'This Week' Transcript 12-3-23: White House NSC Coordinator for Strategic Communications John Kirby, Israeli Minister of Strategic Affairs Ron Dermer and Sen. James Lankford

Interview

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Yes, we haven't had a single vote yet, George. This is still weeks and weeks away from our first votes that are happening actually in Iowa, then New Hampshire and South Carolina. And there are a lot of people that are going to make that decision. That's not going to be me making that decision, that's going to be the American people that actually make that decision.

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I have not -- I have not actually endorsed anyone for president this time. And I didn't during the 2016 time period either.

And so I've stayed out of this. Again, that's going to be Republican voters and the American people that are going to make that decision in the primary. And then in November, it will be the American voters as well.

The challenge right now is Americans are trying to be able to get information, trying to be able to make decisions. And they're going to make their own decisions on that. That's who we are as Americans.

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Yeah, if he ends up being the nominee, and I've got a choice between Donald Trump and Biden, I've got a choice between two different sets of policies, two different sets of ideas, two different ways to handle the economy, two different ways to be able to handle energy, two different ways to handle foreign policy, immigration -- when I've got two sets of policies between me, that is not a hard choice between those two sets of policies that would actually face us when we get to that November time period.

And if that ends up being the choice of the American people in both of those primaries, that two different sets of policies is not difficult for me because I've seen the difference between what happens at the border and security, what happens into our economy, what happens in foreign policy. Americans have seen a side-by-side on that.

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We have a long way to go on that, George. I know you're trying to jump ahead through a lot of different things here. I understand that everyone is innocent until proven guilty in this process. We've got to be able to go through a lot of things. And again, we're back to the American people. The American people make this choice, and then we actually, as leaders, work with other leaders to be able to go through the process.

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We are making progress on this. This is exceptionally important. When the administration actually put out their national security package, they asked for funding for Israel, for Ukraine, for Taiwan and for the border. And then literally two days later, after they put that proposal out in their request, they also put out a piece saying that the border funding element would be, quote/unquote -- this was their term -- a "tourniquet." What they really need is a change in policy, because that's the biggest issue that they need.

Secretary Mayorkas has come forward and said "We need a reform in the asylum system" -- that's his words -- "from top to bottom. We need to change how we handle recalcitrant countries like China and Nicaragua that will not take their individuals back. We need to change the way that we're doing this." And he's made the statement over and over again, "If you delay consequences for individuals that come across the border, it is no consequence."

So again, listen to Secretary Mayorkas and the statements that he's made, and they've made it very clear they're looking for changes in policies so we can actually secure the border. That means we've got to actually bring a proposal forward that will actually make that different, that could actually reform how we handle asylum, in his words, from top to bottom, that we can actually handle how we're actually handling the process of all those individuals, and that we're not just mass-releasing thousands of people.

Last week, George, we had more than 9,000 people a day that crossed our border -- last week, 9,000 a day. Those are epically high numbers that continue to accelerate, the highest number ever in September, highest October ever. It looks like November will be the highest ever in the history of the country. This continues to spiral out of control.

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No. We're going to do this all together. That's been the agreement that -- again, from the White House, originally. It asked for all these things to be together. We have agreed to do all these things together. We can get this done by the end of the year.

There's a reason that this hasn't been done in decades, because it's hard. It's very technical work, and there's a lot of challenges that are in it. And any time you deal with border security, there are a lot of complicating features in this.

So we're going through very, very detailed work, very, very detailed law. But the most important thing is to be able to get this right. The American people, whether Republican, Democrat or independent, just want a secure border. I don't run into many people that want no immigration. They just want legal immigration. People want a legal, orderly process, not the chaos that we currently have on our southern border. That shouldn't be too tall of an order to be able to fulfill.

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You bet. Thank you.

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