Photo: Alamy
During an exclusive interview with RSBN on Thursday, Rep. Ted Budd, R-N.C., ripped the policies of Joe Biden and Democrats amid the rising inflation crisis and the influx of illegal migrants at the southern border.
Budd, a three-term representative whose candidacy for U.S. Senate was endorsed by President Trump, slammed Joe Biden’s “reckless spending” amid the latest inflation numbers. Tuesday’s U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics report found that prices jumped 8.5 percent for the 12 months ending in March, the highest increase since December 1981.
“Biden’s reckless spending did this,” Budd told RSBN. “His constraints on energy—the average family, it’s costing them $5,200 per person. It’s all self-inflicted by the Biden administration.”
He continued, “We were a net exporter, under Donald Trump, of energy. We have massive capacities here in this country. I think we need to get back to focusing on our own production capacities.”
Biden and members of his administration have refused to take responsibility for the inflation crisis. Instead, they blame Russian President Vladimir Putin, dubbing the gas increase the “Putin Price Hike.”
Budd, who the Russian government sanctioned on Wednesday for his support of Ukraine, maintained that Biden is the only one responsible for record inflation spreading across the United States.
“[Biden’s] just shifting blame,” said Budd. “He’s a failed president, and he’s trying to direct people’s attention away from his own failures to something externally.”
The North Carolina representative continued, “The Putin problem is [Biden’s] problem because Putin would not have been emboldened to invade Ukraine under a strong president like Donald J. Trump. He’s the one that on his watch let this happen.”
Budd also slammed the Biden administration’s lax immigration rules. In January 2021, Biden terminated Trump’s border wall construction and paused its appropriated funds. Budd told RSBN that “tons of steel” is sitting along the southern border ready to be used for the wall, but it has stayed idle.
“This is wasteful,” Budd continued. “This was a project that was under constructed and underfunded.”
Earlier this month, Budd introduced the “Build the Wall Now” act to “remove legal impediments preventing construction of a border” put in place by the Biden administration. According to the congressman, $2.1 billion was appropriated for border construction from 2018 through 2021, and it has not been spent.
“This bill takes those previously appropriated funds for the border wall and makes them available until they’re spent, so the funding won’t expire,” said Budd.
Budd also told RSBN that the bill will require construction to “begin within 24 hours” after the bill is passed.
Budd, a gun store owner, also took aim at Biden’s recent comments against the Second Amendment. While speaking at a press conference on Monday, Biden called on Congress to pass “universal background checks” and “ban assault weapons.” Biden then shouted that Americans do not need “high capacity magazines” because deer do not wear “Kevlar vests.”
Budd explained that the places that have experienced recent shootings “have been the most restrictive, controlled states” when it comes to gun control. He noted that the country does not have a gun problem, but “a people problem.”
“I want to protect every American’s constitutional right to keep and bear arms,” Budd said. “There was already gun control in these places, so it just shows how it fails. We must never allow our government to infringe on our Second Amendment rights.
Budd continued, “Seconds count. Police are minutes away. We really need our citizens to be able to make use of their Second Amendment rights for their own personal defense.”
Budd appeared alongside President Trump during his rally in Selma, North Carolina earlier this month. He faces numerous Republican challengers in his races for U.S. Senate, including former Gov. Pat McCrory.
However, McCrory, whom Budd called an “unreliable conservative” and “career politician” is polling behind the congressman by double digits. A WRAL-TV/Survey USA poll that was released on Wednesday reported that Budd leads McCrory by 10 points (33 percent to 23 percent) one month ahead of the state’s primaries.
“We have a grassroots organization in all 100 counties. I’m the only candidate to do that,” Budd told RSBN on Thursday. “My message is simply that I’m a conservative fighter, I’m a small businessman, Trump endorsed, and I know how to win. I’ve beaten Democrats before, and [North Carolinians] need somebody who knows how to fight.”
The North Carolina primaries will be held on May 17.
