Arizona GOP Senate candidate Jim Lamon Saturday rejected the Biden administration's contention that it decided to add to parts of the border wall in his state to "clean up the mess" the Trump administration made, insisting on Newsmax that under President Joe Biden, the border situation is worse than ever and the Trump-era remain in Mexico policies must be codified into law.
"We have drug overdoses [from drugs] that are coming through that border that are killing 2,600 Americans a week, you know," Lamon said on Newsmax's "The Count." "There's a lot of mess to clean up in that White House, but what we need in Arizona is the remain in Mexico policy that Biden destroyed as an executive order. I need to get that done in U.S. law. In the Senate, I'll do everything I can to make that happen so that one president doesn't stop what one another was making great progress on."
His comments came after Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said in comments during Friday's White House briefing that the plans announced this week to finish out 40 miles of border wall in Arizona came not to finish the wall, but because the administration is "cleaning up the mess the prior administration left behind in their — in their failed attempt to build a wall."
She also said the administration is "trying to save lives. This is what is — this is what the prior administration left behind that we are now cleaning up" and repeatedly denied that the administration is building a wall.
Lamon told Newsmax Saturday that the administration will "do a few gaps" but won't finish out the 40 miles that were left open in Arizona after Biden was sworn in.
"I will certainly bet a large steak dinner here in Arizona that they're not going to do a thing with it," said Lamon. "My opponent, Blake Masters, has written extensively about open borders and open drug trade being being fashionable, and that he is a strong libertarian, he said that should occur."
Lamon noted he's backed by the National Border Patrol Council and insisted that the border must be secured to "stop the invasion, stop the killing of Americans that's happening with these drug overdoses."
The candidate said that as a longtime businessman, he knows to listen to the experts, and the Border Patrol believes the remain in Mexico policy is the "absolute No. 1 thing to achieve."
"Tomorrow morning, Biden could stop all this by going back to what President [Donald] Trump had in 2020, and that was remain in Mexico so all the cases are adjudicated in the state or country the individual came from," he added. "We had it down to 2,000 a week. This invasion currently is 52,000 a week ... it's a 9/11 every week occurring in our country because of the border situation."
Furthermore, terrorists are entering the country across the border, said Lamon, adding, "Gosh knows how many of the gotaways were actually terrorists who escaped.
"It's just an absolute abomination and I intend to end it as priority one when I get to the U. S. Senate on Jan. 23," he said.
Lamon also spoke out against government spending, including the legislation passed this past week concerning the manufacture of computer chips.
"As a business guy, I've never built a company on debt," he said. "I built billion-dollar companies on no debts. The spending that's out of control in D.C., whether it's the CHIPS bill, the giveaways overseas or the military weapons that taxpayers are paying for other countries when our own border is wide open. It has to stop. You know, we're gonna destroy our currency. This debt that we're putting on our kids and grandkids has to stop."
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