The Anchormen Show with Matt Gaetz - July 26, 2023


Episode 116 LIVE: The Truth Is Out There – Firebrand with Matt Gaetz


Episode Stats

Length

26 minutes

Words per Minute

167.90086

Word Count

4,512

Sentence Count

268

Hate Speech Sentences

5


Summary

Joe Biden's plea deal with the Justice Department blows up, and now it appears we could be headed for a trial. Former Vice President Joe Biden has been charged with conspiracy to commit wire fraud, conspiracy to launder money, and conspiracy to obstruct justice.


Transcript

00:00:01.000 The embattled Congressman Matt Gaetz.
00:00:03.000 Matt Gaetz was one of the very few members in the entire Congress
00:00:06.000 who bothered to stand up against permanent Washington on behalf of his constituents.
00:00:10.000 Matt Gaetz right now, he's a problem for the Democratic Party.
00:00:13.000 He could cause a lot of hiccups in passing applause.
00:00:16.000 So we're going to keep running those stories to get hurt again.
00:00:20.000 If you stand for the flag and kneel in prayer,
00:00:23.000 if you want to build America up and not burn her to the ground,
00:00:26.000 then welcome, my fellow patriots.
00:00:29.000 You are in the right place.
00:00:31.000 This is the movement for you.
00:00:33.000 You ever watch this guy on television?
00:00:35.000 It's like a machine. Matt Gaetz.
00:00:38.000 I'm a canceled man in some corners of the internet.
00:00:41.000 Many days I'm a marked man in Congress, a wanted man by the deep state.
00:00:46.000 They aren't really coming for me.
00:00:48.000 They're coming for you.
00:00:50.000 I'm just in the way.
00:00:52.000 Well, here we are, John.
00:00:57.000 We now know that Judge Noriega is not going to accept the plea agreement.
00:01:03.000 And as we were talking about just a moment ago, it's got to do.
00:01:08.000 Judge Noriega does not believe that she has questions over the constitutionality of that diversion clause of the immunity that Hunter Biden would receive in this deal to not prosecute on the gun charge.
00:01:24.000 She is not okay with that.
00:01:26.000 So the headline here is she has not accepted the plea deal.
00:01:31.000 That would likely indicate we could be headed for a trial.
00:01:36.000 All right, we are live.
00:01:40.000 Welcome back to Firebrand, broadcasting out of room 2021 of the Rayburn House Office Building here in the Capitol Complex in Washington, D.C.
00:01:47.000 And all the news is about the blown up plea deal with Hunter Biden.
00:01:51.000 This is a very rare thing.
00:01:53.000 Usually when you have the government and the defense in agreement as to the scope of punishment, a court is very reluctant to engage in second guessing that and undoing it.
00:02:04.000 Not something you see in the courthouse every day.
00:02:07.000 Usually it's only when the terms are egregious or when the scope is not properly defined or there's some confusion about the scope.
00:02:15.000 That appears to be what happens here.
00:02:17.000 Hunter Biden of the view that this was the great inoculation that pleading guilty to these small, insignificant tax charges would then be the antidote to future allegations that he was acting as a foreign agent.
00:02:33.000 Taking bribe money, money laundering, and who knows what else based on what we've all seen from that laptop and uncovered and discussed a great deal here on Firebrand.
00:02:46.000 So Hunter Biden was expecting this to be the total get out of jail free card, pay a fine, take some ostensible responsibility.
00:02:55.000 And today he ends up pleading not guilty.
00:02:58.000 Now, when I saw the not guilty plea, it brought me back to the statement of Hunter Biden's lawyer at the time of the initial agreement that we all criticized.
00:03:09.000 And it says in part, this reported in Politico, Hunter believes it's important to take responsibility for these mistakes he made during a period of turmoil and addiction in his life.
00:03:21.000 Take responsibility. Hunter thought that was important.
00:03:24.000 Part of Hunter making his way back to the state dinner circuit and the elite scene in Washington, D.C. and the influence peddling operation is this degree of accepting responsibility.
00:03:37.000 Right. He was heralded by the president, the Biden family, others in the administration for taking responsibility.
00:03:46.000 Now you have the not guilty plea because he wasn't going to be able to use these inoculating charges as defense to the really bad stuff.
00:03:54.500 And I think one of the reasons why that became so important to Hunter Biden is because we've got Devin Archer coming in to give testimony in a transcribed interview Monday, July 31st.
00:04:06.660 Now, Devin Archer has delayed that testimony three times.
00:04:09.640 He's told others that he had Joe Biden on the phone when these deals were going down.
00:04:15.080 And you can tell how concerned the Bidens are about the Devin Archer testimony based on this desire to really have a robust view of scope of the Hunter deal now.
