Incoming Sen. Mitt Romney reaffirmed his support for President Trump’s wall on the U.S.-Mexico border on Wednesday afternoon.
Romney said on CNN’s “The Lead with Jake Tapper” that he’s been a supporter of the wall, and border security, for many years, and he’s not backing down from that stance.
” I would vote for the border wall. I’ve made that part of my platform for many, many years. I think we should have a border wall on our southern border, and whether it’s a wall or fence or technology and perhaps in some cases the natural landscape prevents people from coming in easily,” said Romney. “But we’ve got to do more in terms of our e-verify system, Visa tracking systems, and make it easier in some respects for people to come here legally and work temporarily and then go home. Particularly in the agriculture industry. In Utah, we rely on a lot of people coming in to harvest crops and so forth. We ought to let that be guided by what the states need as opposed to what the federal government imposes on them.”
The federal government has been partially shut down since late December over an impasse over funding for President Trump’s border wall. Trump has told Congress he will not sign any bills to re-open the government that do not include billions of dollars for the wall.
When asked about the budget impasse, Romney said he would like to see some sort of deal made that is a win-win for both Republicans and Democrats.
“Clearly, if the president were able to get a $5 billion check to build the wall, that would look like a huge win for Republicans and a big loss for Democrats. And it’s very hard to get Democrats to vote for something like that,” he said. ” So there has to be some kind of deal done, where the Democrats get something and the Republicans get something. I think that has to happen. Or find some other way to get things open again, and then look for some kind of a deal, where, again, both sides get something. And it has to be a win-win. You have a hard time getting a win-lose going through the Senate where you need a number of Democrat votes to get something to become law.”
Romney said he hopes Congress will be able to find a way to end the shutdown soon, as hundreds of thousands of federal workers have been furloughed or are working without pay until the stalemate is resolved.
“This has an impact, obviously, on a lot of people that aren’t getting paychecks. But also a lot of others that are planning on going to a national park, businesses that house people going to national parks. People inconvenienced here in Washington that want to get to the smithsonian will find that closed. It has a big impact. It’s very unfortunate,” he said.
