DHS Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen: 'Ridiculous' to pretend' that there is not a crisis on the southern border
The security and humanitarian crisis on the southern border is caused by loopholes in U.S. law, lack of resources and Democrats' refusal to act, says Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen.
This is a rush transcript from "Hannity," January 9, 2019. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated.
SEAN HANNITY, HOST: All right. Tucker, thank you.
And welcome to a busy “Hannity” tonight.
We begin our “Hannity” watch on huge, massive political hypocrisy tonight. Now, Democrats, you watch them closely, people on the left, they claim to have a monopoly of compassion. Conservatives are coldhearted. They're even selfish and greedy because they want low taxes and less government bureaucracy.
They say we're mean spirited, wanting to curtail entitlements. Not true. I don't know Republican that is want to get rid of Social Security or Medicare. That's one of those campaign lies. Or if you don't their health care system, hasn't worked out well.
Democrats are always generous but with other people's money. But what it now comes to is what a real life or death crisis, at our southern border, they are nowhere to be found. In fact, the Democrats, the radical left's new talking point is to call what is death and destruction and chaos, caused by unsecured borders, nothing more than a manufactured crisis.
Watch this.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
REP. NANCY PELOSI, D-CALIF., SPEAKER OF THE HOUSE: President Trump must stop holding people hostage. Stop manufacturing a crisis.
SEN. CHUCK SCHUMER, D-N.Y., MINORITY LEADER: This president just used the backdrop of the Oval Office to manufacture a crisis.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Folks, the president has manufactured one heck a political crisis for himself.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Donald Trump has manufactured a national security crisis.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You will hear them say, this is a manufactured crisis. It's not a national security crisis.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The big scam of the whole address was that there's a crisis. There's not a crisis.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The notion that we have a crisis there, security crisis, is absolute nonsense.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It remains a "Seinfeld" shutdown, all about nothing.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What happens when there is a real crisis? When there's a real emergency? Does he take to the air waves? Do we give him air waves? Do we believe him?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There is not a crisis at the border. It's a manufactured crisis for the president to get a political win.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He's determined to convince you, there is a crisis at the border. Even though an intelligence official tells CNN, quote, no one saying this is a crisis except them.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HANNITY: All right. First thing you've got to notice is, you notice how the hate Trump Democrats and the hate Trump media that they speak in one voice. They have one talking point.
Now, tonight we're going to do something. As promised you at the beginning of the year, you will not see on any other network and we're going on show what you real victims of a crisis at our southern border.
Look at the side of your screen. Take a look there. Men, women, husbands, wives, children, parents, those are all human beings that have been killed because we have unsecure southern border. That's -- those are real names.
That includes Police Officer Ronald Singh. He was gunned down by that illegal immigrant, just after Christmas. And Officer Singh leaving behind a wife and a 5-month-old baby boy who will never know his father.
Democrats, are you really prepared, the media, Democratic Party, liberals, are you going to look at this man's face and tell them that this death say manufactured crisis? Where have your hearts gone?
And earlier this week, we interviewed the parents of this young man, Pierce Corcoran and he was killed by a suspected illegal immigrant, driving on the wrong side of the highway without a license, without insurance in the country, 14 years. Are Democrats going to call the Corcorans and tell them what happened, that their son say manufactured crisis?
What about Josh Wilkerson or Dominic Durden or Sergeant Brandon Mendoza or Jamiel Shaw, or Grant Roneburger (ph), I can keep going. Just keep watching the names on the side of your screen tonight.
Do Democrats really want to you believe this is some grand conspiracy, a manufactured crisis?
Now, we do have angel parents. Those who have lost their children because of open borders. They are speaking out tonight and they have done so many times in the past and they are reminding some of American's politicians and their best friends in the media that this is not a political gain for them. This is a crisis, a clear and present danger, real Americans losing real lives, needlessly, and real families suffering -- if you might say a word, permanent separation. Take a look.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
STEVE DOOCY, HOST: When you hear Chuck Schumer and Nancy Pelosi last night saying the president has manufactured a crisis to sell this wall, what's your message to those top Democrats?
ANGEL PARENT: It may seem manufactured to them because they're sitting behind walls, but for those of us out in regular America, we are victims. We are prone to the victimization of illegal aliens and crime.
ANGEL PARENT: I'm just wondering, how many of these people have had their sons, daughters, wives or husbands' lives snuffed out by one of these illegal aliens. I'm just wondering if Nancy Pelosi's children or grandchildren are assaulted in the same way that my son was assassinated, if she would speak the same way.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HANNITY: Now, I've been to the border, what, 12, 13 times now. Last time I was down with Governor Perry, then governor at the time, sat in a security briefing, 642,000 crimes committed against Texans alone in a seven-year period. In just the past two years alone, 4,000 criminal aliens have been arrested for homicide. In fact, over the past two decades. Criminal immigrants have been responsible for tense of thousands of murders.
