Joco Today

U.S. Senator Roger Marshall of Kansas appeared on Fox Business’s The Bottom Line to discuss issues related to drug cartels and the ongoing debate over a Congressional stock trading ban.

Addressing President Trump’s actions targeting drug cartels, Marshall stated, “We’ve got to stop the hemorrhaging first. I am a physician myself. Before we go into surgery, we want to stop the hemorrhaging, and that’s what President Trump is trying to do here. He secured the border, and by the way, one of the reasons that Mexico was cooperating is because of the Trump tariffs. Because of the Trump tariffs, the Mexican President sent 10,000 troops to the border, and the amount of fentanyl crossing the border has been cut in half.

“And then these 26 cartel leaders is the next step. She did that because of the threat of tariffs. But even by the way, these cartels are alive and well across the state of Kansas. Every one of your listeners, in your major cities across your state, the cartel has organized crime right there, and they’re what they’ve been doing is fentanyl. Now they’re turning to meth, some other drugs as well. So, this is the right direction, and I applaud President Trump’s efforts here.”

Marshall also responded to comments from Washington D.C.’s Attorney General regarding crime prevention strategies: “I’m just sitting here trying to how to respond to that. I just want to put some explanation marks here. The Mexican cartels are involved in the marijuana farms in Oklahoma and Colorado, and they are smuggling that into states like Kansas, where marijuana is illegal, addicting our youngsters, especially to those types of drugs. I mean, organized crime is bad. It’s bad for the country. This is what these cartels are. They’re organized crime. They’re terrorists. We need to do everything we can to disrupt them. America is a land of law and order. I wake up in the morning, think about the safety and security of my family first. And I think that’s what the President is doing here as well.”

On Congressional stock trading bans intended to address public concerns about government integrity and potential conflicts of interest among lawmakers or their families with access to non-public information from their work on Capitol Hill (https://www.congress.gov/bill/118th-congress/senate-bill/349), Marshall said: “I think the big issue here is that America has lost faith in our government. We’ve been lied to. We’ve seen fraud, waste, and abuse, and we see Nancy Pelosi sitting here going from maybe a decade ago, a net worth of $50 million, and now she’s worth $400 million. That her husband is so good at trading stocks that he’s outperformed the Standard and Poor’s index by some 600%, 700%.

“So, the two things we could do in Congress to help restore that trust, number one would be term limits, and then this will be number two is to say look no day trading for members of Congress or their families. I fully support this; I’ve supported it for a long time... We got to figure out the right way to do it but I fully support this.”

The interview covered current legislative discussions about curbing illicit drug trafficking as well as proposals aimed at increasing transparency within Congress.