dismissing impeachment articles against homeland security secretary alejandro mayorkas. rep. johnson: good afternoon and thank you for being here. it is a busy day on capitol hill as you all know we are deeply disappointed in the senate's action have just taken on the

mayorkas impeachment proceedings but there should have been a full trial. the american people should have been able to see the evidence and evaluate for themselves. what they already know intuitively is that secretary mayorkas had a fantastical breach of duty. he breached his constitutional responsibility, he has openly defied the will of the congress. in my view he has lied on multiple occasions to congress under oath, and i think he has done it to me. in my view i believe my evaluation is he is probably the least effective, and i think most dangerous in terms of his policy implementations, of any cabinet secretary in history of the u.s. if there has ever been a cabinet secretary that deserved to be impeached, he is that. and the idea that the senate under chuck schumer's leadership voted on party lines to not even allow the american people to evaluate the evidence is shameful. it is a violation of their constitutional responsibility. and i think there will be a

reckoning for all of this in the election cycle in the fall. i really do. all the polling confirms the american people understand the open border is by design. it is designed by this administration. they did this intentionally. these are policy choices. on the first day that joe took office. and we documented in the house 64 specific executive actions, from executive orders that he took, to actions secretary mayorkas implemented, that opened that border wide. that is what has led to this catastrophe and that is why we are in such dire straits. 16 million people. the official number is a little over 9 million encounters at the border. . we know that includes at least 340 suspects under terrorism watch list encountered at the border. the scary thing to a lot of american people as we don't know how many terrorists came in totally undetected. we have at least 3 million got a

ways but we don't know who has come in under those completely un-patrolled sectors of the border per it on january 3 we took 64 house republicans down to the border and it was the largest congressional trip ever. ground zero at the time was maddening. it was infuriating and heartbreaking all at the same time because of the humanitarian catastrophe created there. they told us the border patrol agents and officials in charge said by their estimation, 60% to 70% of the people who crossed that border are single adult males between the ages of 18 and 45. of military capability. we have no idea what they are planning but we assume there are terrorism cells around the country, maybe in a community nearby. and every american is concerned about this and every state is a border state. here's the important point. the american people know joe biden has the executive authority right now and he has

since day one to solve that catastrophe. because his policy choices got us into that and he can get us out. he could use section 212 of the immigration and nationality act an issue in executive order and close the border. the president can determine if it is in the country's best interest to do that. he can shut it down and he won't. i have asked him myself repeatedly. i have read him the provision of the law. he has a menu of offense. i sent him that in paperwork as well. here are eight or nine things you can do right now to solve this problem. he won't do it. i cannot answer to that. i think he will have to. it is one of the big reasons republicans are going to have a very good election cycle. i believe we are going to grow the house majority and win the white house and the senate as well. the other big thing going on is the supplemental. what we have done in the house is we have taken the house supplemental -- or the senate supplemental and made it into our own.

it is an improvement in the process and the policies. we are going to allow an amendment process in four separate bills that will be in one rule put on the floor and everybody will be able to vote their own conscience in their own district. they can vote up or down on the israel aid, ukraine eight, the indo pacific, and this separate package we have with other national security measures. we have included a lot of innovations here. it is different than the senate's bill. we've introduced the loan concept. any funding that goes to support the government of ukraine is converted to a loan. we introduced the repo act which is a seizure of corrupt russian oligarch's assets. that can be used to fund the resistance in ukraine as well. we have sanctions for iran and russia and china, the aggressors causing all these problems, the new axis of evil. we have a lot of new changes here. we have a strategy shift as well.

what we have said is the white house has to provide the congress within 45 days of this bill signed into law an actual strategy, a plan to show what is the objective in ukraine, what is the endgame, and how are we going to show absolute accountability for the weapons systems and all of that. importantly, people need to understand on the ukraine piece, 80% of the money that would be allocated in this legislation is for replenishment of our own weapons stocks. this is something that makes sense. what we are doing is funding america's industrial defense bay. these are jobs and american building weapons that we use and other countries buy from us. there are a lot of other innovations in the bill. we are very anxious to get the assistance to israel, our dear friend and close ally in the middle east in the middle of a war for their very existence. they need the assistance right now and it is our intention to do it as quickly as possible. all of these pieces are very important. it is important to the american people.

i think all the member's of congress will have the opportunity as single subjects to vote their will on that, and we will put that together, send it to the senate. i am going to say this and then open to questions. this is an important time in the world stage pretty we live an unprecedented, very challenging times. the world is on fire. one of the reasons is because we are projecting weakness from this white house. i am a reagan republican. i think america is an exceptional nation, the greatest nation in the history of the world. i believe because of that we have a very special responsibility. the responsibility of the free world was placed upon the shoulders of america after world war ii. it doesn't mean we should be intervening in conflicts around the world, but it does mean that we have to stand for freedom, and we have to be the beacon of light, and we have to show strength. because the perception of a strong america is good for the entire world. it is good not just for the security and safety of

americans, but for the security and safety of free people all around the world. we would stand strong and we will. i think congress is going to show that. this is a very important message we are going to send to the world this week and i am anxious to get it done. reporter: why are you willing to risk losing your job over the ukraine funding? rep. johnson: lesson, my philosophy is you do the right thing and you let the chips fall where they may. if i operated over a fear of a motion to vacate, i would never be able to do my job. history judges us for what we do. this is a critical time right now. i could make a selfish decision and do something that's different. but i am doing here what i believe to be the right thing. i think providing aid to ukraine right now is really important, i really do.

