Sen. Bernie Moreno, R-Ohio, suggested on Newsmax on Wednesday that the Laken Riley Act is a tipping point for the relationship between Republicans and Democrats in the Senate, calling it "abhorrent" if Democrats do not support the legislation that was named for the Georgia nursing student murdered by an illegal alien from Venezuela.
"As a legal immigrant to this country — as the person you just had on is obviously not somebody who came here legally, was not an immigrant to this country; I am — and it's abhorrent that we have Democrats that would even think about voting against this bill," Moreno told "Wake Up America." "Look, if we can't agree that criminals, people who committed crimes in this country, have to be deported, then we can't have any reasonable conversations with Democrats.
"So I suspect — I've met a few freshman Democrats in our orientation, I think there's some good ones there — I think we're going to get much more than 60 votes, because, at the end of the day, the Democrats realize that if they continue to be completely unreasonable, completely radical, they will never win another election again," he continued. "And that's what they care more about than anything else."
The House passed the Laken Riley Act as its first bill of the new Congress last week, with the support of all Republicans and 48 Democrats. The Senate is expected to vote on the measure on Friday, which would have been Riley's 23rd birthday. The legislation passed the House last year but did not clear the Senate.
With all 52 Senate Republicans co-sponsoring the reintroduced bill, and the support of Sen. John Fetterman, D-Pa., Senate Republicans need seven more Democrats to vote with them in order to reach the 60 votes needed to overcome a filibuster.
When asked if the Laken Riley Act will be on President-elect Donald Trump's desk after he is inaugurated, Moreno said "there's no question about it."
"I think we pass that with big, overwhelming support on Friday," he said. "We get it teed up so the second President Trump is done being sworn in, being inaugurated — a historic day, by the way, the greatest comeback in American history — he will get to work, get that signed, get executive orders in.
"The world is optimistic," Moreno said. "America is optimistic. This is a red, white, and blue wave that happened on Nov. 5, not just a Republican win. We're going to make America great again, and all Americans are going to see incredible prosperity and incredible safety everywhere they are. I've never been more optimistic about the future of this country than I am right now."
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