With Republicans in Cleveland to rally around Donald Trump at the Republican National Convention, the DSCC will highlight that vulnerable Senators and Senate candidates are sharing the stage with Trump whether or not they’ve decided to show up in Cleveland. That’s because they share many of the same dangerous policy positions that Trump promotes that would be devastating to America’s hard-working middle class families. Each day, we’ll spotlight an issue where GOP Senators and candidates stand with Trump.
As the GOP gathers in Cleveland to coronate their new standard bearer, Donald Trump, a number of Republican Senators and candidates are skipping the convention this week in hopes that their voters will forget about their allegiance to the Donald. Tonight the convention focuses on Trump’s plan to “Make America Safe Again,” and whether or not Republican candidates are in Cleveland, their support for Trump’s dangerous foreign policy approach will be on full display.
With Trump in the driver’s seat, that means more divisive rhetoric, dangerous ideas and singular reliance on his “very good brain” for foreign policy ideas. And it doesn’t get much better when you take a closer look at how reckless Senate Republicans have been with national security.
“Democratic Senate candidates are focused on tough, smart policies that will tackle terrorism here at home and keep us safe, but Republicans would rather grandstand and play politics while pursuing a reckless approach,” said Lauren Passalacqua, DSCC National Press Secretary. “What’s even worse is that Republicans who have shut down the government, opposed closing the terrorist gun loophole, and supported budget cuts that could have made us less safe at home and cut border agents are supporting Donald Trump whose outrageous positions on national security are downright dangerous.”
Here’s a few other examples where Republicans’ tough talk doesn’t match up with their reckless approach to national security:
Republicans voted against closing the terrorist gun loophole
The non-partisan Government Accountability Office (GAO) conducted a review of attempted firearms purchases of individuals on the terrorist watch list, and found that 91% of the time, these transactions were allowed to go forward. GAO discovered that individuals on the FBI’s terrorist watch list successfully bought firearms or explosives in the United States 1,119 times from February 2004 to February 2010. [GAO, 5/5/10] However, in the aftermath of the devastating attacks in Paris and San Bernardino and Orlando, Republicans voted nearly unanimously to let known or suspected terrorists continue to have access to weapons.
Republicans shut down our ability to monitor ‘lone wolf’ terrorists
In 2015, Republicans were so busy fighting with themselves over an extension of critical intelligence gathering laws that they let key provisions, including the authorization to monitor lone wolf terrorists, lapse for days. Intelligence experts agreed that letting these provisions expire compromised our intelligence capabilities and put American lives at risk. Republican brinksmanship threatened our capability to monitor lone wolf terrorists at a time when counterterror officials warned they posed a growing threat.
Republicans refuse to declare war on ISIS
More than a year after the President sent a formal request to Congress for a declaration of war on ISIS, the GOP-controlled Congress continues to ignore this request. A Congressionally-endorsed Authorization for the Use of Military Force (AUMF) would send a clear message to our allies and enemies that the United States is committed to winning this war. It would tell the thousands of American men and women in uniform fighting this war that our country stands united behind them.
Republicans supported a budget that could have cut thousands of border agents
In a recent budget, House and Senate Republicans offered proposals that could have substantially lowered the number of agents and officers that work at our nation’s borders. If the 15% cut to discretionary spending embraced by Republicans in their FY15 budget was applied proportionally, it would have translated into 3,300 fewer Customs and Border Protection Officers.
Republicans shut down the government and weakened our intelligence capabilities
In 2013, Congressional Republicans shut down the government in a last-ditch effort to attempt to defund the Affordable Care Act. This shutdown lasted for 16 days, forcing thousands of federal employees to stop coming into work, while requiring many others to work without pay. It forced the intelligence community to send 70% of its employees home. During the shutdown, a spokesman for the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (DNI) stated that “Today, less than 30% of Intelligence Community employees are on the job and those who are working are stretched so thin that they are only able to focus on the most critical security needs. The longer this goes on, the more the Intelligence Community’s ability to identify threats and provide information for a broad set of national security decisions will be diminished.”
The then-Director of National Intelligence (DNI) James Clapper noted that “as each day goes by [during the shutdown], the impact and the jeopardy to the safety and security of this country will increase.” Unlike other government operations, intelligence operations cannot simply be restarted after being postponed. A former CIA officer noted that “these operations often present a one-shot opportunity that, once lost, cannot be regained.” Some of the missions they were forced to postpone took months to plan.
Republicans came dangerously close to shutting down the Department of Homeland Security
In a failed effort to stop President Obama’s executive actions on immigration, Congressional Republicans threatened to shut down the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) in early 2015. A shutdown would have forced 30,000 workers to be sent home while hundreds of thousands would have worked without pay.
Republicans have let highly qualified national security nominees languish
Senate Republicans delayed the confirmation of the Secretary of the Army nominee, Eric Fanning, for more than 7 months. They have also blocked an appointee responsible for cutting off ISIS’ finances for more than an entire year. Adam Szubin was nominated to be Under Secretary for Terrorism and Finance Crimes at the Treasury Department in April of 2015. It took the GOP 4 months to hold hearings and almost another 6 months for his nomination to be reported out. He still has not been confirmed.
