House Republican Whip Steve Scalise (R-La.) joined Republican Conference Chair Elise Stefanik (R-N.Y.), Republican Leader of the House Foreign Affairs Committee Michael McCaul (R-Texas), Republican Leader of the House Budget Committee Jason Smith (R-Mo.), and Congresswoman Ashley Hinson (R-Iowa) at today’s leadership press stakeout to urge President Biden to take accountability for the crises that his far-left policies have created. Whip Scalise blasted Vice President Kamala Harris for continuing to refuse to visit the southern border.   Whip Scalise also called out President Biden for his out-of-control spending which has led to an unprecedented increase in inflation, failing to reverse his disastrous energy policies that have caused gas prices to skyrocket, canceling the Keystone pipeline which eliminated American jobs but allowing Russia to have its Nord Stream 2 pipeline, and refusing to stand up to anti-Semites within the Democrat Party. Additionally, Whip Scalise highlighted Speaker Pelosi’s failure to investigate the Chinese Communist Party and its role in covering up the origins of COVID-19.  

Click here or on the image above to view his remarks.

 

On President Biden’s self-made border crisis:

  “Look, this border crisis is, unfortunately, one of many crises that we’re seeing from this Biden Administration that they refuse to confront. And the border crisis is a clear example of a catastrophe that was created by President Biden’s own actions that can only be fixed by President Biden, and he can fix it today.”    On Vice President Harris’ refusal to visit the southern border:   “The fact that Vice President Harris refuses to do her job and go to the border shows you that they know how bad it is, and she doesn’t want to see it so that she can try to deny it exists, but it’s real. When she was asked just the other day by Lester Holt after she tried to insinuate that she’s been to the border, which is not accurate, he challenged her on it. He said, ‘No, you haven’t been to the border.’ And then she just gives this bizarre laugh and says, ‘Well, I haven’t been to Europe, either.’ I don’t know if Vice President Harris understands the crisis is not in Europe, it’s at America’s southern border, and she and President Biden created it. They could fix it today if they just reinstated those policies that were working.”   On the Biden Administration reversing President Trump’s successful immigration and border security policies:   “[The ‘Remain in Mexico’ policy] was an agreement President Trump had actually negotiated with the President of Mexico, and it was controlling our southern border. The wall, the barrier — if President Biden doesn’t like President Trump, he can call it something different — but it was working. The agreement[s] with the Northern Triangle countries were working, and he reversed all of those things to devastating consequences.   "If you wonder how bad it is, just look at what happened over the weekend. McAllen, Texas, elected a Republican mayor. This is a heavy Democrat city right on the frontlines. I know when I went a few weeks ago and brought 10 members of the Whip team with me to the southern border at the Rio Grande [River], we were in McAllen, Texas, and it’s probably the worst example of where President Biden’s policies have failed people on the ground. But look at what they did. They just elected a Republican mayor who promised to get tougher on the border. This isn’t just a Republican issue. There are Democrats as well that demand that we get control over our southern border. President Biden will not confront this issue, and Vice President Harris is nowhere to be found. She needs to do her job and get down to the southern border. And then, more than that, she also needs to work with President Biden to correct the problems that they created. Unfortunately, they’ve created a lot of other problems.”   On an unprecedented increase in inflation due to President Biden’s socialist policies:    “Just today, the Consumer Production Index came out this morning, and we saw a 6.6 percent increase. That's the largest increase ever. Families all across America are seeing inflation. Unfortunately, it's here, it’s real, and it’s getting worse. If you’re a family today, you’re paying about 45 percent more at the pump for gas than you were a year ago. Futures for oil today just hit around $100 a barrel. OPEC is now relevant on the world market again as a cartel because President Biden shut down American [oil] production.”   On President Biden prioritizing Russian jobs over American jobs:   “[Conference Chair Stefanik] talked about it, [Republican Leader] McCaul talked about it, but think about this: on day one, President Biden killed the Keystone pipeline, crushing thousands of American jobs and undermining our relationship with Canada. This is Canadian oil that was going to be coming down to America, creating American jobs to refine that oil in America and President Biden said ‘no’ to that, but then literally days after Russians hacked our pipeline in the northeast, President Biden gives a financial gift to Putin by allowing and green lighting the Nord Stream pipeline between Germany and Russia.   “So, it is just perplexing to see that President Biden said ‘no’ to American energy jobs and American pipelines, but ‘yes’ to Russian jobs, Russian pipelines, and Russian dominance over our allies. This is [a] real, dangerous policy that is happening right now before our very eyes that President Biden has created. It’s why families are paying more at the pump. His policies are why, today if you buy a new home, you’re paying over $30,000 more for that home than you were a year ago. President Biden needs to be working with Congress to fix these problems. You don’t see a bill on the floor this week or next week's schedule to address any of these crises that we talked about.”   On President Biden failing to confront anti-Semites within House Democrats:    “Why won’t President Biden stand up to the anti-Semites in his own party? You’re seeing this big fight within the Democrat Party right now between the anti-Semites and whether they’re going to stand up and confront this problem. It’s a real problem. It’s yet another crisis that they refuse to confront. But we’re going to continue to call them out, and we’re going to continue to call for actual oversight.”   On House Democrats’ refusal to address the origins of COVID-19:  “Think about this: just a few weeks ago, we saw this data dump of emails and we’ve been calling for over a year for an investigation into the origins of the Coronavirus. Many of us, in fact, if you look at headlines from a year ago, were saying it was a conspiracy theory to suggest that COVID-19 might have started in the Wuhan Lab. And many of us were suggesting that we should investigate it because we were getting reports that it may have started in that lab. We didn’t know definitively because we couldn’t get anyone to talk about it.    “Did you know that to this day, Speaker Pelosi still refuses to have a hearing into the origin of COVID? We had a moment of silence yesterday for the 600,000 American lives lost. And yet, Speaker Pelosi, with her majority and multiple committees of jurisdiction that are standing today that could do this, [has] yet to have a single hearing on the origin of a virus that killed over 600,000 Americans. Why is Speaker Pelosi covering for the Communist Chinese Party? We’re calling on Speaker Pelosi to have hearings now on the origins of COVID. Let’s look at what we know from the emails. Let’s look at what our scientists may have found out talking to Chinese scientists in the Wuhan lab before evidence might be destroyed if China hasn’t already destroyed evidence. We ought to be getting answers to these questions, but for whatever reason, they continue to cover for China’s failures. And so, we’re going to continue pressing for answers [to] these tough questions.”