i believe the intel and the briefings we have gotten. i believe xi and vladimir putin and iran really are an axis of evil. i think vladimir putin would continue to march through europe if he were allowed. i think you would go to the baltics or have a showdown with poland are one of our nato allies. to put it bluntly, i would rather send bullets to ukraine than american boys. my son is going to be getting the naval academy this fall. this is not a joke. we can't play politics with this. i am giving an opportunity for every member of the house to vote their conscience on this, and i think that is the way this institution is supposed to work. i am willing to take personal risk for that and history will judge us. reporter: [indiscernible] rep. johnson: we have been working on the lng component because it is so critical to national defense.

this is not a parochial issue. it's an important issue for the whole country. when the president issued his order to effectively close down our natural gas exports, that did terrible harm to our security. it makes no sense. i have spoken to him about this personally, i asked him personally. mr. president, why in the world would you issue an executive order to stop lng exports? sir, you don't want to fuel the vet a vladimir putin's war machine, do you? no, of course not. sir, if they can't buy their liquefied natural gas off the coast of louisiana or texas, they are going to go to vladimir putin for that supply, and that will fuel his war machine and give him more of what he needs to bring his aggression in ukraine. i don't understand it. i'm not even sure currently he

even understands the full implications of that. lng is part of the national security contest and philosophy here because energy security is national security. and we cannot allow vladimir putin and iran to be supplying oil and gas to europe. that is not good for the security of the region. we have tried to put this in every package and we will continue to make the case because it is critical for our security. reporter: -- to rename the press room after frederick douglass. is this something you can do as speaker? rep. johnson: i love the idea and that is a great contest. frederick douglass was a great american. we will look into that. reporter: what is in the bill that we have not seen yet? rep. johnson: the fourth bill in the package is israel, indo pacific, ukraine, and the fourth bill which is our national security additional foreign policy measures. that is where you will find the

provisions of the rico act, which is the use of the russian sovereign assets that are in the u.s. that will be transferred to ukraine. i think that is a just and right use. using corrupt russian oligarch assets to fund the resistance of the ukrainians is pure poetry in my view. we also have in that package sanctions on iran and russia and china, to try to tamp down on their aggression. we have not done enough of that. the white house and the executive branch has not used its sanctions authority and its discretion in any way close to what it should be. remember, in the last administration, we did not have hot wars like this. we did not have our adversaries acting so aggressively and marching into territory that is not theirs? because they perceived the president was strong. some of them feared us. most of them respected him. we are not sure what this president may do to us if we act like that.

that is the reagan doctrine. that is peace through strength. that is a core foundational principle of america. if we do not sustain >> president trump will be reelected and restore order. reporter: will republican support aid for ukraine? >> i believe they will. anecdotally, i can tell you most of my colleagues understand. there is a quibble about the humanitarian component, i have concerns, but this is better policy. this will have an amendment

process to strike that and see if it gets a majority number of votes. the american people want to why is this in our nations interest? this is a really important thing , not only is it important to defend freedom, i believe vladimir putin is evil, making aggression because he saw an opportunity and if he continues, many of us believe it is likely he might try to set up a

standoff. i do not want us involved. this needs to be brought to an end but we need a stronger president. trump will do that. reporter: you've highlighted this as a loan but members of your party have criticized it is too lenient. >> the lone concept is something trump endorsed and it makes sense to house republicans and democrats. it allows the president to forgive the loan because it might be an important ship in the game, an important thing to

have, an important option. it makes sense to republicans and democrats. congress has oversight over all of it, so i think it is a good policy. reporter: earlier today about the border, is that going to be a separate thing than these other bills? mr. johnson: border is our number one priority. you all have been bored of me talking about it because it is the most inexcusable, the idea that the administration allowed it is unconscionable. i have been campaigning and it is the number one question

everywhere. it is the same, i cannot understand why this would be allowed, so going to push this. it's part of the process. if you're going to talk about national security you have to begin at the border. one of the key elements, house republicans passed it, it has been collecting dust. we will reintroduce that and reinstate remain in mexico, fix broken asylum, broken parole.

rebuild the wall. we have important innovations and we are adding an amendment provision to allow texas to be reimbursed all the money taxpayers have had to spend. that is just and right, a popular measure and we are going to vote it through. i think it will be partisan, but every republican will support it and we will say we are fighting for you and demanding the president use his authority to fix this. he is unwilling to do that and everyone knows that. reporter: could you seek help from democrats? would you accept that help? mr. johnson: i have not asked a democrat, i have a job to do and i'm going to do the job regardless of consequences. if marjorie brings the motion, i have to do what i have to do and members will vote their conscience.

i'm often reminded that there is a lot going on. i remind myself of what john quincy adams used to do to end slavery. in the young member came up to him and said mr. president, why do you keep bringing the resolution and he said it is simple. duty is ours, results are god's. i'm going to do my duty and the results are not up to me. uncomfortable and we will see what happens. thank you for being here. appreciate it.