NBC "Meet the Press" - Transcript: Interview with Rep. John Barrasso

Statement

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CHUCK TODD:

Welcome back. There are some images that become indelibly linked to an event or a moment. This week, that heartbreaking photo of a father and his 23-month-old daughter who drowned trying to cross the Rio Grande became a symbol of the crisis at the border. This week, Congress passed a 4.6 billion dollar humanitarian aid package for the border. It was a victory of sorts for Senate Republicans and a defeat for progressive Democrats who felt the bill didn't do enough to protect children housed at migrant centers. Joining me now is the number-3 Republican in Senate leadership, John Barrasso of Wyoming. Senator Barrasso, welcome back to Meet the Press.

SEN. JOHN BARRASSO:

Thanks for having me, Chuck.

CHUCK TODD:

That photo.

SEN. JOHN BARRASSO:

Yes. Sad. It was tragic.

CHUCK TODD:

Who's -- is there anybody, is there anybody to blame for this death? I mean what, how do we prevent this, this, okay? I mean, why didn't we prevent this?

SEN. JOHN BARRASSO:

I mean, I'm a father. I'm a doctor. You never want to see this. And we see this, I think it's very important that that was published. The thing is that there are many more dying just trying to get to the United States taking that long and very dangerous --

CHUCK TODD:

The president blamed Democrats for that. Was that fair?

SEN. JOHN BARRASSO:

I don't blame anyone for this. We have a system, though, that is incentivizing people to take a very long, dangerous trip, where people are getting trafficked, raped, murdered, used for trafficking drugs. We need to stop the incentives that tell people, "If you get here, we're going to keep you here and give you more things." We need to do things -- and look, there's bipartisan legislation in progress, with Lindsey Graham and Dick Durbin, to try to say, "Let's have people who want to come here for asylum apply from where they are. Let's make sure that children can stay with families a longer period of time, so we can adjudicate some of these things." There's actually bipartisan progress being made. But we had to take eight weeks to get a bipartisan, humanitarian-relief bill passed. Because some people are saying it's a manufactured crisis. This is a real humanitarian crisis.

CHUCK TODD:

But are you now, are you now convinced that you can't enforce your way out of this crisis? Because right now, it does seem as if the Trump administration just thinks, if they just tighten the screws, if they just do -- if they just make it harder, it'll slow the flow. It hasn't slowed the flow. It's only increased it. They thought family separation was going to work. That didn't work. Do they now -- do you now know that just enforcement only isn't going to stop this?

SEN. JOHN BARRASSO:

Well, there are a couple parts. Yes, you have to enforce the law. You cannot just ignore the law. But you have to eliminate some of these incentives that are pulling people to take unnecessary, very dangerous risks with their lives.

CHUCK TODD:

So why get rid of the aid in Central America? That was a, talk about an incentive, a disincentive. If you take away all that aid, these countries can't do anything about their horrible conditions there.

SEN. JOHN BARRASSO:

If you take a look at some of those countries, even if you were to increase the aid, there's no belief that I have that it would actually get fully used. There's corruption there. You need to do a better job with disincentivizing people to come to the United States by allowing them to apply for asylum elsewhere, by trying to treat, specifically, the young children who are coming here unaccompanied. No matter what country they come from, they ought to be treated the same. We ought to be treating them the same way as we are with the people coming from Mexico.

CHUCK TODD:

Now, the House Democrats passed a bill, their version of a bill. They had, basically, stricter standards on how the money was to be used. The Senate rejected those new, stricter standards. Why? Why do you trust this administration to use the money as it's intended to do, when you've appropriated money, and he has said, "Forget it. National emergency. I don't care what you're telling me"? Why shouldn't you want more parameters on how this money is spent?

SEN. JOHN BARRASSO:

Well, the Senate passed a bill 84 to eight. You talk about bipartisan legislation, I mean, in your long history, how often do you see something pass the Senate 84 to eight? That was the $4.6 million, primarily humanitarian aid, also, to give folks at the border more resources. It was the right bill. And to have that held up by the far-left Democrats in the House, who tried to boycott it, I think is wrong.

