“They Spied On Me” - Sec. Kristi Noem: Secret DHS File Room, El Mencho Fallout & Deep State Purge

In 22, you said China was the enemy of the United States. >> The problem with China is they don't just have a 5-year plan to damage the United States. They have a hundreds, if not thousand-year plan to become the world dominating power. >> Did you guys go back and look at all the previous communication and emails to say, "Wait a minute, they were talking to China. This guy was bought." >> Elon and his team were extremely helpful to me. They helped me identify that some of my own employees downloaded software on my phone and my laptop to spy on me. >> Stop it. >> To record our meetings. >> Wow. >> I always believed when people talked about the deep state that it existed. I never would have dreamed that it was as bad as it is. >> WHAT DO WE WANT? >> WHEN DO WE WANT IT? NOW. >> I'm still every day trying to dig out people who don't love America. I just found the other day a whole room on this campus that was a secret skiff secure facility that had files. nobody knew existed. There was individuals working there that had secret files on some of these most controversial topics. >> Do you think Shine Bomb is an honest player? Is there a narco state here going on? >> I've been disappointed in her leadership. She could have shown more strength in the last year. She may have people within her own military which are facilitating a lot of the work that the cartels are doing. seconds. >> Did you ever think it could? >> Adam, what's your point? >> The future looks bright. >> My handshake is better than anything I ever signed right here. >> You are one of your >> Secretary Christine, it's great to have you on the show. Oh man, we've been looking forward to this. So, thank you for inviting me, Patrick. I'm glad to be with you. >> Thanks for I know we were trying to work something out in DC a couple weeks ago, but it's great to have you on. You know, I'm sitting there going through uh uh what it is to be with the DHS, and we unpack all the different departments. You have ICE, you have Secret Service, you have TSA, you have uh Federal Law Enforcement Training Center, you have Cyber Security and Infrastructure, you have CBP, you have Coast Guard during peace time, you have Citizenship and Immigration Services and many other 260,000 employees, uh less than 20 companies, private companies have more than 260,000 employees. I sat there, I asked myself, do you want more jobs? Are you looking for additional responsibility from the president? How do you do it? >> I think I've got I think I've got plenty. Although he did just give me um election security, too. So, and uh and also this um sewage is issue that we have just north of DC, too. So, we're going to help clean that up in partnership with the EPA and and the Army Corps of Engineers and those local individuals. But, you know, yeah, Patrick, you talked about it. This agency, the Department of Homeland Security was created uh after 911. uh at that time when that tragedy and terrorist attack happened, they took all the federal government agencies that had to do with securing the homeland and put them under one department. So that's why I have 23 different agencies and components that all have a focus on making sure that Americans are safe right here at home. You know, I wonder when you guys are on the flight on Air Force One and and I'm trying to visualize because I read a story about how, you know, uh, Secretary Rubio will go out there and grab his blanket and he'll kind of find some time to get some rest. Do you guys say, "Oh my god, he's going to come. We're probably going to get some more responsibility, more jobs. Does he stay up till 3:00 in the morning strategizing saying, Christy, what do you think about this?" What is it like when you guys are all together on Air Force One? >> He does. You know, the president is always thinking and always working. So, a lot of times he'll come back to the conference room and visit with everybody, but I like to go sit up in his office, too, and talk to him. That's when he's going through whatever speech he just gave, some of the feedback, some of the press, people are calling him and uh telling him what a great job he's doing. But that's when we start talking about the next day, the next week, all the different challenges that are going on in the country. And if you're sitting there, um he will tend to say, you know, Christy, you go do this or Marco, you go take care of that. You'll take care of it though, right? And that's what's fantastic about President Trump is he trusts us. He trusts his cabinet members to go fix a problem. So, um, that's a wonderful thing to have in a president that will give you responsibility and know that he can trust you to go take care of it for the American people. >> Yeah, that that's the vibe I get from an outsider watching in what it's like. And you'll see the numbers as well on how turnover was on the first administration versus this one after 12 months. I think it was at 43 44. This time around 28. Everybody seems to be enjoying working together, which is great to hear. But for the audience, I think a couple things I'd want to start off with. We got a lot of things to go through. Mexico, ICE, different topics, but as the governor of South Dakota, there's a few things when I watched when you were leading the state. It was so impressive. I think you were the state that was the most open. Uh, at first you got criticized a lot and then you ended up getting a lot of credit for making the right moves. A lot of other states kind of followed your lead. I remember there was a story about being offered $300 a week of unemployment they wanted to send and you said, "No, no, we don't want to take the payment. You know, we're doing okay. Our unemployment is low." What was your what was your processing as you were going through a season that none of us had gone through before? >> Yeah. Well, my background is is that I'm a business person, a farmer and rancher who took over our family businesses after the death of my dad. I became the general manager at age 22. So making decisions for me in South Dakota was just common sense. Uh looking at the facts on the ground and making the best decisions for people around me. When I got elected to be governor, uh our state kind of was dying. People were moving out of South Dakota. Our economy was drying up. Jobs were drying up. Our kids were leaving the state to go get an education. And then they tended to stay in in another state to get a job and and pursue that future. So, I ran on making sure that we were open for business. In fact, that was my state of the state uh title before CO ever hit South Dakota or hit our country was that South Dakota was open for business. So when that came forward and uh we were sitting and seeing that virus situation, I brought a few of my adviserss together, my general counsel, you know, some of my lieutenant governor and some of my staff and just said, you know, tell me about what happens uh if we shut down our businesses, if we shut down our schools, you know, and talked about the constitutional rights that people have and that businesses have over a state, over the federal government. And every decision that we made in South Dakota was based on the constitution and that that was where our true foundation was going to be. You know, in fact, even in CO, we were the only state that never once closed businesses. We never mandated that anybody stay home or wear masks. We kept life as normal. We said that we were going to give people as much information as possible and then let them use personal responsibility to take care of themselves and their families and that we would get through it together. I talked about how I didn't have any right to go shut down a business in South Dakota. That that would be a taking. It be considered a taking of their business if they were to be hurt economically by that. And then that business, that business owner would have the opportunity to come back and to sue the state of South Dakota for that taking. And I didn't want to put us in that situation where we would be taking an unconstitutional action against our residents and then putting the state at a liability as far as making them whole again. So every decision we made was um that I made was was pretty matterof fact. Although the rest of the world just rained fire down on my head. I mean I got every night remember >> just destroyed on the national news networks. You know they said I was killing people. In fact even the federal government when they called me told me I would have over 300,000 of South Dotans die if I didn't shut down my state. that they would uh and was telling me that that was going to be the consequences of it. So, um even Saturday Night Live had their opening skit was me being a vampire um killing people and making decisions uh that that were not going to be good and were going to be demonized by all those Elizabeth Warren and other Rachel Maddo. Those folks were coming after me every day. But but we did the right thing and we had a lower loss of life than most states. Our businesses thrived. We grew like crazy. People moved to our state by the thousands and we really benefited from embracing our freedom. I think that a lot of times when you see a crisis or you see a tough situation, uh people may be quick to judge what leaders are deciding, but it may take a while for them to really realize that by trusting the citizens that that our country will thrive. And that's really what we need to do here as well. Trust in our constitution, trust in our laws, and make sure we enforce them so that we can reap the benefits of that. And and what that was is for for the rest of us, we saw you on the national scale because it was very impressive how you handled yourself with the media when the attacks were coming and they said, "Wait a minute, she's got very strong leadership