mr. graham: mr. president. the presiding officer: the senator from south carolina. mr. graham: thank you. i want to echo what senator collins just suggested. how do you begin to turn this debacle around? you admit you got a problem. it's pretty hard to quit drinking if you don't admit you got a drinking problem. so what she's suggest something that we acknowledge the obvious, that this bill on the defense side is inadequate to the threats we face. that a bill that funds the pentagon below inflation at a time of great threat is not fully funded. that she is trying to get us to wake up to the reality that if we don't speak about defeating putin now, then the ukrainians are on the offense will be undercut. i'll never let this happen again as long as i'm here, let people negotiate behind closed doors and not tell me what they're doing on defense. i blame myself for not being more involved and more active, because in my wildest dreams i never believed that the republican party would take the biden budget that they've had attacked for a year and celebrate it as fully funding.

mr. graham: mr. president. the presiding officer: the senator from south carolina. mr. graham: thank you. i want to echo what senator collins just suggested. how do you begin to turn this debacle around? you admit you got a problem. it's pretty hard to quit drinking if you don't admit you got a drinking problem. so what she's suggest something that we acknowledge the obvious, that this bill on the defense side is inadequate to the threats we face. that a bill that funds the pentagon below inflation at a time of great threat is not fully funded. that she is trying to get us to wake up to the reality that if we don't speak about defeating putin now, then the ukrainians are on the offense will be undercut. i'll never let this happen again as long as i'm here, let people negotiate behind closed doors and not tell me what they're doing on defense. i blame myself for not being more involved and more active, because in my wildest dreams i never believed that the republican party would take the biden budget that they've had attacked for a year and celebrate it as fully funding.

mr. graham: i want to compliment senator cotton for reminding us what the job in congress is, defending the nation, and the odd outcome is that in a time of growing conflict, we're reducing the navy. there are 296 ships in the navy today. under this budget big, 2025 there will be 286. if we continue with the biden budget there will be 290. the china navy today is 340. by 2025, they'll have 400. by 2030, they'll have 440. this budget locks in a smaller u.s. navy at a time the chinese navy is growing dramatically. there's not a penny in this budget to help beat putin. is the navy is smaller, the army is smaller, the marine corps is smaller. this is not a threat-based budget. this is a budget of political compromise where people have lost sight of what the country needs. we need safety and security. to my house colleagues, i can't believe you did this. to the speaker, i know you got a tough job. i like you. but the party of ronald reagan is dying. don't tell me that a defense budget that's $42 billion below inflation fully funds the military. and don't tell me we can confront and challenge chi

mr. graham said, let's see, we are free and will always be like this, the russians are dying, this is thet thing we spent money on, these broken passages of volodymyr zelenskyi's conversation with lensi gram became a reason for the hysteria of russian propagandists, they say, an american senator praised the president of ukraine for killing russians, old fool senator lindsey graham - said that money has never been spent so successfully as on the killing of russians, billions of american dollars are poured into the rich throats not of nazi kyiv of the regime reuters agency got acquainted with the full version of the recording of the meeting between graham and zelensky, according to the agency, the phrase is better than what we used to spend money on, the senator said in the part of the conversation devoted to the aid provided to the united states since the beginning of the full-scale invasion of russia, gram said that he reminded zelensky that ukraine adopted an american warship free or die it was a good investment by the united states to help and free ukraine from russian war criminals he

mr. graham? >> no, by proxy. >> mr. -- >> i. >> miss -- >> no, by proxy. >> mr. -- >> mr. martin? >> aye. >> mr. -- >> aye. >> miss -- >> no, by proxy. >> mr. reagan's? >> no, by proxy. i [laughter] >> excuse me! >> mr. sanders? >> aye. >> miss davin? oh >> aye. >> mrs. -- >> no, by proxy. >> miss -- ? >> aye. >> miss -- >> no, by proxy. >> mr. zimmerman? >> aye. a but gaze are ten, the nays are nine. >> the nomination, i report my thanks to everyone who has -- in order to be here, so we can get this time that. we will have a hearing with jalen boss of the federal highway minister. thanks everyone for joining us. this concludes the committee's votes as part of the business meeting today. i thank our members for the participation on that, recognizing them, i would like to speak on the matter, we have voted. on this anybody want to speak on what we just voted on? the nomination of mr. barron? hearing no requests? in closing, i'm delighted our committee has voted to report the senate nomination of jeff baron, continues to serve on the committee regulatory commission. i would like to