Now, to these families, our fellow Americans, that crisis is always present. Their lives have been devastated, forever altered, their loved ones murdered. And yet, hate Trump Democrats, hate Trump talking point media people, they are to suggest this is a manufactured crisis? Really?
We're talking about an all too common occurrence. It should never happen. Law abiding men and women killed by illegal immigrants that don't respect our laws, our sovereignty, our borders. They shouldn't be here at all.
Now, if we secured the borders, lives are going to be saved. People will be protected. There won't be permanent separation as in the cases we're telling you about.
Now, many of these cases, those responsible, even had long, criminal track records. Some had previously been deported, all gaining access, because our southern border is wide open. And sadly, this is only one aspect of the crisis at our southern border.
Over the past two years, 30,000 criminal aliens arrested for sex crimes, over a hundred thousand were violent assaults. In 2018, 800 gang members apprehended at our southern border. That's a 50 percent increase over the previous year.
Yes, last year, we also saw 122 percent increase in fentanyl being smuggled across the southern border. Do you know fentanyl? That's the drug killing Americans every single day in this country.
Fentanyl, the deadly substance, often mixed with heroin. Remember heroin? Ninety percent of that, smuggled across our southern boarder.
And keep in mind, every seven days, 300 Americans will die from a heroin over dose. That death toll is equal to the number of American troops killed every week in Vietnam, during 1968. That was the deadliest year of that war. So, is that a manufactured crisis?
Last year, 17,000 individuals with criminal records apprehended trying to cross the border. Sixty thousand inadmissible or illegal immigrants turned away from our borders every single month. And over the last few weeks, 20,000 children, smuggled or trafficked into the United States.
This is not a manufactured crisis or a talking point. Those children matter, those women mater. Those Americans being killed by addiction matter. We talk about the opioid epidemic in the country all the time, this is a big part of it.
And so do the human beings, by the way, on the other side of the border. Totally understand that 98 percent that want a better life for themselves, their family, their children, their grandchildren, but one out of every three migrant women, who make that dangerous trip, try to make it into the United States, hoping for a better life. They're sexually assaulted and 7 in 10 migrants reported being victim during that trek. It's an arduous journey.
And average of 50 children each day require emergency and medical care after they arrive at the southern border. And you have thousands of illegal immigrants, they have died trying to cross unfamiliar deserts, in unsecured regions of our border.
And don't forget about the risks that are posed to our national security, unvetted, illegal immigrants from all over the world use our unsecured southern border in order to gain access to the United States.
Sara Carter recently took a trip to the border, actually interviewed two individuals. They're from Bangladesh.
Take a look.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SARA CARTER, CONTRIBUTOR: Que pais? What country?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Bangladesh.
CARTER: Bangladesh?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes.
CARTER: How long have you been walking?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Three months.
CARTER: Three months.
Please put your hands down. Don't worry. Don't worry. I'm a journalist.
Three months?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes.
CARTER: From Bangladesh through Mexico.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes.
CARTER: To the United States.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes. Yes.
CARTER: Do you know where you're at right now.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No.
CARTER: Who brought you here? Who helped you?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Who helped you (INAUDIBLE)
CARTER: Over Mexico.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Mexico, I don't know.
CARTER: What was the first country you came after Bangladesh?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Dubai and Brazil.
CARTER: Dubai, Brazil, and then through Central America?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Central America.
CARTER: And then up here to the United States.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HANNITY: And you have the media and Democrats telling you, this is a manufactured crisis. We're going to have more from Sara's trip to the border coming up. You're definitely going to want to see what she has delivered.
Also last night, in order to address many of these issues, the president delivered a powerful address, unveiled a plan to fix this crisis, but the Democrats telling you, this is a manufactured crisis. We're going to have more from Sara's trip to the border coming up. You're definitely going to want to see what she has delivered.
Also last night, in order to address many of these issues, the president delivered a powerful address, unveiled a plan to fix this crisis, but the left, their friends, their willing accomplices and their media doesn't seem to care.
Look at late night. Seth Meyers actually joking about the devastation out of southern border, tweeting, is the Oval Office: SVU?
And socialist Congresswoman, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, even calling for ICE to be abolished. Take a look.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
REP. ALEXANDRIA OCASIO-CORTEZ, D-N.Y.: Women and children on that border that are trying to seek refuge and seek opportunity in the United States of America, with nothing but the shirt off their backs. They're acting more American than any person who seeks to keep them out.
