Noem: ‘Texas Should Stand Their Ground’

BASH: “More than a few up-and-coming Republicans are signaling they would be very happy to serve on Donald Trump’s ticket. One of them is my next guest, who is just back from a trip to the southern border, a place she describes as a war zone. Joining me now is South Dakota Governor Kristi Noem. Thank you so much for being here. You and two dozen other Republican governors wrote a letter expressing solidarity with Texas, urging the state to use every tool and strategy, including razor wire fences, to secure the border. A lot of people interpreted that to mean that you think Texas should defy the Supreme Court and stop federal agents from removing that razor wire. Do you think Texas should do that? Should they defy the Supreme Court?”
NOEM: “Texas should stand their ground. They should enforce their state law and go back to the constitutional rights that they have been granted to protect their state sovereignty. And that’s what so many of us as governors are offended by, is that Democrats were threatening to encourage the president to activate our Guards in order to get them to stand down and not protect our states. So, it is a dangerous situation. It is a war zone at our southern border. I’m so proud of what Texas has done, proud to stand with them. I have deployed my National Guard down there three separate times already, and we will do what we can to help them support and defend their people. It is — the inhumanity of the policies that are happening right now is pretty striking, Dana. I mean, you just — you see women suffering, the drug trafficking, the human trafficking that is happening because of these open-border policies. It’s inhumane, and it needs to stop.”
BASH: “So, on that note, what we’re hearing from even some federal agents is that they are kind of frustrated because the law is antiquated, and we will get to that in a second, but that what they are doing is that they’re sitting there and they see migrants, human beings, if they’re drowning or in trouble, they’re on the other side of razor wire, and these people can’t be saved. Are you concerned about that?”
NOEM: “You have the Texas Department of Public Safety that is pulling people out of the river, giving them CPR, bringing them back to life because the cartels are forcing them across that river. I talked to one mother who had just gotten into the United States and had been taken into custody by National Guard and also by Border Patrol, but she had been in Nicaragua, had been told that America is open, please come. She brought her daughter, her 6-year-old daughter, and was facilitated through by cartels and said where she was so mistreated was in Mexico, that she sat in Mexico for three months and was put through horrific work conditions and terrible conditions for her and her daughter for three months before they then brought her across the river and forced her across into a dangerous situation. So, the people that I see saving lives down there is the Texas National Guard, the Texas Border Patrol — I will tell you, the Border Patrol that works for this federal government doesn’t approve of Joe Biden’s policies. The people in this country don’t. Nobody thinks that what’s happening at the border is the right thing to do. And they know that the president has the legal authority now to take action. He could stop this today. He doesn’t need to wait for a bill to pass Congress. He doesn’t need to wait for this bad bill to be codified, which it shouldn’t be.”
BASH: “Yeah, I want to get to — “
NOEM: “This president, President Biden, could take action today.”
BASH: “Governor, I do want to ask you about that in a minute, but just to put a button the letter that you wrote and what is going on with regard to the razor wire, you said that you could be willing to send South Dakota National Guard troops down to the border again. We heard from your colleague in Oklahoma, Kevin Stitt, that the situation could lead to a force-on-force conflict. Congressman Clay Higgins said the feds are staging a civil war. There is real concern that things between Texas and the federal government could turn violent. Are you worried about that?”
NOEM: “Well, that’s why I went to the border on Friday. I went there to see with my own eyes what was going on, and recognizing that I am — as governor of South Dakota, I’m commander-in-chief of my National Guard. That’s a heavy responsibility that sits on our shoulders. We have the same responsibility for those families and those soldiers that the president should feel for our military and how he engages them. So we don’t know where this will escalate. We don’t know what the president will do. We don’t know how he will try to manipulate our soldiers or if he will even defend our country from this invasion that is happening. So that’s why I went there. I’m all-in to protect our state sovereignty. I deal every day, Dana, in South Dakota, with the effects of this open border. We have those Mexican cartels that have a presence on my nine tribal reservations, where those communities are suffering from the drug trafficking and the human trafficking that’s going through my tribal reservations, where I don’t have any jurisdiction. I can’t go there and help bring peace to their community. I can’t help protect them from these Mexican cartels.”
BASH: “So are you worried about violence?”
NOEM: “And they are literally in South Dakota facilitating unrest.”
BASH: “Are you worried about the violence?”
NOEM: “I am concerned about violence, because people in South Dakota live with violence every single day.”
BASH: “Are you worried about violence on the border between — “
NOEM: “They’re incredible crimes, and my tribes have asked — “
BASH: “ — state forces, National Guard forces, Texas forces and the feds?”
NOEM: “Well, first of all, I — what I do as governor is, I start looking at the long-range effects of every single decision and what I’m prepared to do. So, that’s why I went to the border on Friday, was to look at there could be a violent situation, but there also could be areas where we need to take legal action as governors to protect our states. I’m willing to put all of that on the table to make sure that we’re protecting the freedoms that we have always had, ever since this country was founded. That’s my responsibility and why I get up every single day.”
BASH: “So I want to go back to what you alluded to, which is what’s happening in the United States Congress, in the Senate, in particular. You went to the border. You call it a war zone. And now you have in the Senate a bipartisan deal with new border and asylum restrictions. President Biden says the law would give him emergency authority to shut down the border. And he said he would use it on day one. Quote, ‘For everyone who is demanding tougher border control, this is the way to do it. If you’re serious about the border, pass a bipartisan bill, and I would sign it.’ Should your former Republican colleagues in Congress support that deal?”
NOEM: “Why doesn’t President Biden take action today? I mean, today can be day one. He can immediately announce that he’s reinstating the stay-in-Mexico policy. He can immediately announce that he’s going to re-focus on building a wall. He can do those today. I listened to Nancy Pelosi talk earlier. She’s been in Congress for decades and has talked about immigration for decades. And what has she accomplished? We have a president that has all the tools that he needs to protect our country today, and he’s refusing to do that. So, to look at Congress and expect them to pass a bill, when they have failed for decades to do this, and then to say we have to accept this poison pill of a bill that — it essentially codifies illegal immigration. What it would do is put into statute that people can now come here illegally. It’s just a terrible bill, that I think President Trump is exactly right. It should not pass. And push President Biden to take action, because he has all the federal laws that he needs today to keep us safe, to stop the drugs that are coming into this country and killing us. We have children dying every day from fentanyl poisoning.
BASH: “Yes, he — yeah. And — “
NOEM: “We have children every single day that are being trafficked, and President Biden can take action and stop it.”
BASH: “I want to jump in and say that we do have your fellow Republicans who are working on this bill saying that the proposal would have had almost unanimous Republican support if it weren’t for Donald Trump. I want you to listen to a little bit more about some — from some Republican senators.”Show more