00:04:28.360 And then you saw Kareem Jean-Pierre, the White House press secretary, totally change the answer yesterday and say, oh, well, this is this is a circumstance where we've always said that Joe Biden and Hunter Biden were never in business together.
00:04:44.000 See, Joe Biden originally, of course, told us all that it was something very different, that he never discussed his son's overseas business dealings.
00:04:52.600 You know why Joe Biden said that? Because he knew how dirty they were.
00:04:55.400 He knew that any proximity to that was not going to be ultimately defensible.
00:05:00.420 And now we're on the case. And that's exactly why you see what you see happening in courtrooms and also the White House press briefing room.
00:05:08.720 There was another press briefing today that took an odd and unfortunate turn.
00:05:14.760 Senator McConnell was at the microphone, as he typically is, and seized up a bit.
00:05:21.360 Here's if you're watching on one of our viewing platforms, you can see Senator McConnell gets a look on his face that is not one that he appears to be just pensive about the next matter.
00:05:33.680 Here you see Senator Barrasso going very kindly, taking him by the arm, seeing to his well-being.
00:05:39.880 But you can see right there, Senator McConnell does not have his color.
00:05:44.080 He does not look well. And that is not something that we certainly want to see linger for the leader.
00:05:51.280 We hope that he is healthy and that he's able to have a swift recovery.
00:05:55.800 But definitely big news, always shakes Capitol Hill when you see somebody that wields that much power in this town, have a moment of personal fragility.
00:06:06.000 And we all have to take account of our health.
00:06:08.200 And we certainly hope that Leader McConnell is restored to full and better health.
00:06:14.300 I want to go to our next big matter to discuss.
00:06:18.880 And that is this hearing that we had in the House Judiciary Committee today with Mayorkas.
00:06:23.880 Now, you know that that's going to get spicy.
00:06:28.140 We're deeply concerned about the over 100,000 Americans who've been poisoned due to fentanyl.
00:06:33.300 But I'm not just worried about the criminals, OK?
00:06:35.960 So a lot of times when my colleagues ask questions of these cabinet-level officials, it's just about the crimes and the criminals.
00:06:43.760 But I worry about immigration even for the non-criminals, even people who don't come here to commit crimes.
00:06:49.960 I don't know that you could just let an unlimited amount of those people in at the border without a process, without some understanding of who is coming here, what they will be doing.
00:06:59.700 And so I asked about the Mayorkas Doctrine.
00:07:03.340 Take a listen.
00:07:03.900 2 million encounters and releases under your watch.
00:07:10.480 So not including the Title 42 expulsions, not including violent criminals.
00:07:16.060 Of those 2 million plus that you've encountered and released, how many have you told to go home?
00:07:22.540 Congressman, individuals who are released are placed in immigration enforcement proceedings under the law where they can make their claim for relief.
00:07:32.520 If their claim for relief is not satisfied, they are subject to removal from the United States.
00:07:37.180 Right. Subject to removal sounds very different than actually removed.
00:07:40.540 So I'm not interested in the process.
00:07:42.600 I'm not interested in what people are subject to.
00:07:44.180 2 million people encountered and released, not the expulsions under Title 42, not the criminals.
00:07:51.800 How many of those people have you deported?
00:07:55.460 So, Congressman, a few points.
00:07:57.800 Number one.
00:07:58.360 Just how many of the people?
00:07:59.480 I just want to know how many.
00:08:00.540 Just a number.
00:08:01.640 Congressman, we are dealing with a completely broken immigration system.
00:08:06.240 No, no, no.
00:08:06.720 Mr. Secretary, I'm not going to let you burn my five minutes.
00:08:08.620 Do you know the answer?
00:08:09.540 Do you know the number of people out of that 2 million that you've removed that aren't criminals?
00:08:13.280 I do know that we have removed more aggravated felons.
00:08:17.320 Right.
00:08:17.620 I'm not asking about them.
00:08:18.960 I've caveated that away because here's what I'm sort of getting and what your non-responsiveness is demonstrating.
00:08:25.020 The Mayorkas doctrine is this.
00:08:27.800 If you show up at the border and get released into the country, if you don't commit a specific aggravated felony,
00:08:35.220 which, by the way, doesn't include a lot of assault and battery, doesn't include a lot of bad domestic violence.
00:08:40.100 But if you're not one of the people who commit those crimes, you get to stay forever.
00:08:45.420 Is that a fair characterization of your doctrine?
