WASHINGTON, DC—U.S. Representative John Rose (TN-06) spoke on the House Floor Tuesday to criticize President Biden’s recent State of the Union Address and his administration’s border policies.
The full remarks, as prepared for delivery, are below:
Madam Speaker, last week, the President gave a campaign kickoff speech on the House Floor masquerading as a State of the Union Address.
Over the weekend, the mainstream media praised the President’s speech, although it failed to address the skyrocketing crime impacting our cities, our overrun southern border making every town in Tennessee a border town, and rapidly rising energy and grocery costs. The only thing the President did do following his speech was apologize to an accused murderer.
It’s a shame that the President of the United States took the time out of his day to say that he regretted calling an illegal immigrant and accused murderer “an illegal.” The president continues to embarrass not only himself—but our entire nation when he cowers to the extremely far-left base of his party in an attempt not to offend an illegal immigrant who allegedly murdered a U.S. citizen.
Instead of this embarrassing, groveling, and apologetic display of regret, the president should have taken the time over this weekend to call the family of Laken Riley— the murdered victim whose name he mispronounced during his campaign speech on the House Floor. I’m sure there were many others he could have called and apologized to for his open-border policies that have allowed massive amounts of fentanyl into our country, leading to the death of thousands of innocent souls.
Unfortunately, an apology won’t bring those lives back. Even when presented with a solution to the President’s self-created and self-inflicted border crisis, he has denied it. House Republicans like myself passed H.R. 2, the Secure the Border Act, which would enact the strongest border security measures our country has ever seen. This was in direct response to the border crisis caused by the President’s disastrous decision to end the ‘Remain in Mexico’ policy, end Title 42, end border wall construction, and abuse parole authority.
Madam Speaker, we can only hope that the president’s State of the Union Address was the last of his tenure as President of the United States. Because the Tennesseans I represent cannot afford another four years of the catastrophes caused by this president and his administration. They’d much rather have a secure border, strong national security, and a lower cost of living so that they can enjoy their lives as God intended them to do.
It’s because of this and many other examples that are far too many to mention in just one five-minute speech that we must denounce these policies, Madam Speaker.
That’s why I urge Members—on both sides of the aisle—to join me in voting for House Resolution 1065, introduced by the Gentlelady from Texas, Ms. De La Cruz, who delivered a phenomenal rebuttal in Spanish to the president’s speech that denounced the Biden Administration’s feckless immigration policies.
You can watch the speech here.
This is a companion discussion topic for the original entry at https://johnrose.house.gov/media/press-releases/rep-rose-slams-president-bidens-sotu-address-ongoing-border-crisis