qualities. How did this person become the way she is?" And uh uh obviously that led to the job that you have today, which is comes with a lot of different responsibility. But I want to stay with South Dakota as well because it's important for the audience to know how many successes you had there. One of the concerns that you hear how China, a lot of private companies in China tied to the government buy a lot of land in America, some 277,000 acres of land up to 300,000 acres. We'll see that number. And South Dakota being one where I don't know what the number is, but it's 40 million plus acres which is dedicated to that. How did you handle China trying to come into South Dakota? I know you guys have certain laws and things you put in place that they were not too happy about. How did you manage your relationship with China in regards to agriculture? >> Yeah, we were very aggressive against China, you know, recognizing. So I have businesses and in farming and ranching. So I had watched for decades as China came in and tried to control our food supply. They bought up our chemical companies in the United States. They bought our fertilizer companies and we became reliant on China to make sure we could even grow our crops. uh stole our genetics and our IP when it cames to our agric agricultural economy and inputs. And then as I watched them come in and start to buy up land across the country, I recognize that the country that controls our food supply uh will control us and that that is China's goal every day is to control the United States of America. And the instant that they would be able to control that entire supply chain system for our food is when they would control us. So, we banned China from being able to own farmland in South Dakota. I got aggressive on them as far as our intellectual property and technology as well. And then I even was the first governor to ban uh Tik Tok and from them to being able to be used on our state devices that in to run our government or being able to infiltrate our systems. Now, President Trump has been a very aggressive and Tik Tok and making sure that it's a much safer uh system and entity for us to utilize, but but being the first one to go out and to take those actions, I think gives other people an opportunity to really examine the issue to look at it and the security of our food supply chain uh and how how vulnerable we are to China. I think really started to come to light during that point in time when we were banning it from owning our land. We saw that many other states had already given up a lot of their land to to China and we weren't willing to do that in South Dakota. >> Were there other governors that were calling you saying how are you managing it for them to be able to duplicate some of your policies? >> I think so. We did the state uh we had the law as well that first banned you know men from uh being able to play in girls sports and that m that bill and that legislation was used in over a dozen other states after that that language that would withstand a challenge in the court system that could be uh give us case law that would be helpful in making sure we could protect it into the future. So many times I learned during COVID because we had phone calls and conference calls with governors every single day, you know, what are you doing? What decisions are you making on what basis are you doing that I realized that even a small state like South Dakota um by being a leader and and making the right decisions influences the other states around you, other leaders around you? And so that's one of the things that President Trump has been doing for us if and you've seen it across the world as he makes bold decisions to protect his country and to embrace freedom. He's influencing other countries and other world leaders as well. We're seeing it happen in Europe and with Italy and uh the UK with some of their decisions. We're seeing it in Central and South America with leaders that are very proTrump. And that means that they're recognizing how the United States does better. Uh when someone stands up and is strong for law and order, uh for secure borders and for a strong economy, that really makes a big difference, not just here in our country, but around the world. >> In 22, you said China was the enemy of the United States. >> Has your position changed that now you're a little bit more on the inside and you're seeing everything? >> No, not at all. I mean, I still believe that China is a huge threat. They The problem with China is they don't just have a five-year plan to damage the United States. They have a hundreds, if not thousand-year plan to become the world dominating power. That means that in order to do that, they have to take out the United States of America. So that's why I appreciate President Trump with his ability to call up leaders from these countries and even she in China and have conversations with them, show that he is going to fight for Americans. You know, he got extremely aggressive with them on tariffs and um had had worked with them to slow down the flow of fentanyl and those those uh you know ingredients that go into formulating that poison that was killing off Americans and our next generation of citizens. Uh that makes a world of difference to have a leader that recognizes you don't have to go to war and have bloodshed to protect your country. You can use other tools in your toolbox to go out there and influence them uh to stay in their lane. >> So this leads me to uh the next and which I it's one of the departments that falls uh uh under DHS and that's cyber security. So for me when I think about China, I'm in the same boat as you on how I feel about China because of made in China 2025 and they were going to be number one in 2025. They fell for 25, but they're long-term thinkers. You know, when COVID took place, nobody expected it. The president was having a lot of momentum and then all of a sudden CO then the virus was released. Oh, it came from a bat. No, it came from a, you know, this. No, it came from this. And then later, years later, we realized it came out from a Wuhan lab in China. And they could have probably moved faster to prevent that from happening. 7 million people died. The market lost roughly $16 trillion. But they're very creative. They don't have our military. We have the best navy, best military, best army, nuclear power. In every possible way, we have that. But but they are very uh sneaky in the way they'll go about beating you. So if cyber security is one of them, when you guys sit there and think about what China is capable of doing if you push them too hard, what are some areas you sit there and say, "Well, they could do a cyber warfare. They could do this. They could do What what are some things you guys think about? >> Well, it's not even what I think about, it's what I know now that I'm in this department. I mean, being on the inside and watching how they've infiltrated our technologies. Um, how even when we have devices that are used in our financial systems that are implemented across our country, just having their technology in that makes it much more vulnerable. Uh, we see it in our ports. You know, you look at the Los Angeles port where a vast majority of the goods that come into this country, especially on the western half of the country, come through that port. Most of those um machines and devices and technologies that are utilized are owned by China. Uh and they have the ability to know what's coming in, what's leaving, manipulate those shipments, if they're screened or not screened. And that's one of the things we've been focused on here at the department is making sure that shipping container uh that come into this country into our ports are screened and that we have the ability to trust that data uh and not rely on just ch Chinese cranes and and shipping systems that they have developed and have the ability to manipulate as well. I our one of the jobs that's entrusted to the Department of Homeland Security is securing our critical infrastructure. That means our electrical grid, our water systems, our food supply chain. Um, our election system is considered critical infrastructure according to law and is under the responsibility of this department. But that means that you also have to secure those systems. And every day we still see people that are hacking into our systems and making us more vulnerable from China, from Iran, from Russia. very coordinated, sophisticated hacking attempts that the department here under SISA, which is our cyber security and information um agency works with our state and local partners to make sure that we're stopping those hacking attempts. We're not losing personal data and we're not allowing them to come in and potentially shut down one of the critical infrastructures we need to make this country run. It's a real threat every single day. And when you don't hear about it, that means we had a good day, that we did our our job. But but they relentlessly are coming after the United States by making us more vulnerable. And that's why it's so important right now, Patrick. That's one of the agencies that's not funded by Congress. They've chosen not to fund those individuals that are out there hunting down those bad actors. >> Uh and so which one is not funded? They're not here. >> Which one? >> Uh SISA, the cyber security agency. the vast majority of those individuals that hunt down bad actors and then help us harden our systems so that we can't be vulnerable to those hacking attempts, uh, they're furoughed right now because, um, Democrats in Congress have chosen not to fund the Department of Homeland Security. >> Now, how do you when you're when you're handling some like this, you're saying electrical, right? Food, election, right? they want to get involved and make sure they choose who they want to be the president or even you know throw it off or you know even uh the canal the ports