A child died in ICE custody. The president should not be asking for more money to an agency that has systematically violated human rights. The president should be really defending why we are funding such an agency at all. Because right now, what we are seeing is death. Right now, what we are seeing is the violation of human rights. These children and these families are being held in what are called hieleras, which are basically freezing boxes that no person should be maintained in.
This is systematic. It is wrong and it is anti-American.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HANNITY: Wow. That's NBC reporting.
Ocasio-Cortez, not the only Democrat living in this fantasy world. Yesterday, during an extremely bizarre joint speech worthy of a "Saturday Night Live" open skit, a shared podium, Speaker Pelosi and Senate Minority Leader Chucky Schumer, literally, they are scowling as they offered zero solution to the crisis and they start pushing the manufactured crisis line.
Is this the liberal compassion that they lecture us about all the time? Do they not care about human beings on both sides of the border?
Long time Democratic strategist, even James Carville, he made a joke about Schumer's force Democratic rebuttal. He's dead on accurate. Take a look.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JAMES CARVILLE, DEMOCRATIC STRATEGIST: I don't think they wanted to do it. I don't think they should have done it and I guarantee you, at the staff meeting tomorrow morning, somebody is going to get, you know, chewed out pretty good. The only good thing about it, it didn't matter. They could give a Gettysburg address and it wouldn't matter. They didn't want to be - - I've been more excited about colonoscopies than his speech tonight.
(LAUGHTER)
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HANNITY: Funny and true and accurate, but not really a laughing matter when you talk about the issue.
You know, over the course of my career, 30 years in radio, my 23rd year here at FOX, I have interviewed way too many angel moms, dads, brothers and sisters over the years, people that lost children, are paying a pain that never most recover from. And this is a pain in which the president now is looking to solve a problem, opening the door to the White House, urging lawmakers from both sides -- both parties to come and negotiate.
But during today's meeting, Democrats again they're not interested at all. For them, political optics trumps all.
Take a look.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
REP. KEVIN MCCARTHY, R-CALIF., MINORITY LEADER: I want to turn floor over, the president said to, Speaker Pelosi and Schumer. She began to argue whether we even have a crisis or whether facts are true. Turned to Schumer again, who said, we just have to open the government up.
The president then turned to the speaker, and politely asked her, OK, Nancy, if we open the government up, in 30 days, could we have border security? She raised her hand and said, no, not all. The president calmly said, I guess you're still not wanting to deal with the problem.
The president wants to solve this problem. That's why he continues to bring us down. That's why he's put offer on the table. Not once have the Democrats offered anything back. And way they displayed and their behavior is embarrassing to me.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HANNITY: In 2006, remember, Democrats had a very different perception and different ideas, and they and Republicans came together to fund a partial border wall. They supported then, the Secure Fence Act, allowed over $50 billion over the next two decades to construct and maintain hundreds of miles of new barriers. Sixty-four Democrats in the House voted in favor of the bill and the Senate, passed with overwhelming support, both parties, including Chucky Schumer and then Senator Hillary Clinton, and California Senators Boxer and Feinstein, and even Barack Obama voted to fund the wall.
Now, Campus Reform recently asked college students to react to quotes from several top Democrats who once supported a border wall, they did it about a twist. Take a look.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
CAMPUS REFORM: What's your thought on his push for the wall?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I'm not a fan.
CAMPUS REFORM: Everyone has a shared reaction to this.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I really don't see a need for it.
CAMPUS REFORM: We should spend money to build a barrier, to prevent illegal immigrants from coming in.
Another quote: We cannot allow people to pour into the U.S. undetected, undocumented and unchecked.
Quote: Illegal immigration is wrong, plain and simple. Until the American people are convinced, we will stop illegal immigration. We'll make no progress.
When you hear quotes like that. What's your reaction to them?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's divisive. I think America is a land of opportunity, a place for inclusion.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I just really think it's really kind of hateful speech in general.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It's a negative message.
CAMPUS REFORM: What if I told you this was from Chuck Schumer, Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: How about that?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Really?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Oh, wow.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HANNITY: Well, Trump says it's bad. Democrats say it's good. Now Trump's president and the wall to Democrats is suddenly immoral. Actually, Democrats, what they're doing is playing politics and risking in the process, the lives of American citizens, just because they don't like Donald Trump, who wants to solve a problem.
And yet, the solution they once supported is effective. We know the law works. After completion of the wall, south of San Diego, illegal traffic drops by approximately 92 percent. The wall in El Paso, Texas, resulted in a significant drop as it did, walls in Tucson and Yuma, Arizona, where they extended one wall from five miles to 65 miles, it drops 95 percent.
