After reporting on homes in Puerto Rico still missing a roof, Fox & Friends defends Trump diverting FEMA money to the southern border
Published
Citation From the August 28 edition of Fox News' Fox & Friends
STEVE DOOCY (CO-HOST): The tough thing about Puerto Rico right now, and you have been there recently, is the fact that there are still 30,000 homes in Puerto Rico that have the blue tarps on them because they don't have any roofs.
AINSLEY EARHARDT (CO-HOST): Yeah, lots of stories of individuals that had to go down to the river. I heard this from about three people -- definitely three people. They had to go down to the river and fill up buckets of water, take them back home, boil the water, and that's what their family had to live on for six months.
DOOCY: It's tough. So we'll be keeping an eye on that. In the meantime, let's take a look at some of the news. And it has been announced that the Trump administration is planning to divert hundreds of millions of dollars in Homeland Security funds to ramp up security at our southern border. They're going to reprogram the money.
BRIAN KILMEADE: All right, Democrats are blasting the move, calling it cruel and backwards.
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KILMEADE: Essentially, what do you want the president to do? He has an objective: secure the southern border. Congress wants to starve it out because they see politics. So the president's got to be resourceful, he puts his people in place, and says this is a national emergency. I am concerned about the security. I am concerned about the facilities, the humanitarian concerns at the border. So are Democrats. So where do you expecting him to get the money from? Cash in Trump Tower, remortgage it, perhaps? What do you want him to do?
DOOCY: Well, the reason -- it's two-fold. One, because Congress hasn't changed the laws to address these things and close the loopholes as the president has asked. But also, the White House asked Congress during the July emergency supplemental, give us money for more beds. They did not do that, and so now that's why they're looking all across the federal budget. They're seeing some money sitting in the Department of Homeland Security not being used. They're saying let's reprogram it, let's put it to use.
EARHARDT: I'm just surprised that Democrats like Nancy Pelosi are calling this reckless when they go down to these facilities and they see what they're like inside. When you're asking, when you're putting individuals in these facilities for 20 to 60 days, then don't you think they need a bed to lie down on?
KILMEADE: So let's see. We're going to protest --
DOOCY: There's no bed, they can't keep them.
KILMEADE: Let's see, they're going to make purchases of beds from a private company. Will that company selling the beds to Homeland Security, well they're going to get boycotted. And then you complain about the lack of beds and lack of facilities but you don't want to fund it.
EARHARDT: Right.
KILMEADE: So he decides I've got to take money from Homeland Security to fund it because this is a Homeland Security issue, and you want to vilify the president and the administration for doing something you're complaining he wasn't doing.
DOOCY: Welcome to Washington.
KILMEADE: Yeah, well, I mean, there's got to be somebody who's going to lay this out. Because there are very busy people out there who are going to see this on the surface and saying, wow, the president doesn't care about people who are in the eye the storm, literally, of this hurricane. When in reality, he's trying to fund the border because that was their main critique before they went on their August vacation.
EARHARDT: Right, disaster relief isn't just for hurricanes or tropical storms. But to your point, maybe the Democrats don't want the beds, they just want them released.
KILMEADE: Yes.
DOOCY: And that's on the nose.