wall before workers. now, is that a fair assessment? i argue it is, and here s why. the promise was a stunt. it started as a device to stoke crowds, not a plan. proof the democrats offered money for the bollard fencing that you see on your screen right now. this is one version of it. that s what the people who keep us safe say they need more of, what you re seeing on the screen. different stuff in different places. the democrats put it in the last omnibus bill and the proposal had it in it as well. the president rejected both. why if he was about keeping us safe? more proof. a wall or any physical barrier is certainly not a cure-all for our safety as he suggests. we are not a wall away. physical barriers don t stop the majority of the drugs, the terrorists, or the trafficking. why? because they all come now more on planes, more through
the right alternative, so this is not a partisan issue. this is an issue of how do we secure the borders best. was he there to negotiate, do you think, or was he there to give you an ultimatum, see if you were ready to give in, and then leave? whether he was there for that reason or not, that s what he did. you re either for the wall or i m leaving, and nancy said no, and he got up in a huff and walked out. let s try to filter some of what happened in this political dynamic into like the real world for a second. right. when nancy pelosi or you say we re not giving you the wall but you have given money for the structures that the dhs, cbp say they need along the border, how much, how much money, that s debatable, but you ve given it in the past. are you now not willing to give money for things like fencing and technology for border security? look, i think when you mention technology, when you mention personnel, when you
employees are not going to get their salaries. it is in my opinion a very, very bad policy bordering on i would even say an immoral policy to take people hostage for the ends you want to get to. but isn t all of it part of the equation, leader? i mean, there are places where you need a fence. there s places where you need sensors. and we have supported that. so you are open to more of all of it to some degree, are you not? we re willing to talk about that with the experts who can make a determination. you ve appropriated ballard fencing before? well, we have supported fencing before, you re correct on that. the fact is though, i want to keep repeating. we re prepared to make the borders secure, and we re prepared to do it in a way that borders are secure and americans will be safe. and if it requires additional infrastructure, we will certainly, i think, be prepared to consider that. the president said mexico was going to pay for a big concrete
farce. it s going to be made of hardened concrete, and it s going to be made out of rebar and steel. after trump was elected, the wall loomed larger, literally and figuratively. so your money was spent on prototypes of a pretend wall, but then came the most important part, the more the president was pushed to deliver we started to see this shift from fantasy to an attempt to own the actual reality of what is on the border right now. listen. you could call it a steel fence this wall or fence or anything the democrats need to call it. now, the democrats have never asked him for anything or had any input on what the wall should be. they re against it in the way that the president talks about it, but they have funded what is being put up and what dhs, the department of homeland security says we need more of. he says fencing because it s
show me. i haven t seen it. and he says every other president wanted to build a wall too, and they told him that. listen. this should have been done by all of the presidents that preceded me, and they all know it. some of them have told me that we should have done it. who? ex-presidents claritaer clinton, w., george w. bush, and obama. the truth is, none of them spoke with the president about it. that s what they say. so don t be a sucker, and don t fall for a farce. but also be aware of an important fact. do the people who keep us safe want more bollard fencing, those big steel barriers? yes, they do. do they believe we ll be safer if they have them? yes. but they have never told me it s a panacea, not even close. they need other types of technology for different areas, manpower for different areas, money for places to keep kids and families, for judges, for case workers. now, i know the white house will say, well, we put that all out there that we re asking for that. you ve never