The president is now requesting one tenth of 1 percent of our federal budget to build more strategic barriers. He's also requesting increased border patrol, and ICE personnel, and an increase in detention capacity and humanitarian resources and counter smuggling tools along with other important technology.
It's not a radical plan. It's a plan to keep America safe. It address what is is an urgent serious crisis.
So let me say, I understand, by the way, the concerns. Twenty-five percent partial government shutdown are furloughed. Workers furloughed.
Look, I've been there in my life, living paycheck to paycheck. It's not fun. They will and should and deserve to re coupe all of their money. While they're not working, they deserve it.
And this is, though, for others. Life and death, literally, preventable death, which makes this all the more frustrating. Officer Singh is gone forever. The Corcorans will never see their song Pierce again.
The families of the people you see on the right of your screen throughout the night tonight, they deserve better. These deaths are not manufactured. This is not a manufactured crisis.
And Democrats and their allies in the media, their talking point, frankly is cold, heartless, it's a lie and frankly, a slap in the face to every angel mom and dad and family member in this country that have lost loved once, as a result of open borders and illegal immigration, or every family that has lost a loved one from a heroin overdose or from other drugs smuggled over our wide open borders.
The clashes with border patrol agents, rocks, bottles thrown, chaos, destruction, they also -- that's not manufactured, that's real. Democrats, remember, it wasn't a manufactured crisis because they were politically bludgeoning Trump over the family separation issue, something he eventually stopped that happened in the previous two administrations. It wasn't a manufactured crisis for the Democrats or the media when they were bludgeoning our brave border patrol officers who had to use tear gas after they were being pelted with rocks and bottles. Remember, the left accused them of gassing children.
So, Pelosi, Schumer, the rest of the Democratic Party and the media want to stay on manufactured crisis and allow this to continue and play a political game? The president, he will have the full authority and power to declare a national emergency and tackle this head on with or without congressional funding approval or he could use the Defense Department. This is about protecting our homeland.
But, first, it's up to you. Look at the number on your screen, you might want to call, ask your member of Congress or the Senate, to hold the line. This is too important -- 202-224-3121.
Joining us now, Congressman Mark Meadows of Freedom Caucus, Jim Jordan of Freedom Caucus as well.
Jim, you look like you're standing out the White House. Is that where you are?
REP. JIM JORDAN, R-OH: No, no, I'm in the studio.
HANNITY: OK.
Look, we're losing all these lives. Ninety percent of the heroin comes in. Human trafficking, drug trafficking, violence -- I mean, if saving American lives isn't a priority, I don't -- why do we have of the government? What is their role?
JORDAN: Sean, you're exactly right. I loved your opening statements.
Look, the vast majority of the country understands this is a crisis. Democrats get it. Republicans get it. Independents get it.
The only people who don't get it are Democrats in Washington, D.C., and it comes right down to this issue. Democrats in Washington are more concern about stopping the president than they are in helping the country. More concern about stopping President Trump than dealing with 400,000 apprehension on the border last year alone, and the drugs, the gangs, the human traffic violence that you talked about.
So, until their constituents tell them -- that's why it's great, you put the number on there. Until their constituents tell them, focus on the country. Focus on the crisis. We're not going to get this problem solved and we saw that today in the meeting that the presidents had with congressional leader.
HANNITY: You know, Congressman Meadows, if we can stop 90 percent of the heroin that comes into the country, and if we can -- look. I support immigration. I believe 98 percent of people that run across the border and even illegally, want a better life.
But it's the 2 percent. It's the criminal element. It's the cartels. It's the human traffickers. It's potential terrorist that come to our border and want to bring harm to our cities and towns.
Why is this so unconcerning to them?
REP. MARK MEADOWS, R-N.C.: Well, it should be very concerning. And you mentioned it earlier. That's why government was actually founded and supported is to protect and serve. And if government is falling down on its fundamental premise of why it exists, then we have got to do better than that.
But, you know, listen, Sean, the big thing today is going to be the fact that the president walked out of a meeting because he said it was a waste of time to deal with Democrats because they're not negotiating. And you're exactly right. He should --
HANNITY: Well, they offered a dollar. They're insulting -- they sent aides to negotiate with the vice president. Pretty insulting.
MEADOWS: Exactly. They're not negotiating. They're not negotiating in good faith.
He should have walked out that have meeting but I'll tell you who he's not walking out on. He's not walking out on the moms and dads who have lost their children. He's not walking out on law enforcement officers who have to fight this each and every day and sometimes tragedy strikes there. He's not walking out on the families who have to deal with drug overdoses each and every day. He's staying engaged and I applaud him for doing that and we need to get behind him.
HANNITY: I know the president means what he says. We learned that about him in two years.
Will the Republicans in the House and Senate hold the lines and stand up on the principle that these lives can be saved? Jim Jordan?
