Sessions Makes Leadership Pitch: If We Don't Secure Border
'We're Going To Lose Our Country'
by Jonathan Strong 11 Jun 2014,
11:26 AM PDT
House Rules Committee
Chairman Pete Sessions (R-TX) is working to outflank GOP Whip
Kevin McCarthy on immigration in the early stages of a clash for Eric Cantor's
soon-to-be vacant Majority Leader slot, telling a group of reporters that
securing the border is a “huge focus” of his.
“I am going to focus on the
border. I am going to focus on fixing the border. We are going to make sure
that this administration gets closer, and closer, and closer to securing the
border. And we're going to have to take us there. And if we don't, we're going
to lose our country. We're going to lose who we are as a country,” Sessions
said.
Moments later, McCarthy exited the
House chamber and declined to comment on the issue, saying “people have to
announce before they talk.”
The early and aggressive moves by
Sessions underscore that immigration promises to be a volatile issue in
leadership contests after a political neophyte economist deposed Cantor by
attacking him on the issue in the primary race, prompting the current scramble
for power.
McCarthy has not formally
announced he is running but is widely expected to. There is also discussion
among Republicans that Boehner, Cantor or both could back his bid for the seat.
The House GOP conference is scheduled to meet at 4:00pm for a previously
unplanned session.
To a throng of reporters in a
hallway off the House floor, Sessions touted himself as a conservative.
“I think that I am a conservative,
I've always been a conservative, I'm a pro-business conservative, and I think
that they will see a focus about what I think we should accomplish and I would
expect to get an understanding – cleanly – about what this would mean,” he
said.
Sessions spent more time
discussing immigration than any other topic in his brief remarks.
“Any Texan can tell you this. We
are in trouble and our country is in trouble. Our country is in trouble because
of the corruption and the terrible things….[and the] lawlessness that are
happening. That is quickly becoming a huge issue that I will focus on,” he said.
Pete Sessions
Pete
Sessions is the chair for the House
Rules Committee, and his father is William
S. Sessions.
Note: William S.
Sessions is Pete Sessions’s
father, and was a trustee at the Committee
for Economic Development.
Foundation
to Promote Open Society was a funder for the Committee for Economic Development, and Amnesty International.
George Soros
was the chairman for the Foundation to Promote Open Society.
No comments:
Post a Comment