mr. graham they say that this will never happen. i mean that russia will hit america. they say.y think really bom game give him bombs uh, they think that you can safely hit a nuclear charge. it doesn’t matter how in russia you don’t get an answer, so you need to understand that this will really be a global nuclear war. this is what needs to be explained, of course, to these same americans. eh, so you know, here you are in the main language. allow roman by the same logic. do you remember recently that american ideas, or in particular , secretary of defense austin, said that we would have a nuclear umbrella over south korea and if someone attacked south korea, we would use nuclear weapons, that is, according to this logic, according to idea. yes, we should some legislator submit a bill to the state duma there in the russian senators yes , and say listen, let's warn if america uses toxic or any kind of nuclear weapon, wherever it is, we will immediately launch a nuclear strike on the united states. america , regardless of whether it will be this is an attack on russia or not, wait,

i want to welcome employee religion director artist graham hol present on these items. here along with mr. pondure from dhr as well who are here and want to appreciate all of your work on the various items and turn it over to you mr. graham and to present on -- all of these items together, i believe and -- i will with hold questions or comments until you addressed them all. >> thank you very much. chair preston. supervisor stefani. thank you. we'll present on all of the items as though they were one big thing that will be faster we welcome questions from urth of you. so. if we begin with the me afire chiefs these are our chiefs of fire and an emotional her deputy chiefs. so we start with the same wage increase you have seen before for firefighters and police officers. which is 10.75 over the next 3 years. both these this general wage increase also has an off r. like others you will see this >> before you go i'm assuming we had see slides along with this? >> mr. clerk are can we get those activated. >> on the laptop? yes. >> thank you. sorry. gwen you see well is the general wage increase.

graham. >> thank you, mr. chairman. yeah, it's been interesting couple of days. glad to be home that's for darn sure. i want to thank senator blumenthal for being willing to represent me in russia. it will be a test of your legal skills. you have the right to remain silent. >> thank you. >> i think you have a right to stay out there i intend to do that. so anyway, about my trip, this committee has been bipartisan in many ways and to my democratic colleagues, republican colleagues and even great on ukraine. you have been terrific. senator durbin you been absolutely terrific. people on our side i i feel te same way about. in the coming days may be ours the week a massive counter offensive that will begin to liberate parts of ukraine from the russian invaders. all the money and effort we've made up the ukrainian military and people is about to pay dividends. i will talk in more detail about that. so back to madison at home. chalmers carr is a constituent of mine. he's in the farming business. senator cornyn, grassley, soft, durbin all of a sudden seeking a solution

graham? >> thank you mr. chairman. ms.robinson the state lost the reference regarding you think they are driven by hate,? what is causing this? behindow the people theseil bills are part of the well-funded opposition groups and organizations like the alliance toosn defend freedom tt are part of that. >> do you think it's driven by hate? well-fundediven by group of opposition. there i asked to their motivation. >> i think it's driven byy powe. theree is a move right now to control people and our bodies for the sake of power. >> just for power, right-click these are people that are doing this? >> i think thisha is about power they too think as bills are moving forward they are creating a culture of hate and i have to say again every time we see the introduction of these bills they are accompanied with violent on line campaigns and rumors of. >> i want to tell you that violent rhetoric has no place in this debate or any other debate. ms. gaines, what is the average day like for a young lady trying to compete at the level you