JORDAN: We will, we held together when the Democrats offered an appropriation bill, spending bill in the House floor. Only a handful of Republicans voted with the Democrats. So, we're holding strong and we're going to continue to hold strong because this is a crisis.
The drug problem, the gang problem, the human trafficking problem is real. Everyone gets it, except Democrats in Washington D.C.
And again, they're too much focused -- they're too focused on just stopping the president. Let's address this. How could it not be a crisis? When we have seen this caravan phenomenon over the last several months play out on our southern border. Anyone who's watching knows it's a crisis.
HANNITY: Last word, Mark Meadows?
MEADOWS: Yes, it's not a manufactured crisis. It's a crisis that is happening on our southern border. But more importantly, it's a crisis that's happening in our communities, each and every day. We've got to make sure we fight back, stand strong and stand with this president and take the political games out of it.
HANNITY: You know what? There are things worth fighting for. American lives are one of them.
When we come back -- thank you both -- Congressman Dan Crenshaw, retired Navy SEAL. He is here to explain why walls do work.
Sara Carter, exclusive footage of illegal immigrants, caught on camera crossing the border into Texas. Tammy Bruce, Kirstjen Nielsen from DHS and much more.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HANNITY: All right. Fox News contributor Sara Carter, she is currently in Texas where she has been investigating the border situation for herself, while roaming the border area, she had a remarkable run-in with suspected illegal immigrants, coming from Bangladesh into the United States, our most southern border.
Take a look.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SARA CARTER, CONTRIBUTOR: Que pais? What country?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Bangladesh.
CARTER: Bangladesh?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes.
CARTER: How long have you been walking?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Three months.
CARTER: Three months. Who brought you here?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I don't know.
CARTER: You don't understand.
Who brought you here? Did you pay? Lots of money.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Together.
CARTER: Yes. Together. You pay. How much?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: How much -- $16,000.
CARTER: Sixteen thousand dollar to get here to the U.S.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes.
CARTER: Each. Each or both.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Only one person.
CARTER: Only one person.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HANNITY: Now, meanwhile, newly elected Republican Congressman Dan Crenshaw has a new term for those choosing to ignore the border crisis, tweeting, quote, definition of border denialism, one, the belief that physical barriers can simply be climbed over, just like that. Two, the belief that there's no real problem on the border because 400,000 illegals apprehended on the border per year is insignificant. Three, that the belief that because you can't put a wall everywhere, the Rio Grande, you should therefore, put a wall nowhere.
Here with reaction, Fox News contributors, Sara Carter, down at the border, Tammy Bruce, Texas Congressman Dan Crenshaw.
The tape is really compelling, Sara, and, by the way, we have an announcement coming up at the end of the show. You're down there, and I'm watching these two guys and they must have thought you were there to arrest them. I mean, it could of course a more dangerous situation depending.
How do they get there from Bangladesh?
CARTER: Well, Sean, it was just as shocking for me. I mean, I had been to that area before in 2014. This had been a crisis, an ongoing crisis, through various administrations, and I saw people crossing, maybe unaccompanied minors. In 2014, at least 50 I ran into, that summer, that I was down there.
So, within 10 minutes of being at the Rio Grande River, on the border, these two men came up to me. They were coming up the road. They apparently thought that I was law enforcement, I was there with an off duty law enforcement officer and I got to tell you, their story was very compelling.
Remember, Bangladesh is a special interest country, so these are special interest aliens. And what that means is people from Bangladesh, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Iraq, and other nations that are considered special interest aliens. And what that means is, people from Bangladesh, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Iraq and other nations that are considered special interests aliens, are from countries where either Al-Qaeda, Islamic State other various terrorist groups have had influence.
So these two men seemed perfectly fine. They - I had to explain to them that I was a journalist. They agreed to talk with me. They eventually did. Had little bit of understanding of English and they were able to explain that they went from Bangladesh to Dubai through Brazil.
And once they get into Brazil, Sean, then they're either going through Costa Rica, Colombia then all the way up through central - sorry I'm at an outdoor area. Then they go all the way up through Central America and into Mexico. And then from Mexico they make their way into the United States. But these people had no idea that they were even in the United States when they ran into me.
HANNITY: Unbelievable story, and great footage. Thanks for doing that for us. Congressman Crenshaw. I like your new definition of denialism. It seems like - I've interviewed too many Angel Moms and Dads and families, including this week, and that's Pierce Corcoran's parents on this program. A five month old little boy, he's never going to see his hero father who was shot as a police officer, Officer Singh. They're really - to say it's manufactured, is beyond insulting to me.
