“We need strong, energetic leadership in the Senate now…”
WASHINGTON – U.S. Senator Tommy Tuberville (R-AL) joined Mornings with Maria today on Fox Business Network to discuss the need for strong Republican leadership after Minority Leader Mitch McConnell’s announcement that he’ll be stepping down from his position in November.
Senator Tuberville also spoke about the need to secure our southern border and bring impeachment articles for DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas before the Senate.
Excerpts from Senator Tuberville’s interview can be found below, and the full interview can be found here.
ON SENATOR McCONNELL STEPPING DOWN AS MINORITY LEADER
BARTIROMO: “Senator, great to see you this morning—thanks very much. Your reaction to Mitch McConnell stepping down?”
TUBERVILLE: “A little bit of a surprise, Maria, but I think he knew when it was time. Good leaders lead, and then they know also when it’s time to step out to the side. This is a tough time for our country, Maria. We are in trouble. We’re in bad trouble. We’re declining every day. I’ve been here three years. I’ve never seen such decline from this administration, from the Democrats. They fall in line, they vote not for their state, but for their party. Then they go out and spend a couple hundred million dollars to get re-elected. That’s not what this country is about—the country is about voting for your states. Leader McConnell has done a good job, but I’m not for a lame duck leader to be honest with you. We need leadership in the Republican Party. We need leadership in the Senate, and I’m for in the next month us picking somebody else out that’s going to lead us. Let them pick their own team. We have to have somebody number one that’s behind the Senate, behind the American people, and behind President Trump—somebody that can go out and stand on the podium with President Trump in the next six, seven, eight months, and get the job done. We’re not going to have another chance. Leader McConnell can be a Leader Emeritus, stand on the side and consult. He’s had a tough time since his fall last year. I hate it for him, but hey, we can’t stop. We’ve got to continue to grow. Our country needs leadership, and especially in the Senate right now because we have to take the Senate and President Trump has to win. If that doesn’t happen, Maria, our kids and grandkids are in huge trouble.”
[…]
BARTIROMO: “Yeah, I know that Mitch McConnell really hates Donald Trump. That’s been obvious for a long time the two do not get along. Do you think this was part of it—that he’s reading the writing on the wall? Trump is coming in, and he can’t support it?”
TUBERVILLE: “I would think that. I hate [that] Senator McConnell and President Trump got into it. They’re two strong personalities, but at the end of the day, I figured out real quick being here for three years that if you don’t have the White House, you have no power. I don’t care if you’re in the Senate, or you’ve got the leadership in the House. You have to have the White House. So whoever is our leader—and hopefully we get a new one, along with the help of Leader McConnell being on the side consulting—that person is going to go out as much as possible and stand next to Donald Trump, wherever he’s at, and help him get elected because this country Maria, cannot stand another four years of this nonsense.”
[…]
BARTIROMO: […] “Well, a lot of your colleagues criticized Mitch McConnell for constantly working with the Democrats. I mean look, just the other day he was pushing the aid to Ukraine, even though there was no change at the border. So, are you going to be able to get someone in there that puts America first and not Ukraine first?”
TUBERVILLE: “Well, I will say this, if you voted in Kentucky on ‘do you want to give Ukraine 60 billion more dollars or knock down the debt?’—I promise you they won’t vote to send it to Ukraine. We have got to speak out for the American people. We do not speak for ourselves up here and we got too many people that do that.”
ON HELPING AMERICA’S FARMERS
TUBERVILLE: “We had Secretary Vilsack yesterday in AG meeting—in front of our committee yesterday—and I asked him about our farmers. I don’t think he understands our farmers are in trouble. They’re in huge trouble. They’re going to go bankrupt, and what are we going to do? We’re going to let Walmart grow our food? I think people think that’s where it comes from. We have no common sense here.”
ON DEMOCRATS’ REFUSAL TO BRING MAYORKAS BEFORE THE SENATE
BARTIROMO: “And then of course you have got the wide-open border. Border Patrol Chief Jason Owens revealed that since October, there have been over 890,000 migrant apprehensions—just since October. Almost a million and over 120,000 known ‘gotaways.’ Democrats are now pushing to dismiss the Senate impeachment trial of Alejandro Mayorkas. Within minutes of the trial starting, even Joe Manchin is calling this trial ridiculous. So where is this going?”
TUBERVILLE: “It is dysfunctional. This place, Maria, is dysfunctional. There is no leadership. There is nobody that will stand up and say we can’t continue to do this to the American people and a country of 248 years or we are not going to make it. The border is out of control—we all know that. This is an embarrassment. Mayorkas should go on trial. They do not want to go on trial with Mayorkas because all the evidence will be brought up. Schumer is going to fight it tooth and nail.”
Senator Tommy Tuberville represents Alabama in the United States Senate and is a member of the Senate Armed Services, Agriculture, Veterans’ Affairs, and HELP Committees.
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