Fox News "Hannity" - Transcript: Cruz on border crisis: American people know Democrats are in the wrong
Interview
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HANNITY: Senator, you came here. This right over my shoulder.
SEN. TED CRUZ, R-TX: Yes.
HANNITY: It's like a two-minute walk. Literally, you can walk across the Rio Grande and we saw the drugs when I was interviewing the president.
CRUZ: Yes.
HANNITY: This is happening every day here.
CRUZ: This is over 500 pounds of drugs that was intercepted right here. I think this trip was very valuable. I was pleased to come down with the president to meet with border patrol, but also to meet with victims whose family had lost their lives to illegal immigration.
There are real human tragedies and when you see Chuck Schumer and the Democrats force a government shutdown because they are so adamantly opposed to securing the border, that's really out of touch and it's not where the American people are.
HANNITY: You know, I sat in a briefing here in this very sector and come on over, Senator. We'll set (ph) as well.
Senator Cornyn is -- how are you, my friend?
SEN. JOHN CORNYN, R-TX: Hey there, Sean. Good.
HANNITY: I was just telling Senator Cruz last time I was down here, I been to the border 14 times from the Rio Grande, to San Diego. But I sat in the security briefing with Governor Perry at the time. And in a seven-year period in this state, 642,000 crimes committed against Texans, some petty crimes. But it included murders and rapes.
CORNYN: Right.
HANNITY: This is a huge problem. This is life and death.
How long should the president be holding out? I know some of the senators are getting a little nervous about reopening the government for furloughed employees.
CORNYN: I think the president's advice to us is to stay strong and we will. We are not going to fold. This -- we are on the right side of this argument. As Ted and I both know, we have talked to families affected by crime. We have talked to, of course, to the law enforcement, border patrol.
To the migrants themselves who get raped, robbed and murdered in the hands of some of the criminal cartels, I don't think people fully comprehend it.
So I'm glad that President's down here to bring the point home. This is not just about economic migrants, it's about illegal drugs, it's about human trafficking. It's about crime. And so it's really important that he's here.
HANNITY: The idea that somehow people are making the argument that this is manufactured. We just lost officer Singh. We lost the young kid in Knoxville, Tennessee named Pierce Corcoran. I interviewed his parents. Their lives will never be the same again. They lost their 22-year-old kid. This - there seems to be callousness or disconnect. We're losing 300 Americans a week because of the heroin and opioid epidemic, 90 percent coming through this border.
CRUZ: Well, look, Officer Singh's brother joined us for the roundtable, and he was grieving at his brother. And it's worth noting, both he and his brother, they are themselves immigrants, but they came the right way. They came legally seeking the American dream and his brother wanted to be a cop, wanted to keep people safe and he lost his life to a criminal illegal alien.
And the Democrats, they masquerade, they try to cloak their support for open borders by saying it's compassionate. Sean, it is not compassionate to want even a single little boy or single little girl in the custody of human traffickers. Nobody - look at you and I both have kids, no one wants to see teenage girls in the custody of human traffickers that do unspeakable things. You know what the compassionate thing to do is? Secure this border and stop illegal immigration and stop the drug trafficking.
HANNITY: Well, democrats did politicize it when they talked about family separation. The separations you're discussing are permanent separations--
CRUZ: Yes.
CORNYN: That's right.
HANNITY: - that can never be fixed. So the Democrats, they don't seem to want to negotiate at all. What's the next step and should the President just hold strong and wait till they come to the table?
CORNYN: Well, unfortunately, in addition to everything you've discussed, we have about 800,000 federal employees they're wondering how do they pay their mortgage, are they go to put food on the table, completely unnecessary collateral damage.
This is a this is a dispute that can be resolved in the next 30 minutes if Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer actually wanted to negotiate in good faith. The President is willing--
HANNITY: But didn't they supported in '06 and 2013?
CORNYN: Absolutely, Hillary--
HANNITY: They sounded like Trump.
CORNYN: Well Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama, Chuck Schumer all supported the Secure Fence Act in 2006 and again during the Gang of Eight Immigration Bill they voted for $15 million worth of border patrol.
HANNITY: 2013.
CORNYN: 2013.
CRUZ: Yes. And it's even more than that. Look, the President is asking for a little over $5 billion in border security and to build a barrier. And the Democrats have said - Chuck Schumer and Nancy Pelosi have said hell, no, not one penny that goes to a wall. There objection isn't on substance.
I mean, Schumer and the rest of them voted for $40 billion just a few years ago. Their objection is pure politics. They hate the President. Their left- wing base hates the President. And Chuck Schumer - this is now the second Schumer shutdown in a year. He forced one earlier, because he wanted to see Amnesty. He forced the second one, because he wants to see open borders.
And I know you watched the President's address earlier this week and then Schumer and Pelosi--
HANNITY: The Saturday Night Live skit that followed--
CRUZ: its Saturday Night Live will remotely fair. That would be their opening. But they won't make fun of Democrats. So I promise you they won't do it.
HANNITY: They have to. It would be impossible to be that bias.
CRUZ: Look, I got to say, that thing when I saw Schumer and Pelosi that thing looks like a hostage video hostage.
HANNITY: No, I think hostage videos can be more compelling.
CRUZ: And I am just about certain, if you watch it again in slow motion, Nancy is blinking SOS as Schumer is talking. They know they're in the wrong and the American people know they are in the wrong.
HANNITY: You think there is a turnaround, expecting a breakthrough. We haven't looked - yesterday - if they say no to the wall, nothing - I know the President pretty well. I think he's going to stand firm as long as the Senate does. Mitch McConnell is standing strong, Lindsey Graham is standing strong. You're standing with the President.
CORNYN: We'll stand strong. I think once Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer's caucus starts to hear from their constituents who are having trouble paying their bills and putting food on the table, I think they'll crater.
HANNITY: Well, thank you.
CRUZ: And I'll say, look, the furloughed federal employees, they're going to receive their back.
HANNITY: President said he supports that.
CRUZ: Absolutely. They're going to receive their back pay. Now they should be paid today. Schumer needs to end this shutdown. But yesterday the President came to the Senate, had lunch with all the Senate Republicans, and it was striking. There was a unity. We were standing together, we were unified. And I'm grateful that President has helped really infuse some spinal fortitude, and I think the Democrats are starting to panic, because the position they're taking it's not reasonable and it's not right.
HANNITY: We can't have any more Americans being killed by people that didn't respect for laws and sovereignty. And this opioid epidemic--
CRUZ: Yes.
HANNITY: --those drugs that are flowing into this country. They're going every small town and big city across this country and 90% of it is from right over there, so it's got to stop.
CORNYN: The heroin--
HANNITY: With fentanyl--
CORNYN: The heroin, fentanyl, you're right, more than 70,000 people died of drug overdoses. A lot of that was opioids coming from across the border.
HANNITY: Right.
CORNYN: And as you said, Sean, 90% of the heroin coming from Mexico. So this is a humanitarian crisis and it is a national security crisis.
HANNITY: Life and death.
CORNYN: Absolutely.
HANNITY: All right. Thank you both, appreciate that time.
CORNYN: Thanks, Sean.
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