00:08:47.960 No, that is false.
00:08:48.420 Then tell me how many you're sending home.
00:08:50.080 No, that is false.
00:08:51.320 Okay, but you don't know the number of how many you've sent home.
00:08:53.840 Here's another number.
00:08:55.360 Two point, I'm sorry, 1.2 million people today have been through your entire process, right?
00:09:01.860 They've been through what you call a removal proceeding is just an amnesty dance because after the 1.2 million people get an order from the judge saying that they don't have a basis to be here, you still don't remove them.
00:09:14.740 Like, what's your plan to remove those people?
00:09:16.680 Congressman, that is false.
00:09:18.380 Okay.
00:09:18.900 How many of them then?
00:09:20.220 Just give me the number.
00:09:21.680 Congressman, in this country, in this country, there are between 11 and 12 million.
00:09:29.020 Right, but I'm asking about a subset that you won't send home.
00:09:32.860 And the reason you're smirking about it and the reason you won't answer my question is because everybody gets the joke.
00:09:37.800 And the sad thing is it's not just us here.
00:09:39.700 It's the cartels who get the joke too.
00:09:41.600 And so now what you've done to execute this Mayorkas doctrine where so long as you don't commit a crime, you get to stay here and burden our hospitals, burden our schools, burden our social services, burden our jails.
00:09:52.120 Because you've sent the message to the cartels and then you've taken this app and you've digitized illegal immigration and you've scaled it to the moon.
00:10:00.640 Like, this app that you've got everybody downloading is like the Disney fast pass into the country, never to be subject to actual removal, just removal proceedings as you call them.
00:10:09.300 That app doesn't do any search of their criminal history in their home country, does it?
00:10:13.880 Congressman, I disagree with everything you have said.
00:10:16.800 Well, I'm sure, but just to answer the question, does the app that you are out there promoting do any search of people's criminal history in their home country?
00:10:23.900 Congressman, Customs and Border Protection screens and vets individuals whom they encounter.
00:10:29.400 Your app, it either has the functionality to test their criminal history in their home country or it doesn't.
00:10:35.020 By the way, if it did, you'd have already told me.
00:10:37.220 It doesn't.
00:10:38.000 And then the other epic failure of this that's empowered the cartels is that in these processing centers you've set up in other countries to just wave them all in at a rapid pace,
00:10:47.940 you've had to shut them down in Nuevo Laredo because the cartels were standing outside extorting people.
00:10:53.600 Isn't that right?
00:10:54.540 Congressman, that is false.
00:10:56.340 Oh, really?
00:10:56.780 So why did you shut down that facility in Nuevo Laredo?
00:10:58.440 And the point of safe, orderly and lawful pathways is to reduce the number of encounters at our southwest border.
00:11:06.220 But wait a second.
00:11:07.720 You've just shifted those encounters because right now, for the first time in modern history,
00:11:12.480 more people are showing up at the ports of entry than running through some bush in Yuma, Arizona.
00:11:18.660 And the reason they're showing up at the ports of entry is because you've got the turnstile open where so long as they've gone and downloaded this app, you just let them in.
00:11:26.500 And I've got one final question for you, and it's an important one.
00:11:28.820 Is Mexico an ally in this fight against illegal immigration?
00:11:33.180 Yes, it is.
00:11:33.920 So, I mean, it's hilarious and somewhat troubling that you say that, because, like, I'm looking at the El Chapo trial where President Nieto took a $100 million bribe from the Sinaloa cartel.
00:11:44.680 Do you think that the subsequent presidents following Nieto weren't offered a bribe by the cartel or didn't take the bribe?
00:11:51.700 Congressman, I disagree with everything you have said.
00:11:54.540 Right, but you can disagree all you want, but what you won't provide is any number.
00:12:00.300 And when you sit there and just kind of ostensibly disagree without any facts, it shows people what the real gig is.
00:12:05.980 The Mexican government is captive to the cartels.
00:12:09.900 They are doing the bidding of the cartels, and based on your response today, so are you.
00:12:14.160 We are back live.
00:12:18.080 Got to give it to Mayorkas.
00:12:19.220 He is disciplined in his non-answers.
00:12:21.760 But you know that if they had been actually deporting people subject to removal, he'd know that number.
00:12:27.620 And the reason he doesn't know it is because it's not a priority.
00:12:30.840 And the reason that they don't have any sort of process to remove the non-criminals is because they want those people to stay.
