Rep. Matt Rosendale, R-Mont., President Joe Biden's handling of the crisis at the southern border, the Russia-Ukraine war, and believes the administration's decision to not immediately shoot down the Chinese spy balloon is "problematic" to our national security.
Rosendale told Fox News Digital in an exclusive interview this week that he believes Biden should be impeached, as his administration keeps saying the southern border is secure when thousands of migrants continue to walk through each month.
"I was talking before Biden was even sworn into office that we were going to have a crisis on the southern border. I knew that he was going to ignore the policies that the Trump administration had put in place. And sure enough, when he put Alejandro Mayorkas in charge of Homeland Security, he kept telling us that he has a plan, he has a plan. Just wait for his plan to work out. And what we have recognize is that he does have a plan — it's to allow as many illegal immigrants to cross over into our country as possible while Biden is still president," Rosendale said during an interview.
"That is a violation of the Constitution, it's a violation of my caucus's oath of office. And I, quite frankly, would like to see the man impeached," he said.
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After Biden took a surprise trip to Kyiv, Ukraine on Monday to meet with Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and offer the country half a billion more dollars in aid, Rosendale said he was "stunned."
"I was actually caught off guard. I was stunned by the fact that he was there. And then while he was there to promise another $500 million before we've had any conversations with Congress, it's quite disappointing, quite frankly. We haven't even had an accounting of the first, it looks like $100 billion that has been sent there. And I have people all over the state of Montana that would like to see what is going on with the money and Ukraine, because we could spend about $10 billion and build a secure southern border for ourselves," he said.
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The border crisis, however, is top of mind for Rosendale even as other aspects of Biden's administration bother him.
"This is all happening on the same day that now we're getting reports that the northern border has many more problems than anyone had realized. And the illegal crossings up there are up to about 100,000 a year, up from about 2,000 a year. So while it pales in comparison to what's happening on the southern border, it still is an indicator that we have a major problem," he said.
A Chinese spy balloon entered America airspace in the beginning of February, hovering over Montana for several hours and eventually traveling across nearly the entire continental U.S. Despite calls to shoot down the aircraft while it flew over open fields in Montana, the Biden administration waited several days until it passed off the coast of South Carolina, where U.S. fighter jets shot it down.
Rosendale said he "can't fathom" why they did not immediately shoot down the balloon.
"That is a big problem. The Chinese government, the Chinese Communist Party, is probing us to see what we're going to do, both militarily and economically. They want to be the world's power. And that balloon was spotted off the Aleutian Islands. I do not know why it wasn't taken down at that point," Rosendale said of the balloon that hovered over his state.
"It was allowed to drift over Alaska, Canada. And then as you know, it spent several days hovering over Malmstrom Air Force Base and very sensitive defensive systems, about 140 ICBM that were responsible for defending our nation and why it wasn't taken down at that point, I just don't know. I can't fathom it and to allow it to continue to collect data as it traveled across our country is problematic. It's not any one bit of information that the Chinese spy balloon picked up. It is an accumulative process of picking up information about our civilian infrastructure, our military infrastructure, our cellular data and what's going on. And it is all a very, very big problem," he stated.
Sen. John Tester's, D-Mont., term ends in 2025 and Senate Republicans have their eyes on his flipping his seat next cycle. Tester recently announced he would be seeking re-election, but no Republican challengers have entered into the race at this time.
"We have a lot of time to figure out who's going to run against Jon Tester in 24," Rosendale said when asked if he would consider running for the Montana Senate seat.
"One thing we all do know, and that is that Jon Tester does not represent the people of Montana. And we're going to make sure that we put the strongest Republican up to defeat him so that we have good representation in the United States Senate from Montana," he said.
