FM Talk 1065 Podcasts
U.S. Rep. Robert Aderholt - Jeff Poor Show - Thursday 9-19-24
(upbeat music) - Look back to the Jump4 Show. What I could talk about when I was 65, they just stayin' with us on this Thursday morning - Text line, 2513430106. So what is this now on the line? Always a pleasure. Congressman Robert Aderhold, Alba's fourth congressional district is on the line. Congressman, good morning, are you? - Hey, good morning. Good to be with you, Jeff. - Hey, thanks for coming. I always appreciate you makin' the time. Well, let's start here, you know, yesterday, you know, past the bill, the spending bill yesterday. - Kinda walk us through that and you played a big role in that, but what should we know? - Well, we brought it to the floor. The CR didn't pass, but obviously we're going back to the drawing board today, but basically the CR that we voted on yesterday, it failed, would do two things. It would just continually keep the government funded at the current levels. So we won't have a government shutdown at the end of the month 'cause we automatically start a new fiscal year on October 1st. And then second of all, it would put the SAVE Act on the bill as well, which I know many of your listeners are probably familiar with the SAVE Act. It's because President Trump has talked about it quite a bit and House Republicans have talked about it quite a bit, and that would basically say that you have so proof of citizenship when you register to vote. And of course, that's very simple and straightforward. And obviously we think that probably people think that's already the law, but there's a lot of people who try to register to vote that are not citizens. And then sometimes they get on the rolls and actually do vote. This would keep people from actually registering. So it's very simple. I think polling shows that 80% of Americans support it, but unfortunately we have a lot of our friends on the other side of the aisle that do not support it. And for various reasons that I'm not sure, but nonetheless they don't. And so we had enough Republicans to vote against the CR because they did not want to vote to with continuation of the funding. So for at least for a six month period. So therefore we were, became up short. And so we have to go back to the drawing board today to get up a solution to try to make sure that the government doesn't shut down on October 1st, which will be the first day of the youth fiscal year. - Well, I mean, other than the SAVE Act, what are the hagups you think if it would keep that from happening? - Well, it's hard for me to understand because I am a supporter of the CR because I'm just looking at realistically. And while I don't agree with the CR, it's just a continuation of funding. We're in a situation where we cannot between now and we're October 1st is less than two weeks. So we're coming down to a very short fuse. And I don't think it would be good for the Republicans for us to shut down the government. I just don't think that it sounds a good message. Plus, we're at a very crucial time in this country, especially in this rally around the world with what's going on in Israel, our military, because we have to fund our military, our soldiers, and we can't just go without a military and just shut government down and not have a US military. So it would be very scary if we shut down the government. I think we're very vulnerable at this time and to, it would look like we're in chaos and I'm afraid what would happen around the world and let alone to the economy. So we need to find a way to at least do a bridge, to fund the government for the next several months. The reality is that when we come back after the election, it's going to be mid November, you got Thanksgiving, you got Christmas, so I don't see that we can finalize anything before the first year and this would afford us time to do it after the first year, but more than anything else would put the playback on the bill. And I can't imagine anybody that wouldn't support the playback to make sure that only citizens vote. And I'm sure there's some Republicans that can argue otherwise, but I can't follow the argument. - Well, why do you, once you get this, I mean, out of the house, I mean, or is this even something you would even consider? I mean, what would the Senate looks at it? Do the prospects look good? I mean, this could be a bumping process, right? - Yeah, no, it would be very difficult to get through the Senate. I understand that, but we have to start somewhere. And if we're not willing here in the house to stand up for these issues, then we've, you know, we've failed to do our job. And we can't always just say, well, what would the Senate do? Or what would the Senate not do? We've got to move on what's doing, what's right, and what is the, what we feel is best. And, you know, who knows what happens in the Senate. They have, you know, some crazy rules over there. So, you know, they've got a lot of vulnerable Democrats. So I wouldn't be surprised, you've got to have a lot of Democrats who would say, I can't go home and tell people that I'm allowing people that are to stop a bill that would keep non-citizens from voting. And that would keep them, you know, if I don't support this bill, then, you know, my constituents are going to say, what are you doing? So, you know, you never know what the Senate's going to do. We just have to do what we know is the right thing to do. And I think passing this slave act, President Trump has been 100% behind it. He has wanted that to pass yesterday. And I don't understand why some of my Republican colleagues didn't understand that. - Another question I have for you, kind of a lecture related. Not necessarily top of the ticket, Congressman, but how does, how are you feeling about the House? So people seem to think the Senate map lines up favorably. And we know what's going on at the very, very top of the ticket with Donald Trump and Kamala Harris. But the House seems kind of, it's a little hazy, try to figure out what that looks like for November. - Yeah, well, it come out, you're right. The Senate looks very good because you got the mansion as retiring. So the West Virginia seat of the little Republican, that's 50-50. And then Chester in Montana, Senator Chester, Democrat is down in the polls. And so the Republican is very likely to receive, to be elected. So it should be a Republican. So let's put some at 51, that's the majority right there. The House, I feel pretty good about it because we're four seats in the majority. And of course, as you know, that's not a lot, but it won't have a special out of 435. But you gotta remember that most House seats by this time of the year, a lot of them are decided in the Republican and Democrat primary. So they're already decided how they're going. There's only about 15 seats that are really what I would say are up in the air. And so those 15 seats will determine for the Democrats to take control, they'd almost have to win every, every toss-up race, a House race that is really controversial or it's really sort of, you know, right there, so too close to call. So we already have four, also North Carolina, just went through a redistricting process. And there's two Republican seats that we should pick