Tennessee Congressman Mark Green Discusses Double Standards in Congress and His Future Priorities
Live from Music Row Friday morning on The Tennessee Star Report with Michael Patrick Leahy – broadcast on Nashville’s Talk Radio 98.3 and 1510 WLAC weekdays from 5:00 a.m. to 8:00 a.m. – host Leahy welcomed U.S. Rep. Mark Green (R-TN-07) to the newsmakers line.
During the second hour, Congressman Green weighed in on last night’s vote to expel freshman Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Green from her committee duties while acknowledging the hypocrisy of the Democrats. He later discussed that he would be prioritizing legislation to win the House back, ensuring election integrity, and taking care of our veterans.
Leahy: Joining us now on the newsmakers line from the land of double standards in Washington D.C. our good friend Congressman Mark Green. Good morning, Congressman Green.
Green: Hey, good morning to you guys. Can you hear me okay?
Leahy: We can hear you. It’s a little crackly. But of course, why wouldn’t you expect it to be a crackly communication with you living in this very weird world of the 117th session of Congress. What happened last night with the land of double standards and the expelling of first-term Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene from her committees in Congress? What happened there?
Green: Well, it’s pretty crazy. The hypocrisy from the left is I mean every day, I think it can’t get any worse, and then, of course, it does. She had made some comments in reference to the website QAnon, and this is all well before she was elected. She got up and talked a little bit about that of course on the floor and explained herself. Nothing compared to the riots that were incited by Pressley and others last summer. But here we are and we voted and it was barely passed because the Democrats barely have a majority in the House now. It’s just hypocrisy to the max now and it makes you sick to your stomach.
Leahy: Can you contrast this to I don’t know what you’d call the French Revolution-Kangaroo court session of the 117th session of Congress with the previous sessions in which you were a member of Congress?
Green: Well, I mean they have always been more than willing to bend the rules to fit their agenda. So even last Congress 116th when I was here my first term they’d bend the rules anytime and they would take stuff straight to the floor. Never going to committee. Bypassing rules. And they’re just doing more of that yesterday which was an excellent example totally against House procedure and took it straight to the floor of the House and was voted on just because they have a majority and can.
Leahy: What is on your personal agenda in this very weird situation where the left is exercising what Alexis de Tocqueville warned us about back in the 1830s? If you want to talk tyranny of the majority just take a look at what’s going on in the House of Representatives today. What’s your plan for the next couple of years?
Green: We could talk about legislative priorities. We could talk about overall priorities. Overall priorities being that we’ve got to retake control of the House because the House is a majority body basically meaning if you’ve got the majority plus one you rule. And you determine what goes to the committees and basically everything that gets done. So this is our number one priority.
And I think this is America’s number one priority and it should coalesce all of us together who love our country and that’s for the Republicans to retake control of the house. There is no other thing that comes close to that a part of that is election integrity. And that means two things. One, of course, doing everything we can with state legislatures across the country, and Republicans control 30 state legislators on both sides.
We’ve got to make sure that mail-in ballots and election integrity happens and that mail-in ballots never happen again and election integrity is reinforced. So those were probably the number one and number two. If you’re talking about legislative priorities, that gets more into the weeds, of course. But taking care of veterans. I’ve got some bills to do that. We have some specific needs at Fort Campbell in the Clarksville area.
That military base there needs new barracks. China. We have got to push back. China is the number one threat to our generation and I’ve got five bills to address that. I’m on the House Armed Services now and Foreign Affairs. I’m going to be the ranking member of one of the subcommittees there for our Western Hemisphere. So I’ll be meeting in National Security this Congress.
Leahy: Our listeners are hearing a little crackling on the line here and I want to explain what that crackling is. The crackling on the line is because Representative Mark Green is now in the land of double standards. That’s what the crackling is coming from. It’s that double standard that is emanating from the Democratic majority and Nancy Pelosi.
Let me shift the questioning here a little bit and I don’t want to catch you off guard but let me talk about some of President Joe Biden’s executive orders. Breitbart is reporting that yesterday he issued an executive order for this fiscal year to increase the number of refugees from the limit of 12,000 under President Trump to 125,000. Tell me what you think about this Congressman Green.
As I look at that executive order I believe that executive order is illegal. And here’s why. The Refugee Act of 1980 authorized the president to set a refugee limit once a year with a letter to Congress in September for the following fiscal year. The president at the time, President Trump issued such a letter and said the limit would be 12,000 for the fiscal year 2021.
As I read the law, there’s only one time in any year that the president can issue that letter and that’s in September in the last year of the fiscal year. President Biden’s executive order totally changes that law. Do I have that right? Would you agree with me or would you look into the idea that that executive order issued yesterday apparently by President Biden increasing refugee limits to 125,000 is in fact illegal? Have you had a chance to look at that?
Green: My team is already looking at it. I’m not an attorney so I have to rely on our staff for that. But they’re digging into that. I think it’s probably wrong on multiple levels and may be unconstitutional on more than one level. Unfunded mandates are I think unconstitutional when the federal government demands that the states do something. They can’t do that. It is fundamentally wrong to do that and not fund it.
When we take refugees into the state of Tennessee the education system and other services get taxed. And that’s why a lot of people push back on this. I actually thought that we should have locked the program in Tennessee. I’ve talked with the governor about that and he chose not to do that. But my thinking is we have a lot of people in Tennessee who have needs and we should take care of them first and then others second. I think the unfunded mandate piece of this is also a reason to say that it’s not constitutional.
Leahy: And I believe Congressman Green that you were in the state Senate in 2015, I think it was 2015 when the Tennessee General Assembly passed a resolution to sue the federal government on Tenth Amendment grounds about the refugee resettlement program. Governor Haslam didn’t sign on to that. That lawsuit was ultimately dismissed for lack of standing. Do I have that right? You were actually involved in that in the state?
Green: Yes I was. (Inaudible talk)
Leahy: Representative Green, the static from the Nancy Pelosi land of double of standards seems to be increasing.
Green: Sorry.
Leahy: It’s not you. I’m sure it’s the land of double standards. (Green chuckles) I want to tell you that I am saving something for you. In our studio today we have a big beautiful birthday cake for the Tennessee Star made by the Puffy Muffin in Brentwood. So I have a beautiful red velvet cake. It’s our fourth year anniversary of the online news site The Tennessee Star. We’re going to cut this cake. I’m going to save a piece for you. And then next time you’re in studio I’ll give you a piece of this cake and we will preserve it so it’s tasty.
Green: Sounds great. I love red velvet cake, and I’m excited about the accomplishments of The Tennessee Star.
Leahy: Oh well, thanks so much Congressman Mark Green, we really appreciate you joining us this morning. I know you have lots of busy things to do and look forward to having you here in studio again. Thanks for joining us.
Green: Sounds great. Thanks for having me on sorry about the static.
Leahy: Oh, that’s okay. We’re going to blame Nancy Pelosi and all the tyranny of the majority Democrats. Thanks so much, Representative Mark Green. Well, that’s a great interview but a little staticky there. But again, it’s the land of double standards. That will explain it all.
Listen to the full second hour here:
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