mr. graham: thank you. i've been informed that shortly the majority leader will come to the floor and announce his commitment and the body's commitment to do a supplemental to make sure that the damage done by this bill is at least partially corrected. this bill puts our military behind the eight ball. there's not one penny in this bill for ukrainian assistance. as i speak today, ukraine is engaged in a fight for its life. they're going on the offensive. i have high hopes in the coming days or weeks that they will liberate part of their territory occupied by russia. the assistance we have provided in a bipartisan fashion and our european allies has made all the difference in the world. we were told after the invasion, kyiv would fall in four days. 600 some days later they are still fighting. the russian army has been weakened because of the weapons we've provided. i think appreciate the bipartisan support to make sure we win a war in ukraine without one american soldier being involved. if we can defeat puti

senator graham. >> thank you, mr. chairman. ms. robinson, state laws that you reference regarding transgender can , do you thiy are driven by hate, ignorance? what's causing this? >> i mean we know that the people behind these bills are part of a well-funded opposition group, organizations like the alliance to defend freedom are a part of that. >> do you think it is driven by hate? >> i think it's driven by a well-funded group of speed if i didn't ask you whether you get the money. i asked you their motivations but i think it's driven by power. i think that there is a move right now could to control people and our bodies for the sake of power. i don't think it's about speedy just for power, right? you don't think these are hateful people that are doing the? >> i think that this is about power but i do think that as the bills are moving forward they are creating a culture of hate. have to say again that every time we see the introduction of these bills they are accompanied with violent online campaigns that -- >> i want to tell you

. >> i was a little shocked by lindsey graham's case. you know, mre aid, care so much about national security, and yet, he took trump side on this one. >> they tend to do that. i just hope we don't get too used to this. i just don't like it. we now actually have a playbook we know, okay, the president got indicted, so there's going to be protest, there's gonna be this, he's going to do this, he's gonna give a speech. that's not healthy. i don't want to get used to this. we should all be sober and appalled tomorrow when this happens. >> all right, well, all of you, thank you very much, something we all can agree with, i hope. and thanks so much to all of you for joining us tonight. special coverage continues next, with abby phillip. say, son? liberty mutual customizes your car insurance... so you only pay for what you need. that's my boy. ♪ stay off the freeways! only pay for what you need. ♪ liberty. liberty. liliberty. liberty. ♪ our heritage is ingrained in our skin. and even when we metamorphosize into our new evolved form, we carry that spirit wi

mr. yeah. how listen, why either i assume contingent steel in terms of the stream that graham them only means it to unfreezes attack them all door one day. how long will your it told her a bees discretion that use already more than one insult to you? more than 40 years old, and it is worse answering and there should be no place for any frozen and our hearts war on our continent. so if you haven't heard much about transit this for you recently, if at all, it's because it's stable now why? because, well, in part, russian troops are, they're holding down the fort and zalinski wants to you to go bang on their door and make some noise. sounds like zalinski is hanging the west into opening yet another front in its conflict with russia. just like the george and prime minister recently accuse nato of wanting to do with his own country. we would not only injure georgia, but we would destroy all economy, would damage the interest of our country. and we would damage the interest of all people. if we impose some kind of the comic central impression, but maybe the point of friends, a different expectation fr

graham: let us assume that it is half. half of the people in the food supply chain are here illegally. if they are left tomorrow, what would happen to the agricultural community? mr. carr? >> i would ask you what would happen to our country? are food security would disappear overnight. senator graham: what do you think? >> i would agree. a lot of those jobs are being filled now quick what do you think? -- what do you think? >> i would agree with the other comments. senator graham: how do you fix it? did you find a way to keep them here on our terms without making other problems worse. does everybody agreed that is a reasonable solution? they say here but they have to pay taxes, they have to earn their way into some kind of legal relationship with the united states. does that make sense to everybody on this panel? ok, good. now here's the problem. if we do agricultural loan -- alone, you will have to include other parts of the economy that have the same problem you do. a lot of people out there want more labor like you do. and there are a lot of me -- people on my side thinking this is not a problem at all. if you say there is enough american workers to make agric

