The following is a transcript of an interview with Senator Mark Kelly, Democrat of Arizona, on “Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan” which aired October 6, 2024.
MARGARET BRENNAN: We’re joined now by Arizona Democratic Senator Mark Kelly. He’s in Detroit this morning for Harris’ election campaign. Good morning to you, senator.
SEN. MARK KELLY: Hello, Margaret.
MARGARET BRENNAN: I want to talk to you about Arizona, but let’s start with Michigan, where you are now. And it will be a key state for a potential Harris or Trump victory. Vice President Harris faces challenges among black men, the working class, as well as Muslim and Arab populations skeptical of White House support for Israeli wars. What are you hearing on the ground from voters?
SEN. KELLY: Well, my wife, Gabby Giffords, and I have been here for a few days. We campaigned all over the country, in Michigan, and I also went to North Carolina and Georgia. I’ll be back in Arizona here soon. The vice president was here to speak to Muslim organizations and the Arab community about the issues of this election and address their concerns. What we hear are questions about the economy, about gun violence, about supporting American families, and about the difference between Donald Trump and Kamala Harris. You know, Kamala Harris, who has a vision for the future of this country, Donald Trump, who just wants to take us backwards.
MARGARET BRENNAN: Today in Dearborn, Michigan, there is a funeral for an American killed in Lebanon by an Israeli airstrike. It just highlights how much the community you’re talking about in Michigan feels some of what’s happening in a personal way to their community. Given how bitter this race is, do you think this war and the expectation of escalation could cost Democrats both a Senate seat and potentially the presidency?
SEN. KELLY: Margaret, no one wants to see an escalation and it’s tragic when an innocent person, whether American or Palestinian, loses their life in conflict. Tomorrow will be one year since October 7, when Israel was violently attacked. Israel has the right to defend itself, not only against Hamas, but also against Hezbollah and the Iranians. But, you know, my wife and I, you know, we empathize with the community here that has been affected by this. And that’s why the vice president was here earlier, a few days ago, to meet with this community.
MARGARET BRENNAN: But it’s a current issue.
SEN. KELLY: Yeah, sure. I mean, there’s a conflict going on in the Middle East. Israel is currently fighting a two-front war, I think it’s fair to say, and then also being attacked by the Iranians. And they must defend themselves, and we must support our Israeli ally. At the same time, when women and children lose their lives, innocent people in conflict, it is tragic.
MARGARET BRENNAN: You serve on the Senate Intelligence Committee, and I know you are aware of the intense efforts foreign actors are making to try to manipulate voters as November approaches. Last Friday, Matthew Olsen, head of election threats at the Justice Department, told CBS that the Russians, quote, are highlighting immigration as a divisive issue. This is a critical issue in Arizona. Do you currently see targeted information operations actually focusing on Arizonians?
SEN. KELLY: Not just in Arizona, but in other battleground states. They are the Russians, the Chinese, the Iranians, and that is important. And we need to do a better job of making the American people understand that there is a tremendous amount of misinformation out there. If you look at stuff on Twitter, on TikTok, on Facebook, on Instagram, and it’s political in nature, you might think that the person who is responding to this political article or who invented this meme is an American. It could be… it could look like an American soldier. There is a very reasonable chance, I would say between 20 and 30%, that the content that you see, the comments that you see, come from one of these three countries: Russia, Iran, China. We recently had a hearing with the director of the FBI, the DNI and the head of the National Security Agency. And we talked about it. And we talked about getting the message out. And it’s up to us, so thank you for asking, because it’s up to us, the people who serve in Congress and in the White House, to disseminate the information, that there are an awful lot of misinformation in this election, and it’s not going to stop on November 5th.
MARGARET BRENNAN: Understood. And we’ll do our best to help break that down for viewers. But when it comes to the border, President Biden last week announced new regulations to keep in place the partial asylum ban he put in place in June. This is what has contributed to reducing the number of border crossings in recent weeks. It was meant to be a temporary policy, depending on the number of people crossing the border at a time. Do you think this is the right policy in the long term, or is it just a ploy to lower the numbers before the election?
SEN. KELLY: Well, the good long-term policy is to do that through legislation. And we were a day or two away from doing it, passing strong border security legislation, supported by the vice president, negotiated by the vice president, the president and his Department of Homeland Security, with Democrats and the republicans…
MARGARET BRENNAN: But it’s not legislation.
SEN. KELLY: – It’s bipartisan. This is not the case. But this legislation was killed by Donald Trump. We were really close to getting him adopted. This is the right way to do it. When you can’t do that, Margaret, when a former president shuts down the legislative process like he did, which is the most hypocritical thing I’ve ever seen in my three and a half years in the Senate. After that, the only other option is to take executive action. And what was once chaos and crisis on our southern border has become somewhat manageable. And if you’re the Border Patrol, you know, that’s it, you need that. I mean, otherwise it would be dangerous for Border Patrol agents, for CBP agents, for migrants, for communities in southern Arizona. It is therefore regrettable that these are the measures that had to be taken.
MARGARET BRENNAN: Okay.
SEN. KELLY: But that’s because the former president didn’t allow us to do that through legislation.
MARGARET BRENNAN: Senator, we have to leave it there. Face the Nation will be back.
