Ken Cuccinelli on his clash with Congresswoman Wasserman Schultz
Acting U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) Director Ken Cuccinelli tells "Fox & Friends" that Democratic Congresswoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz was just trying to get a soundbite when she accused him and President Trump of following a “white supremacist ideology” by allegedly trying to block non-Caucasian migrants from entering the U.S.
Acting U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services Ken Cuccinelli said Friday that Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz was just looking for a "soundbite" when she accused him and the Trump administration of pursuing a "heinous white supremacist ideology" through their immigration policies.
“My constituents, Americans across this country aren’t fooled by this administration’s specious attempts to distinguish between documented and undocumented immigration,” Wasserman Schultz, D-Fla., told Cuccinelli at a House hearing on the treatment of migrants.
“You and Mr. Trump don't want anyone who looks or talks differently than Caucasian Americans to be allowed into this country,” she added.
“That’s false,” Cuccinelli shot back. He was then interrupted by the former Democratic National Committee chairwoman, who told him not to interrupt her, but he carried on: “That’s defamatory."
“Excuse me, there’s nothing defamatory about it,” she said.
Wasserman Schultz wasn’t done: “You want to block all immigration and make life harder for immigrants and you have demonstrated that you will pursue this heinous white supremacist ideology at all costs, even if it means making critically ill children your collateral damage in the process."
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Appearing on "Fox & Friends" with hosts Steve Doocy, Ainsley Earhardt and Brian Kilmeade, Cuccinelli said that Wasserman Schultz and other Democrats are "protected to lie" by the Speech or Debate Clause of the Constitution.
"I don't think the founders ever intended it to be a shield for lying and trying to plant narratives out in the public. And, that was what she was doing," he told the "Friends" hosts.
Cuccinelli explained that Wasserman Schultz would "give back" her time to prevent him from speaking his part. So, he interrupted the congresswoman "because it's the only opportunity you actually get to address the subject and the smears."
"She came in, laid on her smears — both me and the president. All completely false. And then, wasn't there much longer, got on her broom, and left," he said.
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"It was a fly-by for her and to get her little soundbite. It wasn't substantive, and people need to realize that's what's going on in so many of these congressional hearings. They have no interest in the truth," said Cuccinelli.
Wasserman Schultz, in a CNN interview Friday, refused to back down from her accusations.
"Ken Cuccinelli is the tip of the spear of a white supremacist ideology that is the thread of the president’s immigration policy targeting people of color. And I’m a member of Congress on the Oversight Committee, and I had an opportunity to call it out, and I did, and I don’t regret it," she said.
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