Less than 20 days before the presidential debate, Tim Scott visited the southern border and criticized the Biden administration for unleashing a border crisis. The Republican presidential candidate traveled to Yuma, Arizona, where he spoke with local leaders to hear firsthand what it is like to live in fear. In addition, he promised to finish the wall Donald Trump started if elected to the White House.
The South Carolina senator currently ranks sixth in national polls, behind former President Ron DeSantis, Vivek Ramaswamy, Mike Pence and Nikki Haley. He plans to move up in the coming weeks as he continues to push his campaign. He hopes his hopeful rhetoric about the future of the country will help him to stand out.
From the southern border, Scott assessed the before and after since the current president took office in January 2021. He summed up the biggest difference between 2019 and now in two words: "Joe Biden." "When you have a president who unleashes an unopen, well wide open, unsafe and insecure border, we can't be surprised by more than 6 million illegal crossings. However, the devastation of 70,000 Americans who lost their lives to fentanyl because Joe Biden refuses to close our southern border is preventable," he told Fox News.
Border security is national security. But Biden is missing in action and has no plan to control our back door.
I will finish the wall, double border patrol, and crush the cartels. pic.twitter.com/Nulf2mFRCi
— Tim Scott (@votetimscott) August 4, 2023
As President of the United States, I will finish this wall and use available technology to surveil our border and stop fentanyl from killing another 70,000 Americans in the next 12 months.
According to his presidential platform, and under the slogan "Border Security is National Security," the future Tim Scott administration will reinstate Title 42, stop the catch-and-release policy, recognize drug cartels as terrorists and finish funding the wall.
Today, I sat down with community leaders in Yuma, AZ, who have experienced the devastating impact of Biden’s border crisis.
I spoke with a mother who lost her son to fentanyl poisoning and hospital staff overwhelmed by the influx of human trafficking cases.
Every single… pic.twitter.com/BtHcC3C4jb
— Tim Scott (@votetimscott) August 4, 2023
The interview continued with Scott chastising Joe Biden and Kamala Harris for their current handling of the situation, causing the deaths of thousands of people from fentanyl trafficking.
The Biden administration continues to tell the American people 'believe what we say and not what you see with your own eyes.' I've had an opportunity already to speak with law enforcement. They tell me the surge continues. I will meet after we leave the border right now with community leaders and, frankly, with folks who lost their kids to fentanyl. The devastation we are experiencing as Americans is preventable. Much of it is preventable.
The president concluded by saying, "Much of this is preventable if we finish the wall, use the technology, fire Joe Biden and hire me. I will be the president that finishes the wall and takes seriously the opportunity to save tens of thousands of Americans from the drug of fentanyl."