up automatically because of redistricting, so that would, but it's at six. So while we're not gonna have a tremendous majority, I do think the Republicans will have a slim majority in this new Congress. - How do you feel about the presidential race? - I think it's up in the air. I think that, you know, anybody to tell you that either that Trump is gonna win or the Harris is gonna win, it's that I think that they're just not looking at reality because I think that there's gonna be seven states that are too close to call and it's gonna come down to those seven states. And right now they're neck and neck in those states and how the electoral college comes out will be what happened. So if you see a national poll that says Trump's up, there are Harris is up, you know, it doesn't matter how many votes it because really the electoral college is what controls it. And it's gonna boil down to those of about seven states and how they go is how the president will go. - Joined by Congressman Robert Adderhold. Here on the program, Congressman, I guess you're well aware of this, the big story, I guess kind of tied into what's going on in the national political cycle. This relocation, Haitian relocation situation and there's several places out there that I know, at least what in your district at Alberville, but there's probably others. What do you make of it? What's going on here? What have you been able to find out? - Yeah, well, it's just another example of what we're seeing with this open border policy with this administration and that's why we have got to get a handle on our border. And we're seeing, and I don't know if some of these may be legal, some of them are might be illegal, but it's not just the Haitians, but it's the Hispanic population up in that area, but you're right, the Haitian has been poured into that area. And this bottom line is we have to get a handle on the way that we deal with our border. And we want people here to come legally, but we have so many people now to come in illegally. And quite honestly, the school systems up there, the just generally the services can't handle all of the influx of the people that are coming into that area. The schools are just overwhelmed. And especially, anytime you get a lot of more students than you can handle, but when you have students that can't speak English, or they come from a Haitian background or from a Hispanic background, you have to have a lot more resources. And it's really strain into school systems. I've met with the school systems up that area. I met with elected officials just recently, and the legislative delegation, the mayors in that area. And it's a real problem. - Well, and this is why, I guess there has to be some kind of federal assistance here. I don't know, the state would kick in anything, but will you bring in this sort of foreign culture that doesn't speak to language locally and any of that? I mean, is that even in the cards, do you think? - Well, this administration obviously is, I think based on what they're doing right now, that they have got to do something to try to help with these local school systems because they're being overwhelmed. I mean, obviously the real solution of the problem is to go back and to try to close our borders and make sure that people are coming in here legally. And if you come in here legally, then there will be this outpouring or outpouring however you won't look at it. And that's really just overwhelming the system. But it is a real problem for my area, or at least some parts of the area that I represent, and I know it is for a lot of other parts of the country. - I mean, yeah, so Trump gets elected, let's just operate all that assumption for a moment. And he ends this CHNV program and kind of shuts it down, but then why? I mean, do they automatically go back or at least for the time being, do you think that these communities are kind of saddled with dealing with this situation? - Well, I think that Trump might declare that he wants to try to make sure that people that are not here will, I think that's the top priority for him. So I think you will see some of that, or that if somebody is here illegally. So not only does he want to not, he won't, not only wants to close the borders, but he wants to make sure if someone is not here, then you know, or going back, I think he had a rally in New York last night. And no, I did not get to hear all of it, but I hear our parts of his speech and he addressed this, you know, head-on. - One more question here, kind of dealing with this assassination attempt. What's going on with the Secret Service? I mean, do you-- - Well, what do you always think of it? Just give me your thoughts on that. - Well, I think there's some real, real questions about what's going on there. This all started, and I think when we took the, and I said it all started, I think really if you go back for enough, we tooled, I'd not say we, Congress at the time, thought it was the best thing to do, was to take the Secret Service out of the Department of Treasury, where they had been nestled for, I think, maybe from the beginning, and put them in a new department called Homeland Security. This all happened after 9/11, in 2001. But unfortunately, it's not worthwhile, and they have just dropped the ball, and this has just been another example of, of course, obviously, what happened in Pennsylvania was horrific. And then what we see now that would happen last week, even though that there was, the President wasn't, got close, I mean, a bullet didn't get close to him on that occasion. It was still a situation where if things had been different, the Secret Service had not just by chance of seeing that the individual that was out there, of what line and weight, then, you know, we could have a complete, would be completely, we would be having a completely different conversation this morning, as we've talked now. So, I think for some real problems, I don't know if it's resources, I don't know if it's, they're not allocating that. But I think that Trump needs to have the same protection that the President does. And I didn't really realize that he was not getting that protection that the President does, but the President gets, but he is a former President, he is running for all election, and so are running for, to be elected again. And so, he should be given the same security as the, as the sitting President. - Well, at minimum, right, it ought to be based on the threat, or some kind of threat assessment. - Yeah, well, maybe you could make an argumentation, change more than the President. - I mean, but the threat assessment, and you would think, well, let's adjust accordingly. I mean, obviously, you probably don't need the protection, Jimmy Carter probably doesn't need the protection that Trump has, but Trump's running, and, you know, just a different situation, right? - Like Congressman, I know you got to get to it up there, but thanks for making time for us, and let's talk again soon. - Well, thanks Jeff, it's always good to be with you, and look forward to touching base with you next time. Thanks so much. - All right, Congressman Robert Adderhold there. We got to get a break here, we'll be right back. 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