that we have Panama Canal because they still have control over it. Hutchinson still owns them and you know they prevented us from being able to transact and put that under Larry Finins uh you know Black Rockck. So but how much of it is things we can do for a fact to prevent it from happening versus how much of it is watching the screens constantly to see movement here, action here, action here. Is it a constant 20 247 thing? >> It is. It's 24/7, 365 days a week or a year. It's it's incredible. It never stops and we can't ever not be diligent. So, our Can you imagine if our electrical grid went down? Um we have um our military bases are vulnerable to a hacking attempt. When you hear about our telecoms going down, um 100% of the time we're involved in trying to figure out why that happened. Was it a hacking attempt? Did they steal personal data and information from US citizens? And what can we do to ensure that that doesn't happen again? So, you maybe have heard about Salt Typhoon and Vault Typhoon where we did have bad actors hack into that critical infrastructure. And CISA is the agency and the federal government that's responsible to harden our system so that doesn't happen. And then also make sure that we're working with local states and those communities uh maybe you know rural cooperatives or or water plants um because if we are even participating with them and have our systems connected if they get hacked into it makes us vulnerable on a nationwide scale. And so CISA spends every day doing that and working with those technology companies and those entities to make sure that we're much safer and that we are insulated from those kind of bad actors. >> Yes. in the financial industry. I've been in it for 25 years. You can't go in a meeting nowadays without them talking about cyber security attacks with 2.2 million social security numbers were stolen from this company. They logged into the client accounts. They moved this much money. So, it's a if that's happening within insurance companies, financial firms, I can only imagine what it's like when you're going up against uh, you know, a a country like China that wants to see us fall and and them get ahead of us. But I always think about, you know, what what is the way to fight against that? Can you catch them? Because even if you if you talk to the average person right now, you're at the bar, you're having a cigar, and you say, "So, what are the five issues that are unanswered that you wanted to get answered, right? Is it 9/11? Is it John F. Kennedy assassination? Is it Epstein? Is it this?" You'd be amazed how many people say, "We still don't know what happened with COVID, and why isn't China being held accountable for it?" Is there anything like you know when uh uh uh Elon bought Twitter and they did something called Twitter files Matt Taibbe and all these guys that went in and we saw the emails and you saw the emails from the Biden administration saying you can't put that up there you can't let that article go viral you know the laptop story with New York Post when you got in did you guys run any kind of a you know Department of Homeland Security files to go back and look at all the previous communication and emails to say wait a minute they were talking to China this guy was bought Did you guys do anything like that? >> Yes. I feel like that's all I do, Patrick. Um, you wouldn't even believe what I found since I've been in this department. I just found the other day a whole room in in on this campus that was a secret skiff secure facility that had files nobody knew existed. So, we just happened to have a um an employee walk by a door and wonder what it was and started asking questions. We went in there. There was individuals working there that had secret files that nobody knew about on some of these most controversial topics like that. And now I've got that turned over to attorneys and we're getting to the bottom of what exactly happened there. You know, we have CBP, which is, you know, Customs and Border Protection. They know every traveler that comes into this country, every good that comes in. They're the ones who assess and collect all of the tariffs. But the information that they had on travelers that came in during COVID uh but our national labs which I also have national labs under my jurisdiction their scientists that participated with that Wuhan lab uh how they were traveling back and forth between each other and and working on those experiments it's been eyeopening and I'll tell you Patrick even from the time I came into this office it was you know Elon and his team were extremely helpful to me they helped me identify that that some of my own employees in my department had downloaded software on my phone and my laptop to spy on me. Stop it. >> To record our meetings. Wow. >> They had done that to several of the politicals. Um and so we ended up bringing in people and >> and that was something that if you didn't have those technology experts here in the department looking at all of our laptops and our phones and recognizing that kind of software, it would still be happening today. So, one of the things I need to do and continue to do is partner with technology companies and experts to bring them in and help us because many times in government um and especially in this department which was extremely neglected, we we were just behind and not up to the standard we should be at. Um it I remember the first four months I couldn't even send a PowerPoint over email from the Department of Homeland Security servers that was longer than six pages long. Um, so the the the backwards thinking of protecting our country was extremely detrimental to keeping us safe and and and many times the deep state I think what I what I tell people most of the time is I always believed when people talked about the deep state before that it existed. Um, I never would have dreamed that it was as bad as it is. It's it is I'm still every day trying to dig out people who don't love America that not just work at this department but also work throughout the federal government. >> Did you find anybody that was taking money from uh uh foreign countries? Anybody that was taking money from China, anybody that was being funded? >> I haven't found any of that. Um I haven't found individuals like that. We do have people that should not have had security clearances that should not have been able to have the information that they have that were um able to access information that that wasn't legal for them to have. And and frankly, Patrick, there's been a lot of news stories written about it. But um you know, we polygraph people because I'm a law enforcement agency and a national security agency. uh we bring people in and if we think that they are bad actors if they're not working in the best interest of the United States and are violating the law in their job duties, you know, we have no problem polygraphing them to find out if they're telling the truth. And we've gone out there and fired individuals. Um many of them uh because they didn't have the United States of America and their constitutional duties um in hand. They they were deceptive and needed to go. What what happened to the individual that was uh you know had your phone uh uh uh that was being spied on? What happened to those individuals? >> Fired. >> Brought in, polygraphed, fired. Yes. Many of them out of that that arm of the department that are in charge of security on laptops, phones. Um also, >> you know, you think that's enough. >> We had to >> we had to sweep my office on a regular basis to make sure that there's not listening devices in it. Um it's it's very uh it was very prevalent and I think that what happened at this department was individuals >> um had gotten away with for years spying on people who were politically appointed and and trying to stop an administration that was coming in and trying to fix this country and keep us safe. >> What what does accountability look like? Let's just say we learn that China was involved and you learn, right? Because there's a difference when you're on the outside, you're a business owner yourself, you know, and you're like, you know, I want to get into politics. Then you do it and you were governor. You're running the state. You do great work. Then you get a bigger job, 260,000 employees. And then when you were a civilian, you would say, you know what, accountability to me is dot dot dot. And then you're on the inside. How different is it when as an outsider civilian, you see what China did and you said, I speculate they released this intentionally because they wanted to hurt the president's chances of getting reelected. But now that you know what is accountability, what does that look like? if we find something. >> Well, people want to see consequences and they want to see um that they're held to task. The president's being very wise in his approach to this, continuing to get to the truth, get as much information as possible and then continue to confront China as the real threat or entity that it is and what we have to interact with them. You know, for years, uh China has gone after us in different ways than just warfare. We all know that China's been building up their military, producing many more submarines and aircraft and than typically in the past. But they have also treated us unfairly in trade agreements. They've stolen our intellectual property. They've manipulated their um monetary policy and so they've used every tool that they've had. And then when I look at them being willing to send these uh precursors and components to the producing of fentanyl that we know is going to come into our country and kill off our next generation of Americans. Uh we see that and they're hacking into our financial systems and critical infrastructure. They're using every method that they possibly can um to weaken America. They recognize that we are the country that stands in the way from them