FBI Dir. Kash Patel speaks at a law and order event at the Department of Justice.
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NewsTranscript
00:00Welcome, everybody, to the Department of Justice.
00:08It's been some time since I've been in this room, and it really is one of the most special
00:12rooms in the halls of justice.
00:14And it really is a unique experience to be able to be a part of the team that is delivering
00:18a singular system of justice for the American people with a complete and total annihilation
00:23of the weaponization of justice and the politicization of intelligence.
00:31We have a new FBI, and I'm humbled and honored to be its leader.
00:34We have a courageous Attorney General in General Pam Bondi.
00:38We have incredible leaders throughout our law enforcement community, whether it be at
00:41the FBI, the DEA, HSI, CBP, ATF, and the list goes on.
00:47I've been privileged to meet so many of them in my first month on board here.
00:50I look around and I see state attorneys generals that have been doing the work hand in glove
00:55with local, state, and federal law enforcement.
00:58And our mission, and my mission specifically, is to tell you what we've been doing in this
01:02first month.
01:03And I told you when I got this job that we would crush violent crime, that we would take
01:08the fight to anyone who wishes to do harm to our way of life and to hurt our citizenry,
01:15that we would go to the ends of the earth to bring them back to face American justice
01:19produced right here in this very hall, in this very building.
01:23To that effort, we have done just that.
01:25And a special shout out, I know my Boston contingent is here on St. Patty's Day.
01:30Thank you for the great work you guys have been doing, and across the rest of the FBI.
01:34But right here in Virginia, or across the river in Virginia, the FBI stood up an interagency
01:38task force at our Manassas office, and in just two and a half short weeks, we have arrested
01:43over 300 violent felonies, gang members, including MS-13 and 18 gangsters.
01:50We have taken seizure of hundreds of pounds of narcotics and hundreds of weapons and currency
01:55and illicit goods.
01:57That's just what you can do when you put the brave men and women of law enforcement in
02:02one room and get the hell out of their way.
02:05And we are going to do that in every state across this country, in Massachusetts alone,
02:10in the last couple of weeks.
02:11They have indicted federally over 50 violent gang members and narco-traffickers, seizing
02:17almost 200 kilograms of fentanyl.
02:28There is no time for us to waste on this job, and that's why under President Trump's leadership
02:33and General Bondi's leadership, we've been instructed to get after it.
02:37And that's exactly what we are doing.
02:39We have to especially get after it when we lose an American citizen every seven minutes
02:44to a drug overdose.
02:46We have to especially get after it when a man or child is, excuse me, a woman or child
02:51is raped in this country nearly every six minutes.
02:54And we have to especially get after it when there are two homicides nearly every hour
02:58in this country.
02:59Violent crime is exploding, and it is a direct result of the border invasion that occurred.
03:05But thanks to this administration and thanks to your relentless work on the field of battle
03:11to protect our citizenry, we are finally curbing those astronomical numbers.
03:15And what that means is we are saving American lives.
03:19We are providing our children with safe schools and playgrounds so that they can be educated
03:25and grow up in a fun neighborhood like we all had the privilege of doing in this great
03:29community and in this great country.
03:32So when you go out there and you see your communities working with this interagency
03:35task force, and you see our brave men and women of law enforcement, it is a team effort.
03:42This is not a one-stop, one-man, one-group, one-agency operation.
03:47It happens at every single level.
03:49Just yesterday, I was honored to meet with hundreds of law enforcement officers from
03:53around the country, and I was even more humbled to graduate 245 police officers from the FBI
03:59National Academy representing 48 states and 24 countries.
04:04That is how you put the mission first.
04:06You bring these brave warriors who have already dedicated their lives to safeguard our communities.
04:11You bring them together to do it again and again and again.
04:15And the thing that inspires me most is that they have a relentless desire to make sure
04:21that they wake up and end the day in a community that is safer to you all.
04:27And I just wanted to talk to you here for a few minutes about that great work.
04:31Just last night, seven narco-trafficking thugs from Colombia were extradited and returned
04:36to American soil to face American justice.
04:39Just the other week, 29 Mexican narco-traffickers from Mexico were repatriated here to America
04:45to face American justice.
04:48Just in that group alone, you are talking about over 5,000 kilograms of narcotics that
04:54would have poured into our country.
04:57And you'll see the type of damage that just a little bit of fentanyl, a little bit of
05:02fentanyl can do to our children.
05:04And we're talking about thousands and thousands of kilos.
05:07Yes, that is a national security crisis, but the good news is the men and women of law
05:13enforcement in conjunction with the brave warriors that we have in Congress who have
05:17the courage to stand up and fight for their representatives and fight for their constituencies
05:22are leading the funding and legislation we need to make sure we get this mission done.
05:27This is not going to be a short-lived process.
05:31Certainly at the FBI, it is something we wake up to every single day and go to bed at every
05:35single night.
05:37And the thought is singular.
05:39What is the best way we can safeguard our citizenry?
05:42What are we doing worse?
05:43What are we doing better?
05:45And what's in between?
05:47And when we have those answers for you, you see them delivered in the halls of justice
05:51and the courts across this country.
05:53And that's the great work that is the tip of the spear.
05:57But there is so much work behind it from state and local authorities.
06:01We are getting after it, not just where the media normally covers.
06:06And I want to highlight the following.
06:08The violent crime that plagues our country is also plaguing those on tribal lands.
06:13And we are not going to treat them any differently.
06:15They all live in the same America that we live in.
06:18And they face the same crises that we face.
06:22So we will work with our state and local partners on all matters that are affecting tribal lands
06:29and Indian reservations to make sure their children are no longer trafficked, to make
06:33sure their women are no longer raped and go missing.
06:37This mission must be 24-7, 365, from the Atlantic Ocean, the Pacific Ocean.
06:43But beyond that, we must go extraterritorially, like I've just told you about.
06:47We must go down to the furthest reaches of the planet to make sure that we bring you
06:51the justice that you have voted for in this new administration.
06:56And we will.
06:57And this is my promise to you as the director of the FBI for as long as I'm in this seat.
07:03We will never, ever stop fighting violent crime.
07:08That is the priority of the FBI, along with national security.
07:12And we will put every resource and every manning that we have on that mission.
07:26And lastly, through this great work, you will see tremendous oversight and reforms at our
07:30FBI, which will unfold with our partners in Congress over the coming weeks and months
07:34and years ahead.
07:35But I want you to pay attention also to what's going on in the halls of Congress, because
07:39they are providing us with the resources we need to combat the fentanyl crisis.
07:44And this administration is providing us with the tools we need by designating the cartels
07:48foreign terrorist organizations, because that's exactly how they should be treated, because
07:52that's exactly who they are.
07:54And in that pursuit, I look forward to playing a very small part.
08:04The FBI will play a very large part.
08:06And our interagency partners and our local and state law enforcement officers will start
08:10putting more and more and more handcuffs on the bad guys.
08:14And good cops across this country will be unleashed to be good cops on a daily basis.
08:20And the lasting promise that I will leave you with, and this is a message to the law
08:23enforcement community, you have always had the backs of the American people, so the Federal
08:28Bureau of Investigation and me as its director will have your backs.