During a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing, Sen. Ashley Moody (R-FL) questioned President Donald Trump's nominee to lead the DEA, Terrance Cole, about the role of the Mexican Government in combatting cartels.
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00:01Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
00:04Senator Hawley pointed out that in his state, fentanyl is the leading cause of death.
00:10In fact, fentanyl is the leading cause of death in the United States.
00:15It is the, by far, leading cause of death of working and fighting age Americans, 18 to 45.
00:23So China and their efforts to send precursors of fentanyl through Mexico and the cartels then,
00:30moving those, surging those over our border over the last administration has caused devastation
00:40to our nation, our families, its stability.
00:45And it was shocking to me, as this was occurring, that the president of Mexico at the time said
00:54that the drug crisis, and we know that they are losing over 100,000 people a year, which
00:59to put in perspective, when Nancy Reagan first said, just say no, we lost 3,000 a year.
01:05It is an American problem.
01:09Why would we help?
01:10We are Mexico first.
01:13And immediately thereafter, the president of the United States, Joe Biden, said that Mexico
01:17was a great partner.
01:18And it is refreshing to have a president now in office that recognizes they need to use
01:25tools, not only a voice accurately, but the tools available to them, terrorists and otherwise,
01:31to strengthen that border and get Mexico to assist.
01:35And we have shut down that border, almost 100% difference from this time last year.
01:39But I think it's refreshing to hear someone with your experience, firsthand experience,
01:46talk about the challenges of dealing with Mexico, not only in how they address the problem and whose it is,
01:56but how they oversee and hold accountable their own personnel.
02:00And I think you would be hard-pressed to find any law enforcement agent that works with Mexico
02:05that says that they do not have a real problem with corruption.
02:10And anybody that assumes otherwise or doesn't know enough to talk about that intelligently
02:16that is in leadership really needs to dig in to the history of law enforcement and cooperation with Mexico.
02:21Do I have your word moving forward that you will use all the tools at your disposal
02:26to ensure that Mexico not only assists us with cleaning up and addressing the criminals that are here
02:34that shipped drugs here, continue to terrorize our communities?
02:39Will you demand vocally and with our administration that we hold the Mexican government
02:44as well as the cartel members accountable?
02:47Yes, Senator, I will.
02:48Do you agree that the cartels are, in fact, foreign terrorist organizations?
02:55Yes, Senator, they are.
02:57And did you hold that belief emphatically before President Trump had the courage to designate that by executive order?
03:05Yes, I did.
03:06And do you believe that will go a long way into ensuring we can not only determine who is in our country right now,
03:14that shouldn't be, but also in tackling the opioid and fentanyl crisis?
03:19Yes, Senator.
03:19It's an all-hands-on-deck approach, as we spoke about yesterday,
03:23and including our state and local partners in the middle of this fight to save every American citizen we can is critical.
03:31And do you also believe it is a priority?
03:33And I, for one, I'm sure you did, under the last administration,
03:36pled with the last administration to declare the cartel's foreign terrorist organizations,
03:41which they refused to do.
03:43Thankfully, right away, this president did.
03:45Do you believe that identifying members of these organizations and getting them out of our country as soon as possible
03:51will go a long way towards fighting this crisis of fentanyl killing Americans,
03:57many of them unsuspecting they're even ingesting fentanyl?
04:01Yes, Senator.
04:02Another problem that is wreaking havoc within so many of our states and cities around the nation
04:10is the idea of rogue and radical prosecutors that campaign and get elected that they are going to fight violent crime.
04:18And so many times, violent crime is tied to drug trafficking.
04:21And then because of their partisan agenda and their pro-criminal approach,
04:25they refuse to prosecute certain crimes, including drug crimes.
04:29Do I have your word?
04:30And do I also have your word, sir,
04:32that you will use every resource at your disposal to help those communities
04:36where their top law enforcement officer has abandoned them and dropped the ball
04:40and refuses to prosecute some of the worst in those communities
04:46in an effort to achieve some partisan agenda?
04:49Will you come in and bring the cavalry and the federal resources at your disposal
04:53to put away violent and dangerous criminals?
04:56Senator, we will deploy every tool available.
05:00Same, Senator.
05:03Senator Klobuchar.
05:05Thank you, Senator Moody.