Republican Senator Eric Schmitt is urging the Biden administration’s Pentagon to stop selling off border wall materials, accusing the outgoing administration of “sabotaging” efforts to secure the border while recovering only 0.02% of the taxpayer funds initially spent on the materials. In a letter exclusively obtained by The Daily Wire, which reported on Thursday that Biden is rapidly attempting to dispose of border wall components in his final weeks in office, Schmitt called on Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin to “immediately cease” the auctions.
“I am writing to demand that you immediately cease the auctioning off of border wall materials,” Schmitt opens in his letter to Austin. “Senate Republicans, including the incoming Chairman, as well as my colleagues on the Senate Armed Services have raised the absurdity of selling border wall materials through letters, nomination hearings, and through the National Defense Authorization Act legislative process.”
Schmitt’s analysis of the sales already completed this month found that the administration is offloading the wall materials for far less than their market value, the outlet reported. “A representative sale on December 11, 2024 concluded with four sections of border wall, accounting for almost 16,000 pounds worth of steel, selling for $105. If purely sold for scrap metal at the average cost of $694 per metric ton, the value of this lot is worth $5,219,” he pointed out, going on to accuse the current administration of sabotaging Trump.
According to his math, the government is recouping just 0.02% of the taxpayer money used to initially secure the material during Trump’s first term. “While recouping less than 0.02% of taxpayer money used to secure these materials, the Biden Administration is sabotaging the incoming Trump Administration just weeks ahead of President Trump’s inauguration,” the senator added. “These border wall materials will cost tens of thousands of U.S. taxpayer dollars to replace and will be critical to stem the record flow of millions of illegal immigrants who were welcomed across our border during the Biden Administration.”
A border patrol agent informed investigative reporter James Lalino that the objective is to remove all the materials from his section of the Arizona border by Christmas. “They are taking it from three stations: Nogales, Tucson, and Three Points. The goal is to move all of it off the border before Christmas.” The agent also estimated that as much as “half a mile worth of unused border wall is being moved every day.”
EXCLUSIVE: Weeks before Trump takes office, Biden is racing to auction off unused border wall materials.
Video shows trucks hauling wall materials off the border to a government auction site, where a massive amount of wall is waiting to be sold. pic.twitter.com/ogaQMBHw7R
— Daily Wire (@realDailyWire) December 12, 2024
The Daily Wire investigation has also prompted a response from Texas Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick, who said he is prepared to buy the wall. “Message their White House right now: I will bid on all of that wall and we will buy it in Texas and we will give it to Donald Trump,” Patrick said. “I’ve got a billion dollars in my pocket to do it.” Further sales are set to take place later this month, with bidding starting at just $5 for an entire segment of the wall, according to the auction website, the outlet reported.
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