WASHINGTON – On Tuesday, U.S. Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) joined Senate conservatives in a press conference to expose how the Senate border supplemental does more harm than good by not only failing to secure the border but also by hindering a future president’s ability to do so. Additionally, Sen. Johnson joined Fox News over the weekend, appearing on The Faulkner Focus with Harris Faulkner and Trey Gowdy’s Sunday Night in America where he slammed President Biden’s lawless administration and underscored the hurdles of negotiating with Democrats who are the root cause of the border crisis.

Watch the senator’s full remarks here.

At the press conference, the senator highlighted how the real tragedy of the Senate border negotiations is that what the American people want — a secure border — they’re not going to get.

On why negotiating with Democrats for border security is like negotiating with arsonists to put out a fire

“I've been saying for quite some time now that negotiating with them [the Democrats] on this issue is like negotiating with an arsonist to put out the fire that arsonist set. So what we should have done is we should have, first of all, had trust in the American public who, by and large agree with us. They recognize the open border is a clear and present danger to America, to its citizens, and they want to secure the border. So we should have had faith in them, and we should have had a very open process.”

On President Biden ignoring his authority to secure the border 

“I would suggest what we should have started with is somewhat like what Speaker Johnson has started, is he lays out all the authority that the President currently has to secure the border. The Supreme Court ruled on the Immigration and Naturalization Act (INA) that it exudes deference to the executive. Then we could have pointed to different areas and different court decisions that have weakened that authority, and we could have corrected those. The Republicans would have happily given President Biden the authority that he now says he wants, I don't believe him, but we would've been happy to give him that authority to actually secure the border, because that's what we want.”

On Friday, Sen. Johnson joined The Faulkner Focus to express his frustration over how the Senate border negotiations were kept hidden from the American people.

On the open border policies of President Biden and his Democrat colleagues in Congress 

“Listen, this is outrageous. We have a lawless administration. We have Democrat governance in all of these cities that are creating lawless cities. We are treating migrants with kid gloves, whether it's through our airports or whether it's through our judicial systems. We don't make them adhere to the same standards as we do American citizens and it’s costing us billions of dollars. Billions of dollars that we could be using to help Americans. So this is absolutely outrageous, but this is what Democrat governance is doing. It's destroying this country. President Biden and his Democrat colleagues in Congress, their open border policy is a clear and present danger to America. It's completely outrageous.”

On why the Senate border negotiations were an abuse of the deliberative process

“Republicans want to secure the border. What we don't want is a bill that will normalize thousands of illegal migrants a day and hamstring a future president. And, you know, from what I've seen so far, and you’re going to have to take a look at the actual text, we haven't seen that yet, which is also outrageous. It should have been debated in public. You know, the public has a right to see this. We need to hear from our constituents. But now this is going to be rushed through. We’ll maybe see this today or no later than Sunday and be voting on this next week. This is beyond absurd, this is an abuse of the deliberative process.”

On Sunday Night in America, the senator explained the insurmountable problem in negotiating with Democrats — the fact that they want an open border.

On how President Trump secured the border using existing law 

“I would argue that probably the best thing, the House has done so far on the border, well they passed H.R. 2, but I think it’s the Speaker laying out all the authority that President Biden has that he's not using. And let's face it, President Biden is just lying boldfaced to the American public, but when he said he's been asking Republicans since day one to give him the authority to close the border. No, he took over when we had a largely secure border. President Trump secured it using existing law, and President Biden went about dismantling all the successful programs that Trump put in place to secure the border.”

On why the border bill will do more harm than good

“Republicans want to secure the border. This is the top priority. I've said in conference that I would not only vote for, I would promote a bill that funds Ukraine, to help the Ukrainian people, but also secures the border. But I'm not going to vote for a bill that is going to hamstring a future president by setting limits, thresholds before the president can actually do what the president already has the authority to do. So first, do no harm, and my concern about the Senate bill, you know, we're going to have to analyze it, is it will do more harm than good.”

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