WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, following Democrats’ unprecedented dismissal of the impeachment of Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, Senator Rick Scott spoke on the Senate Floor slamming Democrats and the Biden administration for putting politics over the safety of American families and the security of the nation—the consequences of which will be devastating for generations to come.

In his speech, Senator Scott emphasizes that the border crisis that has skyrocketed under the watch of Secretary Mayorkas and the Biden administration is harming Americans and their families. Secretary Mayorkas has ordered laws to be ignored, allowed terrorists on the FBI’s Terrorist Watchlist and migrants with known gang affiliations to stream into our country to such an extent that the FBI Director testifies before Congress that this is the most dangerous time in America since 9/11, and let fentanyl continue to pour into and ravage the country.

Read Senator Scott’s remarks as prepared for delivery below:

Democrats’ assault on American Democracy had a banner day today.

Today, Democrats in the Senate said that impeachments by the United States House of Representatives don’t matter.

According to what Democrats did today, we don’t need to hold impeachment trials here in the Senate.

It doesn’t matter if, for example, you are a cabinet secretary that has instructed his agency to ignore the law and not execute the laws of the United States.

It doesn’t matter if, by ordering an agency to ignore the laws of the United States, Americans are murdered.

It doesn’t matter if, by ordering an agency to ignore the laws of the United States, deadly fentanyl pours into our communities and poisons our children.

It doesn’t matter if, by ordering an agency to ignore the laws of the United States, terrorists on the FBI’s Terrorist Watchlist and migrants with known gang affiliations stream into our country to such an extent that the FBI Director testifies before Congress that this is the most dangerous time in America since 9/11.

I want everyone to pause and think about their family for a moment.

Think about your spouse, mom or dad, your kids. Think about those you love.

For thousands of American families, the person they are thinking about is dead.

Mr./ Madam President – I want to say that again…

For thousands of American families, the person they are thinking about is DEAD. Taken too soon by the deadly fentanyl crisis that has ravaged our nation because of the wide open southern border.

Every one of us has families in our state that have been ripped apart by the deadly fentanyl crisis. Some of us have been impacted by this directly in our own families.

Fentanyl is killing more than 70,000 Americans a year.

That’s 70,000 families being torn apart because our border is not secured.

That is happening, in part, because instead of letting our brave border patrol agents do their job and stop these deadly drugs, Secretary Mayorkas is using them to let even more people who illegally crossed the border come into our country and get all sorts of nice services - phones, lawyers, hotels rooms - paid for by U.S. taxpayers.

Every victim of Secretary Mayorkas’s order for his agency to ignore the law has a name.

I’ve heard so many heartbreaking stories from folks in my state.

Florida families are feeling the impact of this administration’s lawless border policies every single day, as deadly fentanyl, criminals and terrorists pour across Biden’s open borders.

There were 1,145 children between 14-18 years old who died from fentanyl in 2021. That’s a classroom of students dying every week.

In 2022, I heard from a mom in Kissimmee, Florida whose son had a future in the Air Force, and came home to visit her on Mother’s Day Weekend.

He visited an old friend, who he didn’t know had begun dealing drugs.

The friend convinced the young man to take a Xanax, which was unknowingly laced with Fentanyl, and the mom found him dead.

Just imagine what that mom is going through. To find her own son dead. It’s unimaginable.

26-year-old Ashley Dunn is another American we’ve lost to fentanyl poisoning. 

Ashley’s mother, Josephine Dunn, says that her daughter did not overdose, but was “poisoned by one-half of one Percocet tablet that was counterfeit…”

According to Ms. Dunn, her daughter “was murdered by products made in Mexico” that were welcomed into this country “by Mayorkas and this administration.”

Today, Senate Democrats made certain that Secretary Mayorkas will never have to answer for Ashley’s death or any of the other deaths that his lawless agenda have caused.

America is a more dangerous place because Mayorkas and Biden have allowed criminals, drugs, TERRORISTS, and other dangerous people into our communities.

Real Americans with families are being killed. Real American families are being torn apart by vicious crimes and deadly drugs BECAUSE we have a wide open border.

Secretary Mayorkas is the first and only sitting cabinet secretary to be impeached and now he has been forever blocked from being acquitted of that charge.

He will never get that chance to be acquitted because of what Senate Democrats did today.

I still have a question for my Democrat colleagues: was Mayorkas silenced today because Democrats are terrified of his record and unable to defend him, or because they just don’t trust him?

Whatever the answer is, the thing that every reporter here and every American needs to understand is this:

Democrats put politics over the safety of American families and the security of our great nation today. I fear the consequences of that unprecedented failure will be devastating beyond our worst fears.

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