REP. DAN CRENSHAW, R-TX: It absolutely is. And we have Angel Parents and in my district as well, I think everybody does. The first thing we have to consider is, is there a problem on the border? And I use that 400,000 number, I think that's the right number to use, because that's the number of apprehensions that Border Patrol agents conduct on the border every single year.
That's - how many football stadiums can you fill with that number? That's a completely unsustainable problem and number. And so then we have to ask, well, what's the solution here? Well the solution is a mix of things. Right? It's a physical barrier where that makes sense. It's drone technology, it's sensor technology.
And the Democrats like to talk about those latter things. But when you mention walls in certain places they refuse to talk anymore. But that matters, right? Barriers matters. And they can dismiss in the smug way as ineffective and forced sensory solutions. They just dismiss it out of hand without any thought or evidence to back that. But the reality is, those do work, and they do matter.
I was a Navy Seal, so we have a long career worth of infiltrating places and walls actually matter. And I'd love to see them - love to the Democrat - my colleagues come down with me and climb over these things or tunnel under them, Nancy Pelosi said today.
HANNITY: Yes, I've been down there about 12 times myself. Tammy, there's a certain arrogance that the Democrats had as the American - 88 percent of the American people do not believe it's a manufactured crisis.
TAMMY BRUCE, PRESIDENT OF INDEPENDENT WOMEN'S VOICE: Right.
HANNITY: You see the drugs traffickers, cartels, gang members. So we know people that have been impacted by this. It's happening in small towns and big cities. But the arrogance - we'll give you a dollar. We're not going to negotiate it all. When is this backfire? Because I see a major boomerang coming.
BRUCE: I think it already has. And, look, it's the President's existence, him being elected, him standing up for what he believes in that has exposed the Democrat leadership for the craven grifters that they are and the American people are the mark.
I know we don't have a lot of time, but just let me say this. They have voted for certain things as the establishment before like the wall and they did it because they knew it would never happen. Trump is the threat, because he will get it done. And what is so craven here and what is so awful is that this is a crisis.
A little while ago the Democrats cared for one minute about the two dead children that we had, horrible, horrific situation, we still care about them. That is a crisis. The number of people who are coming up who the CPB, say, or have been ill for a long time, tuberculosis, the flu, hepatitis, HIV, that they are coming because of the incentive of free health care that you hear now about being offered even more extensively by California and New York.
HANNITY: Free to illegals--
BRUCE: This is to not end and the American people understand that our lives are at stake, but so are the lives of the people who are being used as a political cudgel by the democrats in this country. Supporting the President is key, this is key for the future of the country for every American family.
HANNITY: Call your Congressman or Senator, good point. (202) 224-3121. Thank you all very compelling. When we come back we have a big announcement that we will be sharing with you. Also, exclusively, will talk with the Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen, she'll join us and she'll explain the humanitarian crisis on our Southern border and that announcement coming up straight ahead.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: My fellow Americans, tonight I am speaking to you because there is a growing humanitarian and security crisis at our Southern border. Every day Customs and Border Patrol agents encounter thousands of illegal immigrants trying to enter our country.
We are out of space to hold them, and we have no way to promptly return them back home to their country. America proudly welcomes millions of lawful immigrants who would reach our society and contribute to our nation. But all Americans are hurt by uncontrolled, illegal migration.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HANNITY: All right. That was the President last night in his address on our crisis on the Southern border. Joining us now is Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen is with us. Madam Secretary, good to see you.
KIRSTJEN NIELSEN, UNITED STATES SECRETARY OF HOMELAND SECURITY: Good to see you, Sean.
HANNITY: You were in the situation room today, not a very long meeting, not a productive meeting, give us your thoughts.
NIELSEN: I - you know, as I said in the snow, I just have through the meeting. I just am thoroughly disappointed. This is a severe humanitarian and security crisis. The President is taking leadership. He is taking decisive action and Congress continues to refuse to act. He's made it very clear what the crisis is, what we need to do, they have no alternative.
They will not - they refused to engage and it's very, very disappointing. It's disappointing on behalf of the 240,000 men and women who are trying to secure this country, but it's also disappointing as an American.
HANNITY: Madam Secretary, there are some simple facts here that they're saying - their party line is this is a manufactured crisis. But we do know this. We do know 90 percent of our heroin comes from the Southern border and that we have about 300 deaths per week.
We do know that in the last two weeks we lost police Officer Singh and he has a five month old little boy, will never know his father. We do know Pierce Corcoran, his parents were on this show earlier in the week. We do know their 22-year-old son killed by an illegal immigrant.
Drug trafficking, human trafficking, we have drug deaths, we have other deaths, violence, cartels, gangs, how do you - what is your response when they say it's manufactured, when these are real people, real lives, life and death, and they just ignore it?
