[Congressional Record Volume 170, Number 141 (Wednesday, September 11, 2024)]
[Senate]
[Page S5959]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                          Presidential Debate

  Mr. DURBIN. Mr. President, I watched the debate last night. It was 
memorable. It was not a good evening for the former President of the 
United States. I have had more than one person tell me that the people 
who were watching laughed out loud when he started his rant about 
immigrants eating dogs and cats. It is an indication, I am afraid, that 
the former President Donald Trump, when it comes to the issue of 
immigration, is unhinged. You never know what he is going to say next.
  But I think that Vice President Kamala Harris made it clear in her 
explanation that it was within the grasp and power of former President 
Donald Trump to do something about the border crisis and the 
immigration crisis and that he not only failed but he designed a 
strategy to sabotage efforts on a bipartisan basis to do something.
  Specifically, I can recall--and you can as well--that we were told 
that there was a bipartisan effort underway to write a border bill. 
Senator Lankford, a conservative Republican from the State of Oklahoma, 
joined with Senator Chris Murphy of Connecticut, a Democrat, to put 
together, with months of effort, such a bill. We were told hands off. 
Step away. Let them do this. Let them put something on the floor that 
is meaningful and is bipartisan and has a chance of passing both the 
Senate and the House. We were underway, and such a piece of legislation 
was constructed.
  But what happened at the last minute? At the last minute, Donald 
Trump, very publicly, stepped forward and said: I want to stop this 
bill from passing. I want the bipartisan bill not to pass, and you can 
blame it on me, he said. You can blame it on me. He stopped the 
bipartisan effort to pass a bill that would have been helpful to the 
border in reducing the number of people who have been coming across 
that border.
  The Border Patrol Agency--men and women who risk their lives every 
day in service of this country on the border--endorsed this bipartisan 
bill. It was an indication that we finally--after 30 years of trying--
may be on the right track when it comes to immigration, at least when 
it comes to the border crisis. And who stopped it? Donald Trump stopped 
the immigration reform bill--the bipartisan effort--and publicly 
admitted it and took credit for it. You didn't hear that last night, 
did you? No, but there was a lot of complaining about the immigration 
issue and the border.
  The simple reality is this: President Trump singlehandedly, 
personally, threatened those who were going to vote for such a bill. If 
I remember, only seven Republicans finally did. I wish more had. It 
wasn't a bill I would have written, but I was prepared to accept it as 
a final effort for a bipartisan compromise.
  So I would say to those who watched the debate and wanted to have 
raised the issue of immigration, they still need an answer as to why 
Donald Trump stopped the only bipartisan effort in recent memory in the 
U.S. Senate.


          23rd Anniversary of the September 11, 2001, Attacks

  Mr. President, today marks the 23rd year since one of the darkest 
days in our country's history, the attacks of September 11, 2001.
  I can vividly recall that day. I was in this building--just a few 
feet away--in a room for a morning meeting. We happened to notice on 
the television set that was playing in the room there that there was 
some news about a tower--tall building--in New York being struck by an 
airplane. We didn't know much more about it. Then the second plane went 
into an adjoining tower, and we knew that something was wrong, 
dreadfully wrong. Then we looked out on the Mall, down the Mall from 
the Capitol Building, and saw black billowing smoke coming from the 
Pentagon. That image is seared into my mind, and that day will forever 
be imprinted on our Nation's collective memory.
  Twenty-three years after that devastating day, we still mourn the 
2,977 innocent lives lost at the World Trade Center in New York, at the 
Pentagon in Virginia, and in a field near Shanksville, PA. That 
includes 343 heroic members of the New York City Fire Department, 71 
law enforcement officers who died at the World Trade Center, and 55 
military personnel who died at the Pentagon.
  Last weekend, the ``60 Minutes'' television show rebroadcast the show 
on the fire department heroes from the city of New York. There were 
personal interviews of men who were at the scene and watched their 
comrades--dedicated firefighters--not only risk their lives but 
willingly give their lives to try to rescue the victims of September 
11. It is a heartbreaking episode and one every American should see if 
you want to know what heroism looks like. It was an extraordinary 
effort by all involved and many others who weren't part of that 
program.
  We continue to reflect on how these acts of pure evil have forever 
altered our sense of security and safety and how we must remain 
faithful to the Constitution while protecting the American people.