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00:00All right. Well, good afternoon, everybody. And I appreciate you being here. It's great to be here. It's great to talk to some of the incredible people that we have, both at the local level, the Texas state level, and also, of course, our Federal Border Patrol, who are doing so many good things to keep us safe.
00:16And I have some bad news and some good news. And the bad news is that because of what Joe Biden did at the southern border for four years, we had record increases in migrant crime, in fentanyl deaths, and in just floods and floods of people who shouldn't be in our country who came into the United States of America.
00:36We also have a number of ways in which the cartels became more advanced, better war fighters, because Joe Biden opened up the American southern border and allowed the cartels to turn it into their playground.
00:48Now, that's the bad news. The good news is, as President Trump said last night at the State of the Union, it turns out we didn't need new laws. We didn't need fancy legislation. We just needed a new president of the United States.
01:00And thank God that's exactly what we have. And I will say that the most heartening message that I take away from my visit here at the Texas border is the number of Border Patrol agents who have come up to me and said, thank you, or said, because of this, we've cut the number of border crossings from 1,500 a day to 30 a day.
01:19Or the people who have come up and said, we've seen a reduction in 85% of the number of people who are dying at the American southern border. And every single day that we continue to keep this border safe, that means less migrant crime, that means less fentanyl coming into our communities, that means more safety and security for the people of the United States of America.
01:41And of course, we know the border problem, the border crisis under Biden's administration was a national crisis, but it acutely affected the communities right here. And I've already heard heartbreaking stories of people who are still picking up the pieces, local mayors who are still dealing with the budgetary consequences of what the Joe Biden administration allowed to happen at the American southern border. And that, too, is something that President Trump is going to help address, help fix, and help solve.
02:10Now, I wanted to bring Secretary Hegsteth and Director Gabbard at DNI down here because, one, I obviously enjoy their company, and it's good to have them down here with me looking around today. But unfortunately, we know that because of what's happened, the border crisis has become a matter of national intelligence, and it's also become something that requires the Department of Defense to engage with.
02:35I was talking with Paul Perez earlier. The drone technology that the cartels are using requires, unfortunately, a military response and military support. So it was important for Secretary Hegsteth to see what's going on because we know that the millions and millions of people who were let in over the last four years, many of them are connected to foreign terrorists. It's important for our leader of national intelligence to get a sense of what's here on the ground.
03:01So before we take questions from the press, and all of us are willing to take questions, I want to give Secretary Hegsteth and then Director Gabbard an opportunity to say a few words themselves.