Schumer on Border Bill: ‘If We Don’t Defend Ourselves ... We Don’t Want This To Be Like 1938’

LEMIRE: “Leader Schumer, Speaker Johnson has just noted came out against the bill, say it’s worse than he expected. He’s also been very clear. He’s like this is dead on arrival. He’s saying this has no chance to pass the House. But if this does pass the Senate, which is — you’re confident it will do —“
Schumer: “I’m confident — hopeful is the right word. This is hard. And our Republican senators, we need a bunch of them, are under a lot of pressure from the right-wing Trump part of the party.”
LEMIRE: “So let’s do it in two parts. Talk to us a little more about the dynamics in the Senate, why you are hopeful. And then secondly, but even if you get it through the Senate, if he’s saying it’s dead, what happens next? How do the dynamics change?”
Schumer: “Good questions, both. How do we get it through the Senate? Senators have to rise to the occasion. A large number of senators have shown real courage, Senator Lankford, I mean, he was chosen by Mitch McConnell to negotiate this because he’s very conservative. He’s not in the middle of where the Republican senators are, he’s somewhat to the right, a very religious, deeply God fearing man. And he had the courage to do with McConnell. You know, I mean, maybe I’m not supposed to say something good about McConnell, because the right-wing will go wah, wah, wah which they always do. But he’s shown courage because he knows it’s the right thing to do. I’ve had private talks with McConnell, he knows what will happen to America if Putin in Ukraine succeed. And we have some of these right-wing Republicans in the Senate who used to decry Putin and and now say don’t aid Ukraine. All political, and really horribly political, because of so much is at stake. So how do we — so let’s assume that our senators in the Senate rise to the occasion, OK? And I hope they will, that everyone’s talking to each other. And once they look at the bill — when — when — when Langford showed some of the Republicans the bill, they finally saw what was in it and say, ‘Oh, this is a real compromise, this isn’t to sell out one way or the other.’ If it passes the Senate, there are a large number of congressmen in the House. First, there’s a big group of hawks in the middle, and they care about funding Ukraine, they always have. And the strategy of Johnson is right now do nothing. There’s a large number of pro-Israel people, they care about that. Then there’s a large number of — of progressive legislators, I’m included, who want to see that Gaza, the people in Gaza don’t starve and we get that aid to them. Plus, there are some who care about Taiwan and there’s money there to bolster us against China’s aggression there. You know, we’re in an aggressive world and we got a lot of dictators linking up Russia, China, Iran. If we don’t defend ourselves — we don’t want this to be like 1938.”