[Clip starts]
Cornyn: “The question is, do you want to get something that will help us stem the tide of humanity coming across the border and drugs, or do you want to get nothing?”
(...)
CRAMER: “I just reject the idea that we should reserve a crisis for a better time to solve it.”
(...)
Graham: “I think the best thing for the Republican Party to do right now is try to work with Democrats.”
[Clip ends]

BASH: “So, again, these are not moderate Republicans. These are very conservative Republicans, including your colleague just to the north of you, from North Dakota, saying that Donald Trump is wrong to oppose this deal, and he’s doing it for politics because he thinks it helps to keep the border chaotic and not give Joe Biden a win.”
NOEM: “And that is language and casting aspersions that they do not have the knowledge and the facts to speak to. The fact of the matter is, is that when President Trump was in the White House, he secured our border. He started building a wall. He had policies in place that didn’t create the chaos that we’re seeing today. So, you can say a lot of things and talk a lot of talk, and U.S. senators are really good at spinning a story to make themselves look good. What I would say is that I always look for someone who’s willing to take action. And President Biden has all the authority he needs to take action today. He can make a decision, call a press conference 10 minutes from now and announce he’s reinstating the stay-in-Mexico policies, and we would be better off.”
BASH: “Well, one more, just to kind of push back on that notion, Governor, because you were in the House, you know it. And you just mentioned it. This issue has been stalemated because of politics for decades. And maybe he does have some abilities, but the asylum process and the detention process, I mean, it is a mess. So why not at least fix that? Why not take yes for an answer?”
NOEM: “I think that he would have the ability to fix that, a broken immigration policy, if the president could show that he was acting in good faith. Make an announcement that you’re changing your policies, you’re reallocating resources...”