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Emmer: The Republican conference is incredibly unified

WASHINGTON — Majority Whip Tom Emmer today joined CNBC’s Squawk Box to discuss President Trump’s first week in office and House Republicans’ member retreat.


Click here or above to watch the clip.


Whip Emmer on President Trump’s retaliatory measures against Colombia:


“When you talk about Colombia and the little back and forth that we had over the last day or two, it actually proves Donald Trump’s point. I mean, initially, they said, we’re not taking these illegals back, which the question is why? What’s wrong with them? And then, Donald Trump did what Donald Trump does – the master negotiator. They have now agreed to not only take back the illegals but to come up with their own transportation and deliver them back. And to your question, I don’t think it’s going to be like this every time. I think it only takes a couple of times for people to be reminded that Donald Trump is a very serious leader. And if you’re going to work with the United States, you’re going to have to work with the United States under his terms.”


Whip Emmer on President Trump’s firing of inspectors general:


“...you started off by acknowledging that these are executive agency positions. Who’s in charge of executive agencies? The executive. These [inspectors] general served at the discretion of the president. This president has come in and said, ‘You are no longer going to be employed by this administration.’ Yeah, there’s some pushback, but Congress’ job is oversight. That’s what it is. It’s oversight and budgetary. And frankly, Congress has to get back to doing its job. The president, clearly, is doing his.”


Whip Emmer on President Trump’s TikTok extension:


“For me, I respect my colleagues who had the top secret briefings and came out. It was the House Energy and Commerce Committee, which has two ends of the political spectrum amongst their 54 members. I mean, it goes all the way from the far left to the strident right. They came out after a top-secret briefing and voted 54-0 for the law that we’re talking about, so I side with that. I believe that the Communist Party of China should not be allowed to collect data. World War II, we wouldn’t have sold The New York Times to the Germans, right? It’s the same thing when our adversary is collecting all of this data, detailed data, on American citizens. Now, on the other side of that, when you talk about President Trump, if there’s anyone that can get this done – if there’s anyone that can convince the Chinese to get out of this and allow the platform to continue as a free and open platform, not as a surveillance device – it’s Donald J. Trump. He’s going to do whatever he can to make sure that happens.”


Whip Emmer on House Republicans’ member retreat:


“The Republican conference, regardless of what people on the outside of our conference want to say based on statements from our members, etc., we are incredibly unified. I mean, there’s 219 – soon-to-be maybe 217 already – of us. And frankly, when you’ve got that small of a group, you have to understand each other. You don’t have to agree, you don’t have to like one another, but when you are together, we’ve got a job to do…President Trump will speak tonight. Vice President JD Vance is going to speak at some point. But the discussion amongst the conference is going to be how do we enact this aggressive timeline that our Speaker, Mike Johnson, has set in place? The first step would be to vote on a budget resolution in the first week of February. That is what unlocks the ability to do all the other stuff with the reconciliation bill.”


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