becoming the world dominating power and uh they will use everything and they are willing to wait a long period of time for that to happen and to continue to build that decades hundred thousands of years long timeline to make it happen. So President Trump has been very wise and recognizing that our economy relies on some of the components because so much of it it's been outsourced to China. But you've heard him talk since he came into the White House about onshoring our own supply systems, bringing our food supply chain home, making sure that our our drug and prescription drugs are produced here in the United States so that they're under our own control, making sure that we're aggressive in trade agreements and punishing countries who treat us unfairly. That's all strengthening America so that we don't have those vulnerabilities anymore. >> Yeah. The concern is I I think first time around when they got rid of the president, they probably thought it'll never happen for him to get elected again. I'm sure you've seen that famous clip by Hillary Clinton on Rachel Matto when she says, "Hey, so I got a message for you. If President Trump's going to use Russia to help him collude in the election, China, you should get his IRS taxes. You should I mean, that's that is a crime in itself when she did that, right? So she's inviting China to come into our system. So for me, I wonder who's going to be for sale. And I wonder if the president, as shrewd as he is, and I voted for him all three times, I wonder if he did know that China was involved and he had access to that information, is that more powerful in negotiation than tariffs, especially now that we learned the Supreme Court is not allowing to, you know, use tariffs on countries. And I'm sure China is celebrating behind closed doors. What do you think? >> Well, the the Supreme Court clearly said that President Trump does have the authority to uh put in place tariffs just using a different part of the statute and the President Trump is u very grateful uh for the Supreme Court and affirming that he does have the right to do it just referencing a different part of the law. Um, you know, I think that the president has information, but we still have our intelligence agencies, our FBI that has files that they're going through and cases that they're building because we can uh expose it and talk about it in the court of public opinion, but you the real consequences come with criminal prosecution or with real cases being built that we can use against individuals that have been undermining the United States of America in a criminal way. So, uh, he he certainly is informed on where our vulnerabilities are, and I trust President Trump to make every decision he needs to to make sure that people are accountable. He'll he'll never forget and is still grieved over every single life that was lost, not just during COVID, but to the breaking of so many other of our laws that we've lost American lives under. >> He uh if there is a guy I want in the room negotiating on our behalf, it's him. He He's the guy that I want in that room negotiating. So, I agree with you there. Let's talk about immigration. When you know at first uh you were given uh uh this job which comes with a lot of responsibility. I I believe it's one of the most important jobs and one that uh you guys had some victories, some to really brag about because the country got safer. So I'm sure every mom in the country is happier that she is safer because of what happened on the borders. But a couple things. When I first saw the numbers, right, and it said, you know, 12 to 20 million illegal immigrants that came through the last four years under Biden, we've all seen the stats. We've seen the high numbers. We've seen a low. We've seen what the government tells us. We've seen the 20 million numbers. We've seen what Tom Hman has said. And then you'll see and it says in 2025, 319,000 immigrants were removed. This year, roughly 470 to be removed. How do you remove 12 to 20 million? I mean, you have to do around 3 and a.5 million a year to do that. H how do you do that? How do you realistically accomplish that mission? >> Well, let me go back a little bit and explain some of President Trump's strategy because um when he won the election uh and he called me up and asked me if I wanted to have a role in his new administration, you know, he said, "Christy, you know, I've heard that you might be interested in being in my cabinet. would you you know some people have mentioned egg some have interior you know what are you thinking and I said sir I would I would like to be your homeland security secretary and he said why would you want to do that and I said sir because it's your number one priority you have talked um for years about us needing a secure border about the fact that we had an invasion coming into our country where millions of people were let in unvetted we don't even know who all is here and I said if I'm going to have to leave my family in South Dakota and spend time in DC and be working. I want it to be a job of significance that is consequential. And I said, "And I think that's going to be hard." And if and I I want to know that you're going to have somebody there that's actually tough enough to do it that will be able to follow through on everything that you've promised. And so he gave me the honor of doing the job. But one of the things he told me even before I was sworn in sworn in is that he said, "You know, Christy, those commercials you ran in South Dakota promoting South Dakota when the rest of the country was locked down, uh, you ran those commercials inviting everybody to come to South Dakota. That you were open for business. You wanted them to come visit." And he said, "I want those for the border. I want you to run commercials in this country that shows that we're enforcing our laws. We're not going to allow this anymore and that we're going to deport people." And so he knew that not only was it going to have to be a decision to secure our border and that let our border patrol and let our ICE agents do their job, but also we had to message to the country and to the world that it was going to be a priority to enforce our laws. and he had me run commercials in other countries where a lot of that migration was coming from. Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, um, and and say to those folks there in commercials, "Do not come to the United States anymore illegally. Our border is closed. If you come here, we will arrest you. We will detain you, and we will take you back home, and you'll never get the chance to come to the United States." So, I think that a lot of um the strategic plan that President Trump has had from the beginning is not just arresting illegal criminals and getting them off our streets and protecting Americans. It's also messaging to the world that there's a new sheriff in town, that we're enforcing our laws. And over two million I about two and a half million people have voluntarily gone home. So, when you ask how are you ever going to get 15 to 20 million people to leave this country that are here illegally? Um, a lot of it is convincing them. Um, a lot of it is going out and enforcing the law, going after those criminals and detaining them, and then making sure that we're doing all of that while we still continue to secure the border and have the assets there, showing it's a priority. H >> how do you do that though? Because convincing them to say, "Okay, uh, Johnny and Mary, you guys are here illegally. We suggest you go home and try to come back here legally." If somebody is willing to illegally break the law to come here, you think they're going to follow orders if we tell them to go back? So then for me in 2024 when the election was taking place and one of the 20 promises that the president made was, you know, getting rid of the 10 12 million 50 million illegals and I know Tom Hman was the right person for that job. I mean that's somebody that I really was excited about getting back into it. But the reality of it is how do you do it without the optics? We saw what happened with Alex Prey. We saw what happened with the campaign. Be good. We saw what happened with all this stuff. And I was nasty. That nasty that the pressures were very high on your job. A lot of people were saying, "Hey, Christy should resign. She should get fired." The tensions were up to here, right? But then now we see a little bit has come down and the president even said moving forward if states and cities don't ask us to come in, we're not going to come in. But then isn't that cuz some of the folks that voted for it are saying, "Wait a minute. Are you guys not keeping a promise?" How do you balance those two? >> He wants to be asked to come in and to surge operations in those cities. He wants to if a if a mayor or a governor recognizes that they have an outofcontrol criminal element in their city. If they have people that are coming in and perpetuating fraud like we've seen in Minneapolis, that when we come in to have that cooperation of local law enforcement is incredibly important. But the president's been very clear, too. We're going to enforce the law. So, yes, we're going to prioritize criminals, those murderers and those rapists, individuals out there trafficking our children and proliferating uh drug abuse and and and selling drugs. We're going to prioritize them, but nobody is off the table. We're going to if you're here illegally, you may be detained if you're in one of those situations where you're with those criminals and removed from this country. You know, clearly Patrick, millions of people have gone home on their own. uh they've seen what we're doing on our streets. They've seen us go out there and be strong in enforcing our laws and they decided, you know what, maybe now is a good time for me to go back to, you know, Panama or go back to Ecuador, uh or situations have changed in their country. So, what