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Floor Speech
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Mr. DURBIN. Mr. President, I watched the debate last night. It was memorable. It was not a good evening for the former President of the United States. I have had more than one person tell me that the people who were watching laughed out loud when he started his rant about immigrants eating dogs and cats. It is an indication, I am afraid, that the former President Donald Trump, when it comes to the issue of immigration, is unhinged. You never know what he is going to say next.
But I think that Vice President Kamala Harris made it clear in her explanation that it was within the grasp and power of former President Donald Trump to do something about the border crisis and the immigration crisis and that he not only failed but he designed a strategy to sabotage efforts on a bipartisan basis to do something.
Specifically, I can recall--and you can as well--that we were told that there was a bipartisan effort underway to write a border bill. Senator Lankford, a conservative Republican from the State of Oklahoma, joined with Senator Chris Murphy of Connecticut, a Democrat, to put together, with months of effort, such a bill. We were told hands off. Step away. Let them do this. Let them put something on the floor that is meaningful and is bipartisan and has a chance of passing both the Senate and the House. We were underway, and such a piece of legislation was constructed.
But what happened at the last minute? At the last minute, Donald Trump, very publicly, stepped forward and said: I want to stop this bill from passing. I want the bipartisan bill not to pass, and you can blame it on me, he said. You can blame it on me. He stopped the bipartisan effort to pass a bill that would have been helpful to the border in reducing the number of people who have been coming across that border.
The Border Patrol Agency--men and women who risk their lives every day in service of this country on the border--endorsed this bipartisan bill. It was an indication that we finally--after 30 years of trying-- may be on the right track when it comes to immigration, at least when it comes to the border crisis. And who stopped it? Donald Trump stopped the immigration reform bill--the bipartisan effort--and publicly admitted it and took credit for it. You didn't hear that last night, did you? No, but there was a lot of complaining about the immigration issue and the border.
The simple reality is this: President Trump singlehandedly, personally, threatened those who were going to vote for such a bill. If I remember, only seven Republicans finally did. I wish more had. It wasn't a bill I would have written, but I was prepared to accept it as a final effort for a bipartisan compromise.
So I would say to those who watched the debate and wanted to have raised the issue of immigration, they still need an answer as to why Donald Trump stopped the only bipartisan effort in recent memory in the U.S. Senate. 23rd Anniversary of the September 11, 2001, Attacks
Mr. President, today marks the 23rd year since one of the darkest days in our country's history, the attacks of September 11, 2001.
I can vividly recall that day. I was in this building--just a few feet away--in a room for a morning meeting. We happened to notice on the television set that was playing in the room there that there was some news about a tower--tall building--in New York being struck by an airplane. We didn't know much more about it. Then the second plane went into an adjoining tower, and we knew that something was wrong, dreadfully wrong. Then we looked out on the Mall, down the Mall from the Capitol Building, and saw black billowing smoke coming from the Pentagon. That image is seared into my mind, and that day will forever be imprinted on our Nation's collective memory.
Twenty-three years after that devastating day, we still mourn the 2,977 innocent lives lost at the World Trade Center in New York, at the Pentagon in Virginia, and in a field near Shanksville, PA. That includes 343 heroic members of the New York City Fire Department, 71 law enforcement officers who died at the World Trade Center, and 55 military personnel who died at the Pentagon.
Last weekend, the ``60 Minutes'' television show rebroadcast the show on the fire department heroes from the city of New York. There were personal interviews of men who were at the scene and watched their comrades--dedicated firefighters--not only risk their lives but willingly give their lives to try to rescue the victims of September 11. It is a heartbreaking episode and one every American should see if you want to know what heroism looks like. It was an extraordinary effort by all involved and many others who weren't part of that program.
We continue to reflect on how these acts of pure evil have forever altered our sense of security and safety and how we must remain faithful to the Constitution while protecting the American people.
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