hopefully the schools, you know, the parents will will appeal this thing and we can get them some assistance to do that. But the judges are – it really depends on which president puts the judges in these days. You know, the ideology in our two parties are so divergent now and we just have to push back because these are the youngest, the most precious. We have to protect them. And this stuff is obscene. I mean, the fact that at the Pride parade in New York City, you know, you got four or five men walking down the street naked. That’s an act of obscenity in front of children. And people did nothing. I mean, we cannot accept this where where we’re going with this is poison for the country.
TODD: [01:50:40] No doubt about it. Real quick here, Congresswoman, a couple other things we wanted to get to. We understand the Biden administration is trying to protect mussles. Is that right? Mussels at the border.
REP. GREEN: [01:50:52] I know what the Biden administration is trying to do is keep a wide open border so they can try to fundamentally change the country and and empower themselves into perpetuity. And they will do anything. They will allow human trafficking. They will in fact, they’ll aid and abet human trafficking. They will aid and abet criminal cartels to get fentanyl into our country and kill Americans. And they will resurrect some false claim about mussels along the border to keep wall from being built. They will do anything they can because this is they’re guaranteed to, you know, power for the rest of a very long time.
TODD: [01:51:29] Unbelievable. We’ve got about 90 seconds here. And I know that yesterday big hearing on the human cost of what’s happening at the border with Secretary Mayorkas turning a blind eye to the invasion.
REP. GREEN: [01:51:43] We had Tim Ballard from the movie Sound of Freedom talking about human smuggling. We had a mom who lost her child to fentanyl and we had a Border Patrol agents wife talking about the stress that are on those folks down there with this open border. It was an amazing hearing. We we actually had the Democrats deflecting back to Trump, which was a good sign. They weren’t defending America’s policies at all. Several of them even admitted that there was a crisis at the border. That’s a big shift. But when you’ve got Mayor Adams and the governor of Massachusetts all screaming, they really we’ve got them over a barrel there. But, you know, we made some headway yesterday. The witness, Ken Ballard, former investigator with Homeland Security Investigations, said, yes, Mayorkas is aiding and abetting the criminal cartels. So that was huge. A big, big win yesterday in the committee.
TODD: [01:52:37] All right. Well, Congressman, wow, we got a lot we got a lot packed into that. And I know it’s a busy day for you up on Capitol Hill. We look forward to seeing you back here in your home state. Click here to get Todd’s daily newsletter for America First news.