we do is we we buy them a plane ticket. We give them $2,600 when they land in their country and give them some money to start going on. And many of the times I've gone to dozens of these countries and negotiated uh repatriotation uh programs or programs in their country. So in some of these countries, they've set up housing for these individuals. When they leave the United States and go home, they'll help them with housing. They'll get them trained to fill a job that they need in that country. They'll educate the children. I think Guatemala put forward a a scholarship so the kids there now can get an education when they return back home. and and making those connections is something that I don't think any administration has ever facilitated before. President Trump's put a lot of work into making sure that we're encouraging people to go back home and when they get there that they'll recognize that their home country is the best place to be. And we also are very clear if you wait until we detain you and remove you from this country, you will never get the chance to come back to the United States. You won't get to be in a work program. You'll you won't have the opportunity to come back with a green card or to be a citizen. that that you have shown that you will break our laws and not follow the protocols and that there will be consequences for it. >> You know, you know, when the they criticize the president because, you know, there's different conservatives. There's conservatives that are, you know, the the rhinos, you have the conservatives that are pro-life conservatives, Christians. Then you have the social media conservatives, the Twitter conservative. There's many different kinds, right? And I look at each one of them as a different state that you have to win over. And they have different things that's important to them. like the conservatives on X, Epstein's number one, right? You you can go to YouTube, maybe that's not a priority for them. When when people say about Epstein, I say it was never in his 20 promises that he made. It was a promise that Cash Patel made. It was a promise that Pam Bondi made, but you never heard the president make that promise. Even when he was interviewed by Rachel Compos Duffy, he said yes to 9/11. He said yes to John F. Kennedy, but he was a little bit slow to saying to Epstein. So, let's set the Epstein aside because that wasn't one of his 20 promises. But I think the fair criticism is to because if you interview with CNN or ABC or CBS, the the challenge you're going to get is how harsh you guys are. I cannot believe what you're doing. You don't understand. You're separating these kids and these families. Do you not have a heart? What kind of a person are you? Like they'll take that angle. But to the people that voted for him, the near, you know, 80 million, whatever the number is, they're saying, "Wait a minute. We said, you know, these immigrants have to leave." And you said that was one of your promises. And it looks like because of the amount of push back and media that you got, now you guys are kind of backing off a little bit and saying, "No, we're going to wait till cities and states invite us in." And if you do that, then that means you're not going to reach the goal of 10 or 20 million that you promised. What do you say to those people? >> Nothing's changed. We're still enforcing the law and we're still making sure that every single person that's in this country illegally uh knows that if we >> But what if those cities that don't invite you in? But respectfully, what if those cities don't invite you? What if these uh you know uh uh uh cities that are saying, "Yeah, we don't have to report the stuff to the states, the blue cities that we know, the ones top 23 out of 30 crime cities, they're like, "We're not going to work with you. We're not going to cooperate with you. We'll cooperate with Obama and make it look very nice when he deported the people. will cooperate with Bill Clinton and make you look, but there's no way in the world we're going to cooperate with Trump's administration. What do you say to those? >> Uh, we've never said that we wouldn't be there. We've never said that we wouldn't have a presence there and enforce the law. What the president's talking about is the surging operations, the the sending many, many more entities and law enforcement officers and the military into a city. um while you're facing the kind of sophisticated violent rioters that we faced in Minneapolis, we see those out in Portland. And Portland's a little bit of a different element because they have this Antifa element that is so um professionalized over the years. They allowed it to get institutionalized and now they're dug in and use it in such a way to manipulate the situation and do damage that it's become not just a nationwide network, but a worldwide international network, too. So in Minneapolis, you've seen decadesl long corruption in fraud in business and manipulating federal taxpayers dollars and funneling it to criminals and outside the country that that facilitated a lot of this fraud we've seen not just in the Medicaid programs and delivery of services to developmentally disabled individuals, but also immigration fraud. Uh we've uncovered hundreds of cases of immigration fraud, not just in Minnesota, but across the country. And then uh that has allowed this anti-ICE um entity to come in and establish itself that was extremely sophisticated and facilitated and funded by individuals and nonprofits that facilitated that kind of resistance. President Trump recognizes how dangerous that is and that it needs to be stopped. We just need to do it in a way that makes sure our law enforcement officers are protected and they're not put in situations uh that could help hurt them uh and the operations themselves, prevent us from being able to enforce the law when we go in and go after these bad criminals. We've had gosh thousands of people that we've been able to take just out of Minneapolis and St. Paul area that are that are criminal illegals uh that have been removed and that city is much safer now because of President Trump and those ICE officers being there. You know how you talk about 8020 issues and 8515 issues. The more the left is forced to defend ideas that are ludicrous, the more we win, right? The more they are out there defending our what's wrong with them being here illegal, you know, stolen land. We need more of that because the elections are won by the middle, right? The independent folks in the middle, those are the ones that can go this way. They can go this way. I don't know. I'm going to go a little bit this way. This year I'm going to vote this way. if they can see with their eyes, you don't make any sense. What are you talking about? I feel safer with Trump's administration. I feel better for the economy. I just I just hope that doesn't slow down and you continue because, you know, we see what's going on with Mexico, right? We're seeing with Eleno and I know that also kind of falls under your juris jurisdiction as well. >> If you love this country, show it. Lead with pride in the valuement USA collection. Designed for freedom thinkers, built for everyday leaders. Red, white, blue. Purpose. Wear what you believe in. Valueainment USA. >> Uh, Mexico. One minute. Hey, everybody goes to Cancun. It's a nice place to go. We're going to go have some fun. Let's go to Porttoarta. You turn on the, you know, video. You're watching stuff on X. It looks like a movie on what's going on there. So, overnight, this El Mencho is calling the police telling them, "You guys better get out the way. you better let us do this and now they're doing that. So when you see that yourself, how concerned are you for that not to leak up? This is an organization that was selling fentinel that was coming up to us that we lost a lot of kids. A lot of families were lost. How do you visualize what's going on in Mexico right now with the killing of Eleno? >> Well, it's not just that, Patrick. It's that President Trump had the foresight to designate those cartels as foreign terrorist organizations. He recognized the true threat they were to the American people. I look at Mexico and how for years they have allowed these cartels and these criminal elements to gain strength. Uh Joe Biden's administration allowed them to get rich. Uh it's it's a billions and billions of dollar industry that they've had on trafficking people and children and drugs. And by having that open border and allowing the cartels to do whatever they wanted to do to victimize people and profit off the deaths of not just Americans but people around the world. Um that's the consequences that Mexico is facing today. You look at those pictures and those those videos of Mexico, that's what happens in a country that doesn't push back on criminals. It doesn't enforce the law. That doesn't stop those activities in their cities. So that's the reality of what America could look like in in just years to come if President Trump wasn't doing what he's doing. If you allow those criminals to embed themselves and get root in our cities, that's what happens is that you have a a government like the Mexican government now that's just fighting to even survive. And I know from President Shinbomb, her experience is down there. She's partnering with the president now, but she has absolutely recognized how vulnerable she is, how she has people around her and even in her cabinet that she can't trust to necessarily do the right thing to protect a Mexico. And that's why we see this as such a volatile situation today. The >> I got two questions there. One of them is I'm glad you you you said that. The reason for me uh being excited about how hard you guys were pushing for getting rid of illegal immigrants is because they're out here. They're everywhere, right? And there's plenty of them that are even trained by al-Qaeda that are insiders. They're just