Station:     KFTM, 1400 am

Show:       Big Morning Show

Guests:    Buck, Ken

Link:        https://www.mixcloud.com/BigMorningShow/congressman-ken-buck-june-26-2019/

Date:       June 26, 2019

Click Here for Audio

Topics:      The Swamp, Humanitarian Crisis, Southern Border, Supplemental Aid Package, Detention Centers, Illegal immigrants, Legal Services Lawyers, Border Wall, Caravans, Free Stuff, Mistreatment of Children, Trump Administration, Corrupt Intent, Obstruction of Justice, President Donald Trump, Robert Mueller Report, Subpoena, Testimony, Collusion with Russia, Russians, Congressional Baseball, Immigration, Bipartisan, Fourth of July, Independence Day

 

• JOHN WATERS: Good morning! Glad to have you here – calling in from DC.  Thanks for doing the hard work you do.
  • KEN BUCK:
  • Good morning
  • Always better to be in God’s country (CO) than in the swamp
  • But there are some good fights going on here in DC so it’s a good place to be for a few days of the week, anyway
• There’s a $4.5 billion aid package put forward by House Dems to solve the border crisis—except that it has nothing to do with solving the border crisis
  • KEN BUCK:
  • They have funded more programs for people who have arrived here illegally
    • Non-profit agencies who help take in illegals
    • Legal services , lawyers to represent illegal immigrants
    • Transition beds – giving them a place to stay before they are moved into the country on a more permanent basis
  • They are not funding a wall – they are doing nothing to prevent people from entering illegally
  • They are not giving aid to Mexico or Guatemala to stop the caravans
  • They are encouraging more illegal immigration
• Which part of the word ‘illegal’ do they not understand?
  • KEN BUCK:
  • They understand the term
  • But they want to transform this country
  • They believe fundamentally that the wealth of the US should be distributed among those who are here in this country, and also to people outside of this country
    • So they will continue to allow this illegal immigration
    • We will have to put up with this kind of nonsense
  • The American people need to stand up and send a clear message in the next elections
  • 10 o’clock vote last night on this supplemental aid package – I voted ‘no’
• 5B dollars. Politics is being put ahead of safety on the southern border  — I guess if you offer enough free stuff, you can buy the votes you need and retain your own  power
  • I struggle with this
  • To me, it is fundamentally un-American to disregard the rule of law
  • We don’t seem to understand:
    • Regulated immigration and LEGAL immigration makes all the sense in the world
    • But illegal immigration is fundamentally wrong
    • And undermines so many of the values we have in this country
• We have a society that seems to thrive on getting their information from short sound-bytes…from preferred news outlets — and now, here again, it is showing its ugly head, when they’re showing illegal children in cages and blaming Trump – when it actually happened with the Obama administration, but yet this week we’re seeing this again
  • KEN BUCK:
  • There is a lot of misinformation – and in an area that is very volatile
  • And the mistreatment of children really tugs at the heartstrings
  • But Trump administration has done an outstanding job of trying to clean up the mess created by previous administrations
  • I’ve met with the people that supervise the border
    • They have children of their own
    • They have a heart for children
    • But they are just overwhelmed by the number of children being sent across the border
• Mueller report – years and many million dollars – determined that Trump was not involved in any criminal collusion with Russia or any criminal behavior. Now, Mueller will testify to Congress under subpoena – are they expecting him to say anything different than what was in the report?
  • Dems want to ask Mueller questions about items in the report
  • Obstruction of justice requires a “corrupt intent”
    • And Mueller will be able to expand and elaborate beyond what is in the report
  • There was no collusion between Trump campaign and Russians
    • They had opportunities to collude and Trump campaign turned down those opportunities to in some way coordinate with the Russians
  • Mueller left open some obstruction scenarios for Congress to look at
    • I have looked at them
    • I don’t think they rise to the level of obstruction
    • It will be interesting to hear what Mueller has to say
    • I think it was unfair for Mueller not to draw a conclusion as to whether there was obstruction
    • As a prosecutor for 25 years, my job was not to issue a report and guess as to whether someone may have committed a crime
      • Our system says: you either charge someone with a crime
        • and they can go to trial
        • They can defend themselves
        • In front of 12 jurors
        • And both sides can present evidence
        • And the jury renders a verdict
      • Or you can decide NOT to charge them, and YOU KEEP YOUR MOUTH SHUT!
        • You don’t get to suggest in public that there might be a crime
        • And present all the bad things that you believe happened
        • You don’t get to go out in public and say, “I think a lot of bad things happened here
• Happier things: Baseball!
  • I’m not playing this year due to health reasons
  • But I love the game –
  • It’s tonight at 7 at Washington Nationals field
  • Great charity event
    • Over $1M raised
    • For Boys & Girls Club
    • 10s of thousands of people show up to watch
    • Bipartisan effort –
      • There are a lot of times when Ds and Rs get together to enjoy life and work on legislation
• Leaders of the parties are not the same as rank and file members – who are more collaborative
  • That’s true
  • There are a lot of problem solvers in Congress
  • Some issues are very difficult like immigration
  • But on others, we reach consensus and move forward
• July 4th – our nation is celebrating another birthday
  • An important anniversary
  • Especially when we have people who don’t want to recognize how special our system is
  • And experiment in self-government – truly unique, important, unprecedented
  • Lives, fortunes, and families were risked to create our system
  • And we should be thankful for the defenders of our system
    • Military
    • First responders
  • July 4^th is an occasion to celebrate that legacy
• Thanks for you time