NIELSEN: Yes. I mean, it's offensive, it's disrespectful. I can't imagine being one of these victims' families and listening to an elected member of Congress claim that their pain and their suffering is manufactured. Its offensive, is what it is. But it's also unprofessional.
HANNITY: For some people in the media it's been like a numbers game. We do know Americans die. We do know - I'd argue probably 98 percent of people that want to come here want hope, opportunity, liberty, freedom and all the things we may even take for granted ourselves. But it's a 2% I worry about that are part of the gangs, the drug cartels.
The 2% maybe you have talked about, but you can't give numbers. There are instances that you can confirm that you know of terrorists that have tried to cross our Southern border and we've apprehended them.
NIELSEN: Yes, Sean, and we've talked about the thousands - the thousands of terror watchlist individuals who traveled through our hemisphere last year. To pretend there's not a danger on an unsecured border, on an open border is just ridiculous. If belies common sense.
But it's not just a security crisis that the President and the Vice President continued to draw the American public's attention to, it's a humanitarian crisis. We have doctors at our border saying one in three women on this journey are raped. Seven out of 10 of these migrants are victims of violence. This is a humanitarian crisis that is caused by the pull of the loopholes in our law, by our lack of resources and by the refusal of democrats to act.
HANNITY: What do you make and how do you explain that Chuck Schumer, Nancy Pelosi, Joe Biden, Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, just a few years ago, 2013, they were willing to allocate $48 billion for border security as part of a Gang of Eight Plan. And then they're making the point that it's not needed anymore or it's manufactured.
But, yet if you look at the one sector in Arizona, Yuma border sector it was one of the in the country and they went from five miles of border fencing to 63 miles and they saw a reduction of 95 percent in apprehensions and people being able to cross into the country illegally. Doesn't that prove the point in that one county that it works, walls work, barriers work?
NIELSEN: Sean, walls work. I mean, we can't say it enough. The facts are incontrovertible. Anywhere that we have built wall illegal migration has dropped between 90 and 95 percent. They know that, those are the facts. They've been to the border themselves. They claim that they've talked to our Border Patrol agents. They claim they're in favor of border security.
What the President continues to make clear is this is not an either, this is not and/or situation, this is an and. We need security at our ports of entry and we need security between the ports of entry.
HANNITY: There is politics being played here, though, Madam Secretary. Because it was a crisis when they could bludgeon the President politically and say the kids were being separated from their parents, which should happen in the two previous administrations, and this President fixed it.
Or when they could say after our border agents will be in pelted with rocks and bottles, they could say, "Oh, they - our border patrol and ICE were teargassing children". So it seems to be a crisis when they could politicize it. But Americans are dying in big numbers because of that small percentage of the criminal element. Drugs are coming in every day. And what do you say when people - when lives are at stake and people are playing politics? It's clear, it's politics.
NIELSEN: I hate that I agree with you on this point, Sean, but I do, it is politics. And what I think that I would say in response is the President and the Vice President continue to take leadership. They continue to try to solve this crisis. They continue to describe it for what it is. They're doing it with compassion.
I think you saw a President last night that was very serious. That was taking a leadership role. He was showing compassion, and very importantly he was making it clear that he continues to listen to the men and women who are on the frontline who protect this country every day, often at danger to their own lives. That's what the President is doing.
I don't know what the Democrats are doing, because the President has made offers, the President has explained to them what needs to be done. They have come up with no solutions on their own. But they continue to claim, as you said that this is a manufactured crisis. Nothing could be further from the truth.
HANNITY: All right. Secretary Nielsen, thank you so much for being with us. We appreciate it.
NIELSEN: Thank you always.
HANNITY: This is a matter of life and death. These are American lives, American kids, real drugs, real cartels, real gang members, and real violence. Joe Concha, Larry Elder, they will join us next. We'll talk about the hate Trump media, their outrageous reaction to the President's speech last night. And we have a major announcement that's coming up straight ahead.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HANNITY: All right. Not surprised that media is absolutely unable to cover the President's Oval Office address without letting their trump hatred, well, get in the way. Take a look.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
CARL BERNSTEIN, POLITICAL ANALYST, CNN: We're talking about a wall here that is a symbol that says, "brown people, we don't want you".
JIM ACOSTA, CHIEF WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT, CNN: That address probably should have come with a Surgeon General's warning, it was hazardous to the truth.
REP. JAMES CLYBURN, D-S.C.: We saw a reckless President morph into a feckless presidency.