waiting for an opportunity. And if all of a sudden they get bigger in a certain city, Minneapolis being one of them, but there's plenty of them out there around the nation and another president comes in that's not strong on crime, then what happens to all those innocent people that are living there. So, it's a very tough job and I applaud you guys for taking on this tough assignment. I don't think there's any winning for you with media when it comes onto this job. I just don't think there is. I think there's winning at the ballot polls. I think there's winning with the families, but I don't think you're going to win the media race with this specific thing. Going to Mexico, do you think Shine Bomb is an honest player? Do you think she is? I know you you sounded like you were being fair with her, but you know, from my end, some of the criticism when once asked about, you know, how to deal with the cartel, she was like, I don't want us to be involved. Let us handle this. We have this. Obviously, she doesn't have any control of it. And some are sometimes criticizing her saying, "Wait a minute. Is there a narco state here going on or is she a real player or is she kind of controlled by them as well?" What is your position on Shine Bomb? >> Well, let me give you um my opinion on it. I've had conversations with her, but I also um will just say that that part of my opinion on this situation is that >> uh she uh is feels very much uh that she doesn't know who she can trust in her own government. I've been disappointed in her leadership. she could have shown more strength in the last year to partner with President Trump when he first offered it extensively. But I also know that she recognizes that her government is very tenuous. That uh if she uses um wisdom and discernment and and she can come to a better spot rather than declaring a war with the cartels when she knows that her military may not even be willing to fight to defend the country that she may have people within her own military or in her own cabinet which are facilitating a lot of the work that the cartels are doing. So um yes, I think she should be bold. Yes, I think she should be strong. I've been disappointed in her. I also recognize she's got a different element going on in Mexico than than what many leaders have. She has embedded criminals in her government that make it a very difficult situation for her to really know that she can be successful. I don't think she knows that she can be successful because she doesn't really know if the people who are around her are on the team to defend the country of Mexico. >> What a way to run the What a job to have. who wants that job, right? You don't even know, right? >> Uh but you appointed them, right? Meaning her. So, how how how can US >> help facilitate in finding out if some of those guys are real players or not? Is this somewhere where, you know, where our intelligence can play a role on giving intel to her to make her smarter, but then you have to know if you 100% trust her as well to give that intel to her. Uh, is that a role we can play to educate her with her team? >> We do. We have some security agreements with them where we share information. I know our intelligence agencies work with them as well. Um, but we recognize um the individuals there as well and um want to know that we're partnering with people who will use it wisely and not use it against the United States. But um we the President Trump has been very aggressive in building a relationship with the president and letting her know that if she truly wants to take out these cartels and and destroy, you know, their network of what they're doing um to profit off of the destruction of the people of Mexico and the United States and stop the gun running, the drug running, the human trafficking, that he'll be there to support her in that. I hope she grabs a hold of that assistance while she has the chance because uh this president has been extremely aggressive in identifying who those terrorists are and letting them know that he's going to take them out and and even this action that just happened now in Mexico. Um that's a very powerful action we haven't seen against these cartels for a very long time. But but it wouldn't necessarily be necessary except the Biden administration allowed them to get so strong. They allowed them to become so profitable they will do anything. >> Why do you think >> how why do you think >> why do you think I think I think they recognized that that may have been um something that that they could uh allow to have happen to let the amount of people into this country that they needed to get a corner on a powerhouse to elect Democrats to office and control the country. that invasion of people that crossed our borders was millions of people. And I think they believed that no future president would have the tenacity to truly deport people that weren't supposed to be here to truly go after those individuals who came in that were dangerous. President Trump has we've already with the department partnered with other law enforcement agencies. We've removed over a thousand people I think 1500 people that have been on the known and suspected terrorist watch list. um people that are known terrorists that were led into this country through that Biden administration open border policy uh that we have to go out and find and make sure that we're removing them before they take a terrorist action against the United States from our inside our own borders. >> Yeah. No, no question. And and for me, the only way to be a an equalizer, like the great equalizer to the 12 million that came here illegally to 15 million is the voter ID. If the voter ID goes in, then that can cancel each other out, right? Because then you're kind of like, what's the point of deporting them in? But then that's got to get through House Senate. That's going to be complicated for it to pass. Uh, it's going to be tough to do that. But I think that is a very, very necessary. If you need two forms of ID and a social security to be able to shovel snow in New York, you can definitely find a way to get an ID to vote. What are your thoughts there? >> No, I wholeheartedly agree. I think uh it's it is imperative to the future of our country. We need to know that the people who are elect our leaders are people uh that say that they are uh that there are people who live in this country the United States citizens get the opportunity to to register to vote that they get the chance to cast their vote and that we know we can trust it. That is why under our statute, Congress passed a law that said our critical infrastructure that maintains the integrity of our government that runs our country on our very worst day if we had a horrible terrorist attack or something devastating happened um this department under FEMA is the agency that's entrusted to run the government and the um making sure that our elections are are in have that integrity too is just as important to maintaining the future future of our country as our electricity, as our food supply chain, as our military. All of those are critically important, but Congress itself put in law that our elections need to be able to be trusted and ensured as well to maintain that safety. >> If that passes, we will put a very big party together here in South Florida. If it passes, it's a massive thing. We're already planning on doing something big on Fourth of July, but if it passes, I think there's a lot of enemies that'll push back on that. talking about rewards for justice. I know that falls under Department of State, but I was speaking to a uh previous DOJ individual and he says the rewards for justice is a very big role. So for instance, right now we have Iran going on. We saw Venezuela on how smooth it was going in, boom, took him, we woke up, wait a minute, what happened? Nothing. So no thousands of US soldiers for, you know, no. So no 19-year-old lost. No. Wow. And Maduro's in America now. Yes. How was it done? Well, you know, sometimes we have different mechanisms of what we do when it comes on to rewards for justice where we give away, you know, million to $25 million whether we find the individual or sometimes do we ever do this and you may just shut it down at the beginning or you say, "Yes, Iran right now we're sending everybody, not everybody, but a lot of folks that are going over there, the B-52 bombers, all these things that are going there getting ready to see what's going to happen. Would we in a situation like Iran consider using rewards of justice to get some of their lieutenants to turn against the Ki or that wouldn't work with a regime like Iran? >> I can't speak to that uh in particular and nor should I. Um, but I think that the president recognizes the real threat that the Iranian regime is and is willing to use every authority that he has um to make sure that the American people can be safe. He's been very clear about stating u where that red line is and he's followed through on that every single time. So, I think that's what's so important right now is when you're dealing with the Iranian regime or any other country that's threatened us, Russia, North Korea, um these countries, is that they know that we have a president that does what he says he's going to do and is strong and will use the authorities that he has. So, that that could be something. Uh although I haven't had that discussion in particular with the president, >> I would be I don't know if that tactic works with radicals. Uh I I don't but but listen, I would put it on the list if I if I had a job like that working on Pennsylvania. I may consider that uh job. I think that could work in the Western Hemisphere. I don't know if that works with IRGC. Who knows? >> Uh uh who knows? I don't know what you can uh uh do with that money that's given to his direct reports. I do know at any given moment something could happen and especially when uh you know Whitoff and Kushner