mr. trump's alleged efforts to conceal the documents from federal investigators. south carolina senator linz is i grahams he does not like certain things the former president did, the charges against him go way too far. >> president trump will have his day in court. espionage charges are truly ridiculous. whether you like president trump or not he did not submit espionage he did not provide leak to a foreign power or news organization to damage this country. he is not a spy bill barr in this case federal investigators were right to be concerned how he was storing documents on military strategy and other sensitive information. >> they t. quickly became clear that what the government were really worried about was these classified and very sensitive documents. i was shocked by the degree of sensitivity of these documents and how many there were. and i think the counts under the espionage act that he i willfully retained those documents are solid counts. i do think that even half of what andy mccarthy said, if even half of it is true, then he is toast. >> but some republicans accuse the justice department o

tv address, mr putin said the leaders of the uprising would be brought to justice but regular wagner fighters could join the russian army, return to their families, or go to belarus. grahamsatchell has the latest. vladimir putin has not been seen since saturday but late last night he called a meeting of his security chiefs. in addition to the nation he thanked the russian people were standing up to what he called treachery. translation: it was the patriotism _ treachery. translation: it was the patriotism of— treachery. translation: it was the patriotism of our _ treachery. translation: it was the patriotism of our citizens, i the patriotism of our citizens, of consolidation of the whole of consolidation of the whole of russian society, that played the decisive role in these events. this support helped us overcome the most difficult challenges that our motherland faced. . ~' , ., challenges that our motherland faced. . ~ ., , faced. thank you for this. the dramatic _ faced. thank you for this. the dramatic events _ faced. thank you for this. the dramatic events of _ faced. thank you for this. the dramatic events of that - faced. thank you for this. the i dramatic events

graham. >> thank you, mister chairman. i appreciate you coming to the committee. thank you mr. chairman for having the. herring here is the other side of the story. when asked americans who were on the right track assassination, about 70% of them say no. why? . i think there is a feeling in this country that we are losing control over the streets. crime is increasing. the world is full of more dangers people. the world is not safe anymore. check about the number of deaths from gun violence, it is certainly something we should be concerned about. let me tell you something we all should be concerned about. rebecca thai slain, a mother, testified yesterday. she lost two sons to fentanyl overdose. they were buying, i, think a percocet pill. it was laced with fentanyl and they died from taking one pill. both of them she said, quote this is a war act like it do something. 106,000 people die from drug overdoses. 70,000 from fentanyl last. year it is getting worth. the leading cause of death for americans aged 18 to 45 is death by fentanyl poisoning. what are we doing? what is that something? so, i hope we wil

during a tv address, mr putin said the leaders of the uprising would be brought to justice. grahamng up to what he called treachery. translation: it was the patriotism l of our citizens, the consolidation l of the whole of russian society, that played the decisive role in these events. this support helped us overcome the most difficult challenges that our motherland faced. thank you for this. the dramatic events of the weekend saw tanks on the streets as the mercenary group wagner seized towns in southern russia, and then headed for moscow. it looked at one stage like a full—scale military coup. but as suddenly as it started, it stopped. now wagner's leader, yevgeny prigozhin, has released a message on social media. he hadn't tried to overthrow russia's government, he said. it was just a protest to stop wagner being disbanded, and to punish those who had made mistakes in what he called the special military operation in ukraine. so what are we to make of all of this? russian state television said the country remained united behind president putin, and criticised the mutiny as a prop

mr. president? >> i think big problems. big problems. >> in that interview, trump also claimed being indicted wouldn't stop him from running for president in 2024 and followed this warning from senator lindsey grahame's a prosecution of donald trump for mishandling classified information, after the clinton debacle which you preside over and did a hell of a good job, there would be riots in the streets. >> trump was so fond of lindsey's suggestion, he injected it on social media right into the veins of his biggest fans which is a recipe for disaster. what we saw play out on january 6th after he summoned a mob of supporters to lay siege to the capitol with his be there, be wild tweet. trump similarly tried to rile up supporters ahead of his indictment in manhattan in the hus money payment scheme, calling for protests to take our nation back and warning of death and destruction if he were to be charged. there was no violence following his indictment on 34 felony counts of falsifying business records in new york. with candidate trump now out on the trail, it could be a matter of time before he uses it as a bull horn to call for that kind of violence. joining me is frank figliuzzi, msnbc national secur

