Blackburn rallies Republican women as 2024 election cycle heats up

Tennessee Sen. Marsha Blackburn is rallying Republican voters as the 2024 election cycle kicks off ahead of what she said will be a “pivotal year for our country.”

Blackburn spoke to dozens of members of the Republican Women of Williamson County at their monthly luncheon in Franklin, which included other guests such as Tenn. State Sen. Jack Johnson.

“You can’t make up this kind of crazy,” Blackburn told the crowd. “Every single day in [Washington] D.C., it is a fight to defend faith, family, freedom, hope and opportunity, and it is a pushback against [President] Joe Biden’s policies, and [Sen. Majority Leader] Chuck Schumer and what they are trying to do. I just look at where they’re trying to take the country and it is frightening to me.”

Blackburn specifically cited immigration and border security, reiterating her calls for the completion of a physical wall on the U.S. southern border with Mexico, something that was a declared focus by former President Donald Trump, although his administration never completed it.

Blackburn said that the Biden administration “continues to try to find new ways to make illegal legal,” in reference to immigrants and refugees, while allegedly ignoring the ongoing fentanyl and opioid crisis and cartel operations and violence.

Blackburn alleged that the Biden administration is not interested in “stopping terrorists from entering this country,” while in the same breath stating that an Afghani national who is listed on a U.S. terrorist watch list was recently arrested crossing into the U.S. from Mexico. The U.S. Customs and Border Patrol is a federal law enforcement agency.

Blackburn also criticized Biden’s recent authorization of the deployment of some 1,500 U.S. troops to the border who are taking on administrative support roles, and not combat or law enforcement roles.

While she characterized the troop’s jobs of “processing paperwork” as antithetical to “securing the border,” the processing of immigrants is a necessary step in determining if someone meets the legal requirement for asylum and eventually either accepting someone into the country or deporting them, all parts of the federal government’s national security efforts.

The day after Blackburn’s remarks, Gov. Bill Lee authorized the deployment of 100 Tenn. National Guardsmen to the border where they will specifically support security efforts by "patrolling and providing additional security presence along the border; assisting road and route clearance; barrier placement and debris removal; and staffing outpost operations."

On May 22, Blackburn’s Tennessee colleague U.S. Senator Bill Hagerty led a roundtable discussion in Nashville with former Acting Director of the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Tom Homan and various state and local law enforcement and government officials discussing border security.

Blackburn also criticized the “impact” of the Green New Deal, proposed environmental legislation which has never been passed by the U.S. Senate or signed into law, as well as inflation and the national debt, the latter of which appears to have been addressed with a recent bi-partisan deal brokered between Biden and Republican Speaker of the House Kevin McCarthy.

Blackburn called Biden “weak and compromised” with regards to Russia, China and other adversarial nations, and reiterated many familiar culture war issues that have been evaluated by right-wing media.

“The only way to save this country is to do something about it,” Blackburn said. “We, the people, have to be the people and get to work.”

Blackburn said that she will specifically work at “reigning in big tech and holding them accountable,” noting her proposed bi-partisan Kids Online Safety Act, which she said will soon be passed in the Senate and sent to the House; “removing work from the U.S. military;" her introduction of the Protection of Women and Girls in Sports Act; and efforts to prevent foreign governments — especially China — from purchasing U.S. farmland.

“So, how do we win in 2024?” Blackburn asked the crowd. “It is vital — Our freedom, our sovereignty is going to depend on this, and in 2024, we have to make certain that we keep the U.S. House, we have to make certain that we take the U.S. Senate, and then we have to make certain that we have a Republican in the White House.

“This is going to require each and every one of us to do our part,” Blackburn continued, challenging the crowd to get voters registered and pledging to train 1,000 volunteers before 2024.

While both Blackburn and Hagerty already both announced their support for former President Trump's reelection campaign, she did not bring up the endorsement in the meeting, which took place just hours before Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis officially announced his bid for the office in the growing field of both Republican and Democratic challengers to President Biden.

"We're going to have a great primary, " Blackburn told The News. "[South Carolina Sen.] Tim Scott is a very close friend of mine, [Former U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations] Nikki Haley does a great job — We're going to have a great primary — What we do know is the American people are tired of the Biden policies, as I said in my remarks."

Blackburn didn't specifically answer what she thinks that DeSantis' role could or should be within the national-level of the Republican party, but said that the party sees states "as our labs of innovation" for ideas and policies which could be replicated by other states or at a federal level.

The event also saw an early birthday celebration for Blackburn, who was surprised with a birthday cake and an assortment of gifts, including a pair of American flag-themed (and Pakistani-made) boxing gloves, “because she’s a fighter.”