and by the way forgive me by saying last names. I'm a former military guy, so we call everybody by their last names. But it was very obvious when they went in and they made the offer, oh, you want to keep negotiating? We're out of here. And now you see their foreign minister coming in and saying, hey, you know what? We we'll we'll be open to this and we'll be open to that. It looks like it's the point of no return. And I I don't want to put you in a position to answer for that one. So, we can move on to the next story uh uh aside from what's going on with Iran. Okay. So, in regards to uh the Real ID mandates, you'll get some folks that will criticize and say, "Oh my god, I don't want to do Real ID, you know, surveillance. The states watching everything I'm doing and you know, they'll they'll criticize it. Why would we do this? Why should we do this?" That's already happened in many different states. We all have that logo that's already under What do you say to critics when they criticize the the Real ID mandates? Well, Real ID has been law for over 20 years. I was just the first secretary that actually um implemented it, actually said that we were going to enforce it. And what it does is give you an opportunity to prove you really are who you are and that you have legal status in this country, that you should be here and that you have the ability to do it. So, under TSA, which I have under the Department of Homeland Security, we implemented it at our airlines and it's amazing, Patrick. Um, I we have over 90% compliance. I think the last time I checked, 94% compliance with that, which means they can use their real ID when they get their ticket and check in through the security checkpoints or they can use their passport. They can use a tribal or military ID. But we want to know that when we're uh talking to an individual or when they're flying on our airlines that they are who they say they are and that we make sure that they're not using an ID that would be falsified. So, uh, while many years leaders didn't have, uh, the fortitude to enforce the law, when President Trump said, "We're going to be a nation of laws, uh, we meant it." And here at the Department of Homeland Security, uh, we followed through on implementing that law and making sure that people recognized that we took our security, um, um, as a number one priority. You know, a lot of times those questions like what you were talking about, people don't like the biometrics being mandated. I hear some push back on that, but we don't have those mandated at the department or for the federal government. That's optional at some of those security programs uh if people want to participate in it to speed up the identifications, but it has not been mandated under my leadership or President Trump's. >> The question becomes it's not whether they trust you or not, it's who's coming next and at what measures can they take it. you know, they look at Palanteer and a movie came out recently called Mercy with uh Chris Pratt. I don't know if you've seen it. I don't know if you have time to watch movies. If you have a chance to go see a movie, it's worth watching because it's about how in the future AI takes over and the judge becomes an AI person. You sit in front of him and you have 90 minutes to plead to her while you're not guilty. So, some people are worried about what happens if a palunteer gets too deep into the system and you know that that's a concern that comes up. But next story I want to talk to you about is World Cup. World Cup is around the corner and it's coming to the states and you know the championship match is going to be in New York. I think the July 19th the finals will be there and there's even some games in Halisco where the current issues are going on right now. What what are you doing? Because you know in a setting like this all eyes on us 250 year anniversary the president's birthday is going to be 4 weeks before the world cup right when his birthday happens right afterwards the world cup begins you know 80 years old 250 America 25 year anniversary of 911 right around that area some people are s if the enemy wanted to really make an example of it this is a great opportunity what do you say to uh make the folks that are going to these games feel safe. What are we doing about it? >> Well, I wish I could do more. Right now, my department isn't funded. You know, it's the Department of Homeland Security that is supposed to be uh making sure that these largecale events across the country are safe. Um they're national security events, SER 1 events, which means they're the utmost priority and making sure that we keep people safe. Uh, and right now we're supposed to be putting out contracts to purchase drones and technology to keep each of those matches safe during the World Cup. We're supposed to be giving out grants to cities so that they can invest in their security to prepare for those matches that are going to be happening not just in the United States, but also partnering in ways with Mexico and Canada to make sure travel back and forth uh can be facilitated for individuals who want to go to matches in Canada, but also the United States and how we work with CBP to get people through those different airports and also ports of entry. So all of that is supposed to be getting done right now, but Congress, the Democrats have not agreed to fund us. So it's at a standstill. That's the devastating thing is we have almost 280,000 employees in this department and the law enforcement officers in ICE and CBP, their salaries are funded, but other uh in individuals may be working without pay, but those individuals that are supposed to be filling out contracts and be working on those security measures don't have dollars. They are furoughed home right now and so nothing's happened. I'm hopeful that soon they will recognize the importance of homeland security and what we need to do to keep people safe every day and give us the funding we need to get this department back to work, >> especially with everything that's coming up and uh with with the issues we have around the world right now. I mean, if there's one place to not mess around with is Department of Homeland Security, missing children. Well, Patrick, if you think about it, we have, you know, dozens and dozens of countries that'll be coming here to play matches. They're going to bring residents and citizens from those countries here and citizens where we know we have dangerous individuals who would look for that perfect opportunity to come to the United States when we have millions of people coming to visit. So, um, you know, it's important that we be prepared for that, that we have the investments made that we need to and have it be adequately staffed. That's that's the World Cup you've quickly identified is imperative that we we partner and make sure that we're ready for all these millions of people that want to visit. >> Reports are Shane saying we're going to get anywhere between 6 to 10 million visitors. >> 6 to 10 million. And how do you vet all of them? How do you know who's coming? How do you know what people's motives are? Let's say 0.001% is bad. We have to make sure we're protected. This isn't something, you know, when you put up an event, you you need we need couple months to prepare for some events that we do at MGM Grand Arena. When you have six to 10 million people coming to the biggest sporting event every four years in America, you want to make sure there's no issues and it's safety. So, I hope both sides of the aisle are working together for this because we want safety. If you ever want to know when I go to work, which sporting event do I lose my employees for a few hours at a time that they're working, it's the World Cup. I'll go to their desk. They're all screaming. Somebody scored a goal. They're running around. They're outside. I'm like, "Guys, we got work to do. What happened?" You won't believe we just scored a goal. Look at this P. It's a very different kind of I'm sure you've been through it as well yourself with uh having >> passionate passionate passionate people that want to come and and celebrate and spend time enjoying the World Cup. Let's hope that they can do that in a safe environment. And I'm going to do all I can to be prepared for it that we have the ability to do that and provide that for those families. >> We're rooting for you. We're rooting for you for that. Missing children, some 460,000 >> uh a year every year. So, you know, the job of missing children, if you don't mind taking it from two different angles. One is what are we doing? Every time we see reports, it's a celebration, but could you give some feedback on the preventative side to have 460,000 kids missing every single year? How are these kids, you know, being taken? What are some different stories you're hearing about, whoever these child traffickers are? What are some ways that they they're doing it, America, that you're finding? >> Well, one of the tools they used was that open border for years. We saw over 400,000 children be lost under the last administration. They came in uh moved by human traffickers. Some of them were even put into government programs under the office of refugees um under HHS and we paid people um sponsors they called them to take these children in and then those sponsors were so corrupt that they were trafficking these children. So that was happening under the Biden administration that we were actually the federal government was paying people who went out and then trafficked these children who came across the border and were separated from their families. So, we have since found over 150,000 of those children uh and relocated many of them and put them back with their families and reunited them. But we've got a lot more to find and they're continuing to use them. We've seen those numbers drop dramatically of new children that are being trafficked because of that secure border and not