[Congressional Record Volume 170, Number 44 (Tuesday, March 12, 2024)]
[House]
[Page H1101]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




              PRESIDENT BIDEN'S STATE OF THE UNION APOLOGY

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from 
Tennessee (Mr. Rose) for 5 minutes.
  Mr. ROSE. Madam Speaker, last week the President gave a campaign 
kickoff speech on the House floor masquerading as a State of the Union 
Address.
  Over the weekend, the mainstream media praised the President's 
speech, although the speech failed to address the skyrocketing crime 
impacting our cities, our overrun southern border making every town in 
Tennessee a border town, and rapidly rising energy and grocery costs. 
The only thing the President did do following this speech was apologize 
to an accused murderer.
  It is a shame that the President of the United States took the time 
out of his day to say that he regretted calling an illegal immigrant 
and accused murderer an illegal.
  The President continues to embarrass not only himself but our entire 
Nation when he cowers to the extremely far-left base of his party in an 
attempt not to offend an illegal immigrant who allegedly murdered a 
U.S. citizen.
  Instead of this embarrassing, groveling, and apologetic display of 
regret, the President should have taken the time over this weekend to 
call the family of Laken Riley, the murder victim whose name, not on 
his teleprompter, he misstated during his campaign speech on the House 
floor. I am sure there were many others he could have called and 
apologized to for his open-border policies that have allowed massive 
amounts of fentanyl into our country, leading to the death of thousands 
of Americans.
  Unfortunately, an apology won't bring those lives back. Even when 
presented with a solution to the President's self-created and self-
inflicted border crisis, he has denied it. House Republicans like 
myself passed H.R. 2, the Secure the Border Act of 2023, almost 10 
months ago which would enact the strongest border security measures our 
country has ever seen.
  This was in direct response to the border crisis caused by the 
President's disastrous decision to end the remain in Mexico policy, to 
end title 42, to end border wall construction, and to abuse parole 
authority.
  Madam Speaker, we can only hope the President's State of the Union 
Address was the last of his tenure as President of the United States 
because the Tennesseans I represent cannot afford another 4 years of 
the catastrophes caused by this President and his administration. They 
would much rather have a secure border, strong national security, and a 
lower cost of living so that they can enjoy their lives as God intended 
them to do.
  It is because of this and many other examples that are far too many 
to mention in just one 5-minute speech that we must denounce these 
policies, Madam Speaker.
  That is why I urge Members on both sides of the aisle to join me in 
voting for H. Res. 1065, introduced by the gentlewoman from Texas (Ms. 
De La Cruz), who delivered, frankly, a phenomenal rebuttal speech in 
Spanish to the President's speech that denounced the Biden 
administration's feckless immigration policies.
  H. Res. 1065 condemns President Biden and his administration for 
their disastrous open-border policies and holds them accountable for 
creating the worst border security crisis in U.S. history.

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