mr. vice president, just before we go, one other big issue that promises to be one of the ones at the forefront of 2024 campaign is abortion. would you support going back to, as lindsey grahamederal law on abortion? >> oh, sure. i think -- look, you have to recognize that in the european union 12 to 15 weeks is very much the standard. our abortion laws today at the federal level are more like china, north korea, and iran. so, i would certainly support a 15-week ban at the federal level and i commend the congressmen and senators who have supported that. but i've also been a champion of the right to life my whole life and i will continue to encourage states around the country to advance the cause of life and i'll -- whatever the future holds for our little family, we'll never rest, we'll never relent until we do our part to restore the sanctity of life to the center of american law. >> sandra: all right, mr. vice president mike pence fresh off your big announcement a short time ago on the ground in iowa. we appreciate you joining us here today. thank you so much. >> thank you both very much. it's great to be with you today. >> john: good to see you. we'll see you on the trail

mr. blake is absolutely correct. it has nothing to do with, i mean there is components but this part has nothing to do with espionage or spying. i think lindsey grahamnows that. he's a very intelligent person. at times he's incredibly engaging and commands detail under the law. the reality is this is a challenging set of charges and behavior to defend. obviously, the government bears the burden of proof. trump is purdue -- presumed innocent. that's the way our system works legally. the behavior itself is challenging to defend. senator graham was trying to defend the former president. there's a bit of a misleading nature to his comments. he was saying, hey, trump didn't commit espionage. no one is saying he committed espionage. there is no evidence of that. the issue here is as i mentioned before the willful retention of national defense information. anyone can dispute the fact that our nuclear secret and our military vulnerabilities were attacked planes, all of that is national defense information. it belongs to the united states government. they do not belong to donald trump and ultimately you know, possessing that information, particularly after t

mr. kelly, who is not here today, and i have legislation along with chairman -- and ranking member grassley over in the senate to strengthen the irs whistle brought pull or graham. we've got some common sense fixes that will strengthen that. it will help you guys apps, i guess it's not your pulls into comment on the distillation, but you can tell us of this will be helpful. >> yes, we can work with you on that. i will say, we at the irs will fiercely defend the integrity of the whistleblower process. we welcome suggestions on how to strengthen and improve it. i would love to work with you on that. >> thank you very much, yield back. >> mr. -- is recognized. >> i have a fascination with the adoption of technology as a way to do with so many of your issues. i have an irs press release from just a couple of weeks ago talking about your adoption of a chatbot. for simple collection questions. do you know anything about that? >> i do. >> how is it working? >> we have had a very successful file and season, as i understand it, with the introduction of new chatbots for things like getting a transcript, sitting up and installment agreement if you have less than 25,000. t

mr. yeah. how listen, why either i assume contingent steel in terms of the stream that graham them only means it.

mr. durbin: we had a hearing this week in the judiciary committee. we had a grower from south carolina as a guest of senator graham, he professed to be the second largest peach grower in america. i asked him if you had e-verify on your form to you and the growers who need workers. he said we'd be out of business tomorrow. that's what your amendment does. it imposes e-verify on farmers in illinois and across the united states. we're not ready for this. you're going to put them out of business. secondly it strips away protections for children at the border. we do not want kids in cages anymore at the border. please vote against this amendment. the president pro tempore: the question is on the amendment. is there a sufficient second? there is a sufficient second. the clerk will call the roll. vote: vote: the president pro tempore: on this vote, the yeas are 46, the nays are 51. under the previous order, requiring 60 votes for the adoption of this amendment, the amendment is not agreed to. mr. schumer: madam president. the president pro tempore: the majority is recognized. mr. schumer: 10 minutes, 40 seconds. we got 4