allowing people to use those children to come across and facilitate. if you remember the policies was that if they had a child underage um that whole group of individuals got to come in um and not be detained at all. And so you saw many times the border patrol talking about the fact that they had saw the same child being used by um those mules um moving different groups of people across crossing the border multiple times knowing that if they had a child in the group and declared that they were a part of the family or someone who was responsible for them that they could be immediately released into the interior of the country. That's why as soon as President Trump came into office and I became Homeland Security Secretary, we started using DNA testing again at the border so that we would know if that individual that came to the border, if they said that child uh was theirs, we DNA tested them to make sure. But people quit coming to that border and quit trafficking those children because they knew no matter what they were not going to be allowed to enter if they weren't coming legally. >> Yeah. I mean, to give you guys credit, 55 year low. The last time we saw numbers like this was 1970. within 12 months there was an 84% drop off and it's amazing because when uh Vice President Kamala Harris was saying how difficult it was and how comp you know challenging of a job it is it took you only a few months to get it done and they could have done this the entire time and they didn't want to do it again you talked about a little bit earlier but to me what sits at the top of everything for every family am I safe to have my kids go play outside the day I can't feel safe to let my kids play outside. We have a very big problem that we got to address. And if we can't start it with il illegal immigration here and especially our kids, that's an area where politics doesn't matter. Left, right, center, nobody cares what political party you're from when it comes down to their kids and uh you guys have done a great job with that and uh uh we look forward to hearing continuous updates on what you're doing there. Next uh uh next story before we wrap up. I got two more things I'll cover here. And again, thank you for your time before we wrap this up. Um the next 911. The next 9/11, you know, and how to prevent the next 911. You hear about al-Qaeda, them still having their, you know, their their hands here on different areas, their training. You go see what's going on with Minneapolis. You're seeing what's going on in New York City praying outside and well, it's this is America. You're able to do this. Where is the line to be able to prevent another attack like that from happening? Because sometimes when it doesn't happen for a long time, you're like, "Oh, it's not going to happen. America, we're America. Nobody's going to touch us. This will never happen to us." And sometimes when you get too cocky, that's when you get caught. How confident are you with what we have going on today that the next 9/11 cannot happen during our watch, during your watch? Well, I think people should wake up every day being glad that they live in the freest um most safe country in the world and recognize all the work that President Trump has done. I mean, we've seen our murder rates drop by um dramatically uh you know over the last it's the lowest number of murders that we've had in the country in 125 years. So, what he's done to enforce the law has been important in this department. Uh, I have the intelligence agencies, the weapons of mass destruction. I have, um, the individuals that go out and train everyone in the states and local entities on detecting bombs or explosives or knowing what those networks are and um, following individuals in this country who may wish to perpetuate a terrorist attack around this country. What I would tell you is that um, I don't sleep well at night. that I I think every day that I have to hurry up and find those individuals before they have an opportunity to harm the United States. I think there's systems that we have that are vulnerable that I won't speak to the specifics on. Um that there's areas that we need to look at as far as um preventing individuals from being able to infiltrate not just our critical infrastructure but also our cities and our partnerships with them and how we identify folks. But we've seen also across the country, you know, fake nonprofits or entities be set up to train individuals to fly planes that aren't real um real entities that do the certification at all. Individuals that have set up, >> you know, driving schools and CDL schools that aren't aren't real. They just facilitate it to get the money and then give someone a C certificate that's never been through the training and didn't complete one day of course work. So we have to be vigilant not just on the typical security measures that we always have but also looking for how would they try to attack us and what can we do to ensure that those individuals that would give them access to that are doing their job correctly. Uh we have to think three steps ahead of them uh to ensure that we're safe and uh every day this department is working to make sure we're looking at all of that to let the American people know that they can be safe on our homeland. But but we have a a country that has many friends uh and and we are the bright shining star to the rest of the world. That also means that we have many enemies and many people which with which to do us harm. And being safe in our homeland is important because those families that can go to bed at night and know their kids will be able to get up and go to school safely. they can go to their jobs and live the American dream. They need to know that we're working every day to ensure that that gets continued and we don't end up looking like Mexico does today or we don't let criminals um overthrow our laws and our and our constitution in order to become stronger that try to prevent our way of life. >> So I I have two uh fun questions for you and uh let's see how this goes with the fun question. So one time >> I got pulled over. Okay. And um I am famous for having a lot of speeding tickets. Okay. I tried to be a cop. I tried to be a cop and a firefighter. They said I couldn't do it. I said, 'Why not? I was in the military. I got out. They said you have 16 speeding tickets and your license was suspended once. You can't be a cop, so I couldn't be a cop. Is it true you like to drive fast and you get a lot of speeding tickets? Is that a Is that right what I'm what I'm reading? I used to uh I would say before I ever got into politics and before I ran for Congress. Yes. I grew up with a dad that um was always in a hurry, you know, and he we lived on a farm and a ranch and and he would tell me, you know, Christy, get to town and get those parts and get back here as fast as you can. So, um in our family, yes, had quite a few speeding tickets. But when I ran for Congress, it was quite an issue. people would say, you know, how can you u write the law when you uh knowingly break the law? Uh and that really resonated with me. It was true that even though I didn't think at the time the way that I grew up that speeding tickets were a big deal, >> um if people were going to trust me to go out and to actually write the law in Congress, then I needed to. So, I'm completely reformed, Patrick. I hope you are, too. >> Are you fully I can't I can't say I'm fully reformed. Listen, the the the the some people the world's a safer place if they don't drive. >> They make fast cars for a reason. Secretary No. I mean, these these cars are built to drive them. For you to have a car with a lot of power and you want me to go 65, give me a flip and break. I hope my kids never >> I've driven I've driven some of those, too. And it's been I mean that I I think the first time I became a NASCAR fan was when they let me uh go drive some some cars at Lowe's Motor Speedway and I was addicted. They also said that I missed my calling that I should have. Really? I I do I do love to uh drive, but uh I am reformed. I >> I no longer drive drive fast. >> I want to try to follow your lead lead. Hopefully, one of these days I'll give up speeding. >> Uh uh my son likes to f He'll say, "Dad, slow down. That's not the speeding limit." I'm like, "You are just like your grandpa." But my older son, he likes speed. So, last but not least, with the schedule you have, what is your fitness routine? How do you stay in shape when do you train? >> I kind of do everything. I like to run a couple days a week. I I like my Pelaton bike. I do that a couple days a week and then I do some CrossFit, some weights as well. Um so it uh but then you know I like I like to do anything that's outside. That's what the part is I've learned that with this job I have to get up early and work out. I'm usually up by four and working out just so that I can handle sitting in meetings all day and and doing this much talking. I like to move around and it keeps me busy. Most people know I came from a a ranching background. So, I spent all my days before I got into politics outside. So, doing this job and being inside a lot is a little bit challenging. >> Well, uh uh I can only imagine for somebody that's on the outside, you have to constantly be on the inside uh working, but we appreciate you. You have a tough job. We're rooting for you. The the world's a safer place if you succeed. And uh you got a group of people here that are rooting for you to succeed. Again, thank you so much for your time. I really enjoy talking to you. You're the best. I'll come down there and visit with you in person sometime soon. Um, appreciate it. Thanks so much. >> I look forward to it. Take care. Bye-bye. >> If you love this country, show it. Lead with pride in the valuement USA collection. Designed for freedom thinkers. Built for everyday leaders. Red, white, blue. Purpose. Wear what you believe in. Value tamement USA.