Fox News "The Story" - Transcript: Interview with Rep. Andy Biggs

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HENRY: Jonathan Hunt, appreciate that report. Let's now go to our next guest who represents a border state. And says Democrats must, "bite the bullet and pay for the wall" if they want to stop this problem and want to finally end the shutdown.

He's Arizona Congressman Andy Biggs. He joins me live right now. Congressman, good evening.

REP. ANDY BIGGS, R-ARIZ.: Good evening, Ed. How are you doing?

HENRY: I want to start out in -- Good to see you. I want to start out in California where Jonathan Hunt is. There's a police officer who lost his life in the middle of this Christmas season. Gun down Officer Ronil Singh, as you know.

You can see his image right now. And he was gunned down by an illegal immigrant. There's a manhunt at this hour. Still trying to track down this illegal immigrant. Right in the middle of this shutdown debate.

BIGGS: Yes, you know, the problem is I -- my heart goes out to the officer and his family. I wish this was an isolated incident. It's not so much. I mean, the problem is we have angel families, it's an organization of parents and loved ones of people who have been killed by illegal aliens.

We have got to stop that. We've got to get it under control, and I hate to sound like I'm politicizing this because I'm not. Because I really have tremendous sympathy for this officer. But we have got to step it up as a Congress as of the United States and get this border wall built because it's the first step at restoring national security on this issue.

HENRY: Well, I'm glad you mentioned Congress, because leaders in both parties certainly bear some blame here, we're going to get to each side. Let's start with the Democrats because of what I mentioned with the president's tweet a short time ago.

It's rare this president quotes Barack Obama. But he quotes that tweet from 2011, where Barack Obama in a State of the Union address, this wasn't just some throwaway, said, "We finally need to do something about cracking down on illegal immigration, that's 2011. What in the world have the Democrats done for the last seven years?

BIGGS: They've done nothing. Actually, and they've made it worse. They've gone -- if you -- if you realize in what they've done, they've gone completely 180 degrees opposite. They want open borders, they have supported legislation to authorize sanctuary cities throughout the country, and they've just gotten completely to the -- to the left wing of their party.

And I just think it's antithetical to what most Americans want because we know we need the security and we know we need to change our immigration laws. But we have to enforce those laws. But before you get to that, you have to secure your border. And the best way to do that is a wall barrier -- a wall, actually.

HENRY: And, in fact, Jonathan just mentioned two different bills. One of them in 2013, it was the so-called Gang of Eight bill. In which, over 60 Democrats and Republicans in the Senate voted for this. Including Chuck Schumer, all kinds of other folks that had 700 miles of they called it fencing.

But why the flip-flop now? They were for fencing, walling, whatever you want to call it in 2013, but not now.

BIGGS: Well, it's really simple. I've talked to some of my friends who are Democrats. This is not about border security, I don't believe. I think this is ultimately they do not want Donald Trump to get a victory. It was a linchpin to the Trump campaign. Republicans ran on this part of our platform. And you know what, I just don't believe that they think that this is a good thing to do for politics.

And I really have a problem with that because that's placing politics above the safety and security of this country.

HENRY: All right, Congressman, I said it was going to come after both party. So, I mentioned what the Democrats have done or not done in recent years. What about the Republicans? Now, the Democrats defend those previous votes for the wall in part by saying they were getting something. They didn't really necessarily want a wall, but they were getting a path to citizenship for millions of illegals who are in the country now.

I see the president now saying, I want $5 billion in funding to get the government back open. $5 billion for the wall what are the Democrats getting?

BIGGS: Now, the Democrats are getting the one thing that they should be most happy about, and that's an immigration security. Border control, border security. And that leads to additional discussions on immigration reform. That's what they really want.

HENRY: But, Congressman, pardon me, you and I both know that's not what Nancy Pelosi's priorities, that's not what Chuck Schumer's priority is. So, what I'm trying to get at is, the president promise of the campaign the art of the deal, right?

And so, part of the deal is he gets something, in this case, $5 billion. What -- why would Nancy Pelosi or Chuck Schumer sign off on something where they're basically getting nothing?

BIGGS: Well, I think that you have to realize that there is a significant number of Democrats in this country that want border security. This is not to the -- to the broad Democrat Party that she's playing and the Chuck Schumer is playing to. They're playing to a narrow edge of their party. And that narrow edge, says, "We want open borders."

When you look at it, the people who are from independents and Democrats who voted for Donald Trump, they voted for him and he got -- he got the Republican Party nomination but the Democrats also voted for him when he started saying we're going to secure the border. We're going to build the border wall. But we're going to enforce our laws.

When he did that, all of a sudden, the Rust Belt states that have been particularly hard hit by illegal immigration came to them. This would be a win for Democrats in my opinion.

BIGGS: Democratic --

HENRY: So, I got less than 30 seconds, congressman. Well, what's the win then? How do we get there? Because on my understanding is the president has offered to come down from the $5 billion somewhere in the range of $2- 1/2 to $3 billion. How do you get the Democrats to yes?

BIGGS: Well, right now they're dug in. At some point, their base is going to have to come to them say look, we want the government open. That's why the government shutdown is a leverage right now.

You're not going to get there at this point because right now Chuck Schumer has said, we're not going to move off where we've been. That's why I think Mark Meadows said today, it's going to take longer. Going to take longer.

HENRY: Congressman Andy Biggs. Happy New Year to you a little bit early. Thanks for coming in.

BIGGS: Yes. Thanks, Ed. You too.

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