00:12:37.440 And they don't care how they get here, and they don't care what the permission structure is.
00:12:41.500 So know that.
00:12:42.400 Know that the doctrine of the Biden-Mayorkas era is if somebody shows up, they get into our country, they get released, and if they don't commit a crime, they never have to leave.
00:12:55.040 That is why it is so important to have physical barriers at our border.
00:12:58.340 We will stay on this, and I'm going to come back later in the program to give you an update on a specific lie in all of that that Mayorkas told that is just so blatant it bears rubbing his nose in it a little bit.
00:13:12.720 That will be later.
00:13:13.660 But first, I've got to get to the hearing that we had on Capitol Hill today, the most serious review of testimony and evidence regarding these unidentified aerial phenomenon, UAPs, UFOs.
00:13:25.900 I had an opportunity to question witnesses who were test pilots, who were involved in the review of national security information in this space.
00:13:34.460 I was a guest of the House Oversight Committee.
00:13:37.020 Let's go ahead and play that clip.
00:13:40.600 Several months ago, my office received a protected disclosure from Eglin Air Force Base indicating that there was a UAP incident that required my attention.
00:13:49.300 I sought a briefing regarding that episode and brought with me Congressman Burchett and Congresswoman Luna.
00:13:57.000 We asked to see any of the evidence that had been taken by flight crew in this endeavor and to observe any radar signature as well as to meet with the flight crew.
00:14:07.500 We were not afforded access to all of the flight crew.
00:14:12.120 And initially, we were not afforded access to images and to radar.
00:14:17.120 Thereafter, we had a bit of a discussion about how authorities flow in the United States of America, and we did see the image.
00:14:27.120 And we did meet with one member of the flight crew who took the image.
00:14:30.920 The image was of something that I am not able to attach to any human capability, either from the United States or from any of our adversaries.
00:14:40.920 And I'm somewhat informed on the matter, having served on the Armed Services Committee for seven years, having served on the committee that oversees DARPA and advanced technologies for several years.
00:14:51.020 When we spoke with the flight crew, and when he showed us the photo that he had taken, I asked why the video wasn't engaged, why we didn't have a FLIR system that worked.
00:15:02.680 Here's what he said.
00:15:03.780 They were out on a test mission that day over the Gulf of Mexico.
00:15:08.080 And when you're on a test mission, you're supposed to have clear airspace, not supposed to be anything that shows up.
00:15:13.120 And they saw a sequence of four craft in a clear diamond formation for which there is a radar sequence that I and I alone have observed in the United States Congress.
00:15:28.680 One of the pilots goes to check out that diamond formation and sees a large floating, what I can only describe as an orb.
00:15:36.100 Again, like I said, not of any human capability that I'm aware of.
00:15:40.080 And when he approached, he said that his radar went down, he said that his FLIR system malfunctioned, and that he had to manually take this image from one of the lenses, and it was not automated in collection, as you would typically see in a test mission.
00:16:00.180 So I guess I'll start with Commander Fravor, how should we think about the fact that this craft that was approached by our pilot had the capability of disarming a number of the sensor and collection systems on that craft?
00:16:18.360 Well, I think this goes to that national security side, and you can go back through history of things showing up at certain areas and disabling our capabilities, which is disheartening.
00:16:28.760 And for us, I mean, like I said, it completely disabled the radar on the aircraft when it tried to do it, and the only way we could see it is passively, which is how he got that image.
00:16:35.960 So I think that's a concern on what are these doing, not only how do they operate, but their capabilities inside to do things like this.
00:16:43.420 And how should we think about four craft moving in a very clear formation, equidistant from one another, in a diamond?
00:16:54.060 And in all of the phenomenon, perhaps, Mr. Grave, that you've analyzed, have we ever seen multiple craft in a single formation?
00:17:02.980 I have one particular case, and that was during the Gimbel incident.
00:17:07.000 The recording on the AT FLIR system shows a single object that rotates.
00:17:12.100 You hear the pilots refer to a fleet of objects that is not visible on the FLIR system,
00:17:16.580 and that was something that I witnessed during the debrief as part of the radar data on the situational awareness page.
00:17:21.900 I would like to add, however, Congressman, there's a small bit of anger, I would say.