JOE LOCKHART, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: When you look at this speech is the definition of being disingenuous.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What was the point of that exercise? It felt - and this entire process, by the way, feels like a colossal waste of time so he can deliver on a chant he began three years ago at some of his rallies. The government is tied up because of it, we're tied up because of it, the American people are tied up because of it, and it's all about nothing.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HANNITY: Joining us now, Salem Radio Talk Show Host, Larry Elder, and The Hill and Hannity Special Media Correspondent, Joe Concha is with us. Larry, let me just - really they speak in one voice, they use the same words and I watch this, it's every second, minute, hour, every 24-hour day - hate Trump, hate trump.
LARRY ELDER, AMERICAN RADIO SHOW HOST: Well, that's right. It's - I've never seen this level of hatred. They've always disliked Republicans. George Herbert Walker Bush was called a racist by Maxine Waters. George W. Bush was called a racist by Barney Frank, who accused him of ethnic cleansing by inaction for allegedly responding sluggishly to Hurricane Katrina.
But this is a whole level of hatred. And I think it has a lot to do with the fact that Donald Trump has put the media on notice. We know the media has engaged in fake news. We know the media has been biased for years. Donald Trump is the first one to call him out on it, and that's why they dislike him so much.
HANNITY: The fact that they all say the same thing, Joe, it's like one voice. Manufactured crisis - will any of them ever have the courage to say that to an Angel Mom or Dad or family?
JOE CONCHA, MEDIA REPORTER, THE HILL: Well, it's easy from the Ivory Towers of New York and Washington, the media centers - political media centers of the country. So, yes, I would imagine that that wouldn't be the case.
But remember what the media tenor was going into yesterday's address. We were told, almost guaranteed, the President is going to lie. That the networks needed to deliberate even to carry the speech on their networks without either delay or at all because they needed to fact-check it first. They were demanding that a text of the context of the speech was supposed to be given to them.
But then a funny thing happened. The fact checkers didn't have a heck of a lot to do. So then they started to injecting their opinions into the fact checks. I mean, if you saw The Washington Post yesterday, they actually fact-checked the President when he said, the 266,000 illegal aliens were arrested over the last two years.
And they said this quoting, "The number is right, but misleading". No, no, no, when you fact check something, if the number is right. That should end the fact check. But instead they went into this whole diatribe on how you can't include immigration offenses in there. No, a crime is a crime is a crime and once you start nitpicking at that then you look stupid, even when you're fact-checking. The media really dropped the ball on this one.
HANNITY: And Larry, when Secretary Nielsen said, well Pelosi goes, "I don't take your facts". She said they're not mine. They are the facts.
HANNITY: I know. This is hysterical. I imagine where was Jim Acosta saying that there ought to be a Surgeon General warning during the eight years of the Obama administration when he told whopper after whopper that moved major policy.
We're talking about Obamacare, that radically changed the way we get health care in this country. And he said several whoppers, including it'll bend the cost curve down most, economists did not believe that. They said his mother, as she lay dying at a hospital bed in Hawaii, was fighting with her health insurance carriers over paying her hospital bills, turned out that was not true.
And of course, the big one, if you like your doctor you can keep your doctor. What about the whopper he told when he pulled all the troops out of Iraq. He said after ISIS metastasized, "Hey, my hands were tied because George W. Bush had entered into a timetable". That was not true. Where was the graphic? Why didn't people - there to be some sort of graphic saying.
HANNITY: Yes, yes. Let me show this Joe this. Joe, I would think there's an opportunity here to put politics aside when 90% of heroin comes in from that Southern border, put - when people, when we know the 2 percent of the criminal element that we'd be protecting American lives. That - where is that part of the media and that part of the Democratic Party?
CONCHA: I remember during 2016 campaign that afterwards people asked me, well, what did the media do wrong? And my answer was they didn't go to Ohio and Michigan and Pennsylvania and Wisconsin to get the feeling on the ground, to talk to the people that were there. And the same thing should be happening here.
We should be seeing reporting from the border and on those situations like you talked about, whether it be drug trafficking, human trafficking. Those are the reports we should be seeing instead of people opining from afar of what they think people should think, Sean.
HANNITY: All right. Thank you both, great analysis. When we come back, our big announcement, that's next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HANNITY: All right. Quick programming note, tomorrow the President is headed to McAllen, Texas to tour the Southern border. We will be there. We are traveling to the Lone Star State and we will broadcast from there tomorrow night.
We will be interviewing the President and Ted Cruz and Secretary Nielsen and Border Patrol agents themselves. We have a lot to talk to, well, to President and everyone else about tomorrow night. That's tomorrow 9:00 Eastern right here on the Fox News Channel.
Think about it from this perspective. When you think about human lives suffering, isn't it worth protecting Americans first? But let not your heart be troubled. The news continues. Laura Ingraham is standing by in the sewer, the swamp known as Washington D.C.
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