WASHINGTON, D.C. — Congress has yet to strike a deal on President Biden’s $106 billion supplemental combining aid for Ukraine, Israel and our southern border — but Sen. Eric Schmitt, R-Mo., believes these crucial issues should be dealt with separately.
The Republican senator postulates the Senate’s inability to talk about Ukraine, Israel and the necessary security measures at the southern border individually is due to “the left” having “taken over” the Democratic Party.
In an exclusive sit-down interview with Fox News Digital, Schmitt said that border security is the top issue in the aid supplemental.
“I’ve been very clear. I think all these issues should be dealt with separately,” Schmitt told Fox. “The issues on the ground, the realities on the ground, the strategies, the political coalitions, the likelihood of success are very different for Israel versus Ukraine. I think that having a real debate about those things one by one would really be a more informed debate in supposedly the most deliberative body in the history of the world. That’s not where we’re at right now, which I think is frustrating for a lot of people.”
Sen. Eric Schmitt, R-Mo., sat down for an exclusive Fox News Digital interview in Washington, D.C. (Fox News Digital)
This month saw the most migrant encounters ever recorded in a single day at the southern border, with Customs and Border Protection (CBP) sources reporting encountering 12,000 illegal immigrants on Dec. 5. While Schmitt supports discussion on individual aid for our allies, he emphasized the need to secure America’s border before sending money overseas.
“The truth is they hear a lot about the sovereignty of other countries’ borders and maintaining the integrity of that, but not our own. I mean, we have an open border,” Schmitt urged. “You’ve got policy changes that need to be made. You also have to have an executive willing to enforce the law. Joe Biden has not done that on day one.”
Schmitt said Democrats are “the party of open borders,” which results in real threats of potential terrorism on American soil.
“The Democrats aren’t serious about closing the border. The left has taken over that party. It’s the party of open borders now. And we’re fooling ourselves if we don’t think there are terrorists in this country that want to do harm. And it’s — I think we’re going to look back, and I hope I’m wrong about this, but really regret the Biden administration’s decision. But again, this is sort of who they are,” he said.
Asylum-seeking migrants stand in line to receive donated food at a makeshift camp while awaiting processing by the Border Patrol in Jacumba Hot Springs, California, on Nov. 30. (Mario Tama/Getty Images)
Rep. Elise Stefanik, R-N.Y., recently pressed Harvard president Claudine Gay over whether the calling for genocide of Jews violated the Ivy League school’s code of conduct — and Gay refused to directly say that such calls would qualify as harassment.
The heated exchange erupted in response to an extreme rise in antisemitism on college campuses amid the war in Israel, but Schmitt said Americans really “shouldn’t be all that surprised” of the rhetoric.
“I think a lot of people are surprised to see what’s happening on college campuses right now, with chants of ‘from the river to the sea’ and this really antisemitic rhetoric. But if you’ve been paying attention, you shouldn’t be all that surprised,” the senator said, suggesting college campuses have long been allowing such a culture.
Schmitt recently spoke on the Senate floor to condemn the antisemitic protests on college campuses and highlight the “dangers” of diversity, equity,and inclusion (DEI) teachings in schools.
Supporters of Palestinians gather at a rally at Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts, on Oct. 14. (Joseph Prezioso)
“These colleges have become indoctrination camps for cultural Marxism, and they view the world as oppressor versus oppressed. And depending on how you score on the oppression matrix will define if you’re right or wrong, what truth is. And the color of your skin matters more than who’s right or wrong. And this is the logical consequence now,” Schmitt told Fox News Digital.
The senator also said that he believes “people are waking up to the idea of how poisonous this is, which is why we’ve been so aggressive in pushing back on DEI, aggressive on pushing back on critical race theory that’s found its way into the schools.”
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Reinfusing American ideals into college campuses is the path towards rebuilding the education system and bringing people together, according to the Missouri Republican.
“The truth is, the way home here in what can unify us is a rebirth of believing in this American idea: that each one of us has value, that each one of us has dignity as human beings. And there’s different layers. There’s a lot of things that define us. You know, we like certain things. We’re of different races and religions. We are not one thing in this kind of obsession with race essentialism, where the only thing that matters is the color is your skin is really backwards, and I think we ought to fight back with everything we got,” said Schmitt.