00:17:28.860 I would feel that those pilots are still facing that difficulty in reporting this topic,
00:17:32.840 and they don't have the tools to be able to mitigate this issue.
00:17:35.680 It just goes to show how serious this is and why this is such an important issue for our pilots and for our nation.
00:17:40.920 It was stated explicitly to me by these test pilots that if you have a UAP experience,
00:17:47.680 the best thing you can do for your career is forget it and not tell anyone,
00:17:52.420 because any type of reporting, either above the surface or below the surface,
00:17:57.460 does have a perceived consequence to these people, and that is a culture we must change if we want to get to the truth.
00:18:04.120 Mr. Chairman, I would observe that perhaps as we move forward from this hearing, there are some obvious next steps.
00:18:11.420 Every person watching this knows that we need to meet with Mr. Grush in a secure compartmentalized facility
00:18:18.320 so that we can get fulsome answers that do not put him in jeopardy and that give us the information we need.
00:18:25.320 Second, I would suggest that the radar images that were collected of this formation of craft out of Eglin Air Force Base,
00:18:33.880 and specifically the actual image taken by the actual flight crew that we can actually validate be provided to the committee,
00:18:42.720 subpoenaed if necessary, so that we're able to track how to get this type of reporting and analysis done in a more fulsome way.
00:18:49.860 That would be my recommendation humbly as a guest here of the Fine Oversight Committee.
00:18:54.300 I yield back.
00:18:57.160 We are back live now.
00:18:58.640 Those witnesses came forward at great risk to themselves.
00:19:02.200 They talked about some of the retaliation that they have experienced and the challenges that others experience
00:19:08.680 as they bring forward their experiences with UAP's Congressman Tim Burchett of Tennessee,
00:19:14.200 who we've had on the program to discuss these issues, asked questions about that particular subject area.
00:19:20.200 Take a listen.
00:19:22.920 Have you faced any retaliation or reprivals for any of your testimony or anything along these lines?
00:19:29.740 Yeah, I have to be careful what I say in detail because there is an open whistleblower reprisal investigation on my behalf,
00:19:37.800 and I don't want to compromise that investigation by providing anything that may help provide somebody information.
00:19:45.660 But it was very brutal and very unfortunate, some of the tactics they used to hurt me both professionally and personally, to be quite frank.
00:19:55.180 That's very unfortunate, as they say, when you're over the target, that's when they do the most firing at you.
00:20:01.220 Do you have any personal knowledge of people who have been harmed or injured in efforts to cover up or conceal these extraterrestrial technology?
00:20:08.500 Yes.
00:20:11.520 Personally.
00:20:12.760 Have anyone been murdered that you know of or have heard of, I guess?
00:20:18.060 I have to be careful asking that question.
00:20:19.960 I directed people with that knowledge to the appropriate authorities.
00:20:23.440 Maybe if we could get in a confidential area of SCIF, we could talk about that.
00:20:30.500 But unfortunately, we were denied access to the SCIF, and that's very unfortunate in this scenario.
00:20:38.420 That was Congressman Tim Burchett questioning Mr. Grush, who actually worked in the national security apparatus as a senior official where a lot of the information from these UAPs was filtering up to him.
00:20:53.480 So he was the guy seeing a lot of this stuff in his role with the national security apparatus, now testifying before Congress, bringing information forward, hopefully on a rolling basis, so that we can continue to analyze the risk that UAPs pose.
00:21:10.320 One feature of that risk is the extent to which you find any biological remains.
00:21:15.000 And there were questions from South Carolina Congresswoman Nancy Mace about remains.
00:21:21.180 Were they found?
00:21:22.140 Were they human?
00:21:23.100 Take a listen.
00:21:25.780 If you believe we have crashed craft, stated earlier, do we have the bodies of the pilots who piloted this craft?
00:21:33.600 As I've stated publicly already in my News Nation interview, biologics came with some of these recoveries.
00:21:41.540 Were they, I guess, human or non-human biologics?
00:21:45.000 Non-human, and that was the assessment of people with direct knowledge on the program I talked to that are currently still on the program.
00:21:51.680 And was this documentary evidence, this video, photos, eyewitness?
00:21:56.380 Like, how would that be determined?
00:21:58.880 The specific documentation I would have to talk to you in a skiff about.
00:22:02.720 Gotcha.
00:22:05.940 Kudos to Congresswoman Mace.
