The Battleground State Report, airing Fridays at 8 am CST with Steve Gill, Michael Patrick Leahy, and Doug Kellett – is a one-hour radio show from Star News Digital Media in the early stages of a national weekend syndication rollout. With Gill out of studio, Leahy and Kellett talked about the state of illegal immigration and how the current southern border situation is a crisis.
Towards the conclusion of the show, the duo talked about Paul Ryan’s failure to support President Trumps agenda and how that effected the progress on funding the border wall.
Leahy: We do have a crisis at the southern border. I mean the number of illegals coming in is growing and growing. Focusing on that allows you to contrast yourself from all of the disconnected from reality democrats saying, “No crisis at the border.” So who you going to believe? The Democrats or you’re lying eyes?
Kellett: Yeah and this week at the no collusion rally in Michigan, the President said that if Mexico doesn’t pay for this thing he’s going to close the border down.
Leahy: See, I think that’s actually probably a good move.
Kellett: I was going to say, do we take him at his word on this? Or is he just a…
Leahy: Well.
Kellett: Shouting from the rooftops. How do you shut the border down exactly.
Leahy: Well yeah, you just don’t let anybody in. (Kellett laughs) You don’t‘ let any trucks in and it becomes a big mess. But, let’s look at this so the reports are the illegals are up and all of the associated problems. The number of illegal aliens crossing into the United States at the southern border is up significantly during this year. It’s a crisis.
And but the President is going forward I think with some policies that are, you know very good in trying to stop that and the Democrats are being portrayed accurately as the people who don’t see the reality or don’t care about the reality because apparently they want those illegal aliens to vote Democrat! Right?
Now, the President however has been taking action steps. Just this past week, the Pentagon, we talked about this before Doug, the Pentagon announced that yep, we’re going to reallocate one billion dollars. That’s with a B. One billion dollars from other authorized and appropriated congressional expenditures properly authorized and appropriated.
Those expenditures now that may have come from military barracks or other military equipment because we can under the law and as the congressional research service pointed out in January of two thousand nineteen report, we’re moving it over to build the wall. And that’s happening. And that billion dollars now is being deployed not through the national emergency element, but it’s being deployed to build fifty seven new miles of wall and apparently it’s going to be eighteen feet high. That’s a pretty good wall.
Kellett: Yeah and for those who’ve been complaining that the Pentagon budgets being utilized in this fashion, that’s just one, when you look at F-35 fighter it costs just over one billion dollars. That’s just one less fighter. I mean so it’s not significant in the role of the Pentagon defending the country in other places. So they’re defending the country along the border.
It’s a proper use of Pentagon funds. It makes you wonder, and I think I’ve asked you this on the local show, why is, what was the big fuss then? Why go the emergency way if we could of done this all along? Why didn’t we go ahead and do it?
Leahy: Yeah, you’re being logical.
Kellett: I know, (Leahy laughs) I just thought I throw that in every once and awhile. Along with my ill logic the rest of the time. But I mean why not? Why did we have this big fight?
Leahy: Well, yeah, that’s a really good question. I suppose you’d have to look at the President’s agenda and he was trying to work with the Republican House the first term. And they were trying to do everything under the “leadership” of famous fetal position Republican Paul Ryan. You know the one who’s now on the board of Fox News.
Kellett: Had to take a little shot at Paul Ryan right there.
Leahy: Can’t resist it! Cannot resist it!
Kellett: Have to have some gratuitous shots. You know I used to take them at Obama. So now we have to take them at Paul Ryan.
Leahy: Well he deserves them right?
Kellett: What is he doing on the board of directors at Fox anyway? I haven’t figured that out yet.
Leahy: Turning them further to the left I think. Right?
(Laughter)
Kellett: You get paid for this? I guess so.
Leahy: Yeah, you know, look, if the entire Republican party were on the same team and supporting the Trump agenda you’re absolutely right. They would have jammed through on that first semester, first session of Congress when they controlled the House and the Senate. They would have jammed through building a border wall.
Listen to the full show here:
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Tune in every Friday morning and listen to The Battleground State Report with Steve Gill, Michael Patrick Leahy, and Doug Kellett.
