Page 1532 - Leverage News Today

That. maybe well work with democrats to pass legislation that wouldnt do everything everything wants but would at least take us away from this terrible situation. it is unacceptable for them to tweet and go on tv and walk away and pretend they have nothing to say about this. any of us who have been in the executive branch and dealt with people on the hill like you, they have huge leverage. two republican senators can say im not voting for any of your nominees until you fix this. thats it. thats ...

>> secretary nielsen, to your point were she pushed back and said this happened under former president obama, former president bush. we went back and looked at some of the stats, if you guys want to jump in here, in much, much, much lower numbers. i mean there are was not at all, the rate that this is happening is far, far higher than what it was in previous administration. >> it wasnt the policy in the past to separate families. and this, as weve heard from administration officials over the cou...

Issue and through a smart, humane way and get it through this process, we would do that. problem is when one person puts an idea out, everybody else wants to add other stuff. thats whats happening in the house, right? the president is trying to use this separating kids from their families as leverage to get other legislative changes on immigration, which is just outrageous. so, we do need to keep the focus on the white house. in the meantime, look, if you could actually do something quickly thro...

Question is not just what is the message for today but this hour, this minute. jeff, we are headed up to the hill where perhaps the president will perhaps clarify, perhaps confuse what he wants down here. whats your latest on what the white house wants the congress to do now that mitch mcconnell says republicans want to do something about this? >> reporter: every sign weve gotten so far is that the white house is reluctant to sign any lnlgsilation specif legislation specific with this issue beca...

Especially if youre forced to wait for days, weeks at a time in a place as dangerous as some of these border cities are in mexico. >> julia, call me skeptical, but from what youre saying, it sounds like the administration, at least tacitly, intended this to happen, to use this as leverage for the president to get his immigration bill, the one he wants with the wall funding, et cetera, passed through congress, to use it to strong a stro strong arm the democrats so they have it for the midterms th...

Tried, senator van holen? >> first of all, this is not working in terms of stemming the folks who are fleeing for their lives from violence. we talked to moms who fled with their kids. its not having that effect. what we have done in the past is keep these families together through the asylum process. one of the things we should do is increase the number of asylum judges so people can get their hearings. but at least the families would be kept together. the moms and the daughters, moms and the s...

>> she told a lot of whoppers at that press conference. she said theres no strategy of deterrence, yet thats exactly what john kelly and jeff sessions argued was the purpose of this, to send a message to families overseas, not to come to america. she said this is about smugglers. clearly when children are safely in the united states, theyre not as risk of smugglers. that was a whopper. she said this is not being used as a pawn for legislation. yet thats exactly what the president said it was, th...

Immigration. republicans are set to vote on two immigration bills as they argue over the zero tolerance policy. administration critics accuse the president of separating migrant children from families for political leverage. here is wh the president tweeting democrats can fix the forced family break ups by legislating change. democrats are only good for three things. taxes, high crime and obstruction. sad. >> the president adding the democrats should get together with the republican counterparts...

And parents, this stress, they are sending the message for people not to seek asylum in the united states. it is completely unacceptable under any moral code to inflict trauma on them in order to send some political message to adults somewhere overseas. the president argues this is giving him political levere. hurting kids to get political leverage is unacceptable. it is evil. >> reporter: one of the democratic lawmakers on the tour was pete welsh of vermont. he says there has been 2,000 childre...

The president argues this is giving him political leverage. hurting kids to get political leverage is unacceptable. it is evil. >> reporter: one of the democratic lawmakers on was pete welsh of vermont. he says there has been 2,000 children separated from families over the course of the last six weeks. i asked if he heard of any plans to reunite children with parents. he said right now there is uncertainty. dave and christine. >> nick there in texas. homeland secretary kirstjen nielsen taking to...