00:22:07.560 That certainly was an earth-shattering admission to get from the witness that our government has access to non-human biologics discovered as part of the review of these craft.
00:22:20.400 Now, again, this is the statement of a witness, a witness who was in a high position, who would have seen a lot of the information filtered,
00:22:27.280 but now delving into these specific special access programs and other activities that exist in a number of our research apparatuses.
00:22:38.060 We're going to need to do that work, certainly as a consequence of that admission.
00:22:42.560 There was another line of questioning that showed how bipartisan this hearing was.
00:22:46.420 Congressman Jared Moskowitz of the state of Florida had questions about the recovery of craft, specifically.
00:22:52.840 Take a listen.
00:22:53.240 Gentlemen, let's talk about the laws of physics for a second.
00:23:00.840 Mr. Graves and Commander Faber, I heard you talk about speed.
00:23:04.960 When those objects broke the sound barrier, did they make a sonic boom?
00:23:11.880 I was in a jet.
00:23:12.840 You can't hear anything.
00:23:14.200 It's kind of loud in there.
00:23:16.040 Yeah, you're not able to actually personally tell within the vehicle.
00:23:19.260 I will say the objects that we were seeing, they were spherical, and they were observed up to Mach 2, which is a very non-aerodynamic shape.
00:23:27.000 What about G-forces?
00:23:27.980 Let's talk about G-forces of those vehicles.
00:23:29.980 Could a human survive those G-forces with known technology today?
00:23:34.180 No.
00:23:34.760 No, not for the acceleration rates that we observed.
00:23:37.020 Okay.
00:23:37.940 What about what they looked like?
00:23:39.740 How close did you get?
00:23:40.580 Did you see a seam or a rivet or a section?
00:23:44.640 And what I mean is, obviously, the jets you're flying have all those things.
00:23:48.340 Did these objects have those?
00:23:50.840 Do you want to go around?
00:23:51.700 I didn't have the detail to be able to tell that.
00:23:54.440 So we got within a half mile of the Tic Tac, which people say that's pretty far, but in airplanes, that's actually relatively close.
00:24:00.120 No, it was perfectly white, smooth, no windows, although when we did take the original FLIR video that is out there, when you put it on a big screen, it actually had two little objects that came out of the bottom of it.
00:24:11.860 But other than that, no windows, no seams, no nothing.
00:24:17.480 We are back live.
00:24:18.820 This effort is bipartisan.
00:24:20.440 We are going to be thorough, and there is a lot more coming on the UAP phenomenon and what the Congress can do to get the truth before the American people.
00:24:28.760 I'm glad it was bipartisan.
00:24:30.500 I'm particularly proud of Congressman Tim Burchett for raising the issue, and if you watched the episode we had with Congressman Burchett on Firebrand, you got a pre-briefing on these issues that were addressed.
00:24:42.160 I said we would get back to one of these lies from Mayorkas, and it just irks me when these witnesses say things that are verifiably untrue.
00:24:51.240 So we're going to end this.
00:24:53.480 We're going to close the show with it.
00:24:54.940 Thanks so much for joining us.
00:24:56.060 Make sure you're subscribed and enjoy this specific lie contradicted Alejandro Mayorkas.
00:25:04.740 And then the other epic failure of this that's empowered the cartels is that in these processing centers you've set up in other countries to just wave them all in at a rapid pace,
00:25:15.100 you've had to shut them down in Nuevo Laredo because the cartels were standing outside extorting people.
00:25:20.740 Isn't that right?
00:25:21.720 Congressman, that is false.
00:25:22.740 Asylum seekers crossing from a dangerous Mexican border city say corrupt officials are extorting them for money.
00:25:30.260 Now the U.S. has stopped taking asylum appointments at the port of entry in Laredo, Texas.
00:25:35.380 Customs and Border Protection is citing a security situation for the change at Laredo without going into further detail.
00:25:43.420 But it comes as some migrants waiting in Mexico are claiming that Mexican authorities are forcing them to pay bribes in order to keep their CBP appointments.
00:25:54.160 From Reuters, U.S. suspends asylum appointments in Texas border city after extortion reports.
00:25:59.680 From U.S. News and World Report, U.S. halts online asylum appointments at Texas crossing after extortion warnings.
00:26:06.160 And the Associated Press, U.S. halts appointments using migrant phone app at Texas border crossing seems to be in direct contradiction to the secretary's testimony.
00:26:13.620 I seek unanimous consent to enter it.
00:26:14.840 I got one final question for you, and it's an important one.
00:26:17.380 Is Mexico an ally in this fight against illegal immigration?
00:26:21.520 Yes, it is.
00:26:22.400 I got one final question for you, and it's an important one.