CHUCK TODD:

But they held it up for reasons of -- they feel as if, look at what's going on in Homestead. Number one, why are we giving money to a private contractor to run something that we don't -- we are not able to, because it's a temporary facility, it doesn't fall under the same regulatory standards as government facility would run into. And it's turned out, that's a big problem, not a small one.

SEN. JOHN BARRASSO:

84 to eight in the United States Senate shows significant bipartisan agreement with this being the solution for the humanitarian relief that we need.

CHUCK TODD:

You're comfortable letting this private -- letting this private prison -- these private prison companies run these private shelters?

SEN. JOHN BARRASSO:

I'd rather have government and government funding approaching all of these things. Making those -- we have to cut down the incentives. But the problem, as you know, is getting worse. There have been more detentions, and it's still June, this year alone than all of last year, all 12 months. The numbers are getting worse. The red lights are flashing. We have to do more to prevent people from taking these dangerous journeys to the United States with the promise of free healthcare, if they get here. If you get here, you get to stay, because you never have to show up for a hearing, and you get to stay in the United States and you will not be removed. I think the incentives are asking people to take dangerous journeys, which result in such a sad and tragic loss of life.

CHUCK TODD:

I want to go back to the situation in Homestead. This company's profiting off of this crisis. Should any entity be profiting off this crisis?

SEN. JOHN BARRASSO:

No. And you know more about the situation in Homestead than I do. But no, people shouldn't be profiting off this, period.

CHUCK TODD:

So why allow this, why allow this facility to even stay open at this point? If they haven't been able to -- if they are treating kids this poorly, not giving them soap, why are they going to get more government aid to run this facility?

SEN. JOHN BARRASSO:

This talks about the need for actually getting this bill passed. It took us eight weeks to get to a point where we could get an agreement that this is truly a humanitarian crisis, not just a manufactured crisis. So it's taking a long time to get that buy-in. We need bipartisan solutions. I've been working with Ron Johnson on a solution to Homeland Security. There's bipartisan efforts. We need actual solutions that will work, that will provide relief, but will also make sure that the incentives are removed of people trying to come here under these circumstances.

CHUCK TODD:

All right, I want to talk about the president's trip overseas. There's a bit of a ceasefire, if you will, in the trade talks between China and the United States. But part of that ceasefire was the president now agreeing to let Huawei, the telecommunications company in China, to buy materials from U.S. companies. And here's what Marco Rubio put on Twitter. "If President Trump has agreed to reverse recent sanctions against Huawei, he has made a catastrophic mistake. It will destroy the credibility of his administration's warnings about the threat posed by the company. No one will ever again take them seriously." He presented it as if he was hoping it wasn't true. It turns out, this is true. How concerned are you about this?

SEN. JOHN BARRASSO:

Oh, I'm very concerned about Huawei. I think they are a threat to our national security.

CHUCK TODD:

So the president made a mistake?

SEN. JOHN BARRASSO:

I think Huawei is a threat to the national security of America. I know the president is a dealmaker. He is working on this. I would not allow Huawei, certainly, into our country. He's making decisions about what our country and companies can sell overseas, to Huawei. I have -- to me, Huawei in the United States would be like a Trojan horse ready to steal more information from us.

CHUCK TODD:

So I assume, then, you don't even want this, then, right? What the president did, you believe, is a mistake.

SEN. JOHN BARRASSO:

I believe the ceasefire with trade with China was important. We need more trade. We have product in Wyoming we want to sell overseas, in terms of energy, in terms of Trona, in terms of beef. So we will open up to those customers. To me --

CHUCK TODD:

But that Trojan horse, what you just called a Trojan horse, is now back. Is that worth it?

SEN. JOHN BARRASSO:

The president said that would be the last discussion point of the discussion on trade. Let them work through the other parts of this. But to me, Huawei should not be in the United States.

CHUCK TODD:

So doesn't it concern you that the president is not ruling it out?

SEN. JOHN BARRASSO:

It does concern me, yes.

CHUCK TODD:

All right, Senator John Barrasso, number-three Republican in the Senate, thanks for coming on and sharing your views.

SEN. JOHN BARRASSO:

Thanks for having me.

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