'They Were Making $13 Billion A Year Trafficking': Davidson Touts Trump's Cartel And Border Policies

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During a House Foreign Affairs Committee hearing on Wednesday, Rep. Warren Davidson (R-OH) spoke about President Trump's policies on the Southern Border.

Transcript

00:00Earlier for pushing back on the nonsensical idea that the Trump

00:06administration has somehow been soft on human trafficking and rightly pointing

00:10out that the border is now closed and secure. We know the biggest human

00:14traffickers in the world were the cartels. They were making over $13 billion a

00:19year trafficking people across our southern border and flooding our country

00:23with people who are illegally here. They were massively exploited along the way

00:28and potentially some of that exploitation is still going on and I'm encouraged by

00:33the efforts at all levels to shut that down. So with that Secretary Hooker, thank

00:38you so much for your testimony today and your service in our State Department. I'd

00:42like to thank you and Secretary Rubio for your hard work in reorganizing the State

00:46Department so that we could put America's interests first with America's

00:51resources. So thank you. The reorganization of the Political Affairs Bureau is an

00:56important reform, prioritizing regional experts with on-the-ground knowledge and

01:00relationships to lead State Department policy. It never made sense to allow

01:06anti-growth climate change activists in the Environmental Bureau to run policy. I've

01:12heard from people around the world who felt like they're putting ideology ahead of

01:19interest between our country and other countries as they wanted to have

01:23bilateral relations that were focused on real issues. We saw on-whether it's

01:27environmental policy or social agendas like LGBTQ+, that the administration had a

01:33different agenda than just listening and building relationships. So let me turn to

01:39Greenland. I'm proud to be the founding chairman of the Congressional Greenland

01:44Caucus earlier this year. Arctic security is critical for our national security and

01:48ensuring that we keep Russia and China in their place as we confront a not just

01:55Arctic security but Arctic opportunities. And I'm glad there were components of the

01:59big beautiful bill that advanced that. Could you elaborate on how the State

02:05Department's working to address that issue?

02:10Thank you Congressman for your question and for your comments as well. You've hit on a

02:19number of issues that are great importance to this administration whether

02:23it's supply chain or our security in the Arctic. All of those issues are can be found

02:29central and in Greenland and our engagement with Denmark continues. As you

02:34know we have we have a base there in Greenland which keeps us very tied to it.

02:40So I guess the the most the the best thing I can say about it is that we're

02:45paying close attention to this issue. Our Bureau of European Affairs has under

02:51its responsibility Greenland and will continue to work this issue going

02:56forward for the administration. Thank you so much and I'd love to build an

02:59interface there with the State Department to specifically talk about

03:02Greenland issues both with the people of Greenland and with you know folks of

03:07Denmark and if we could arrange travel there just to build rapport and

03:11relationships would have a congressional delegation that would love to

03:16participate with the State Department in strengthening our ties. As the chairman of

03:22national security and illicit finance every day we have malign foreign actors and

03:26representative Shreve highlighted you know one of those issues where you're

03:31seeing transnational criminal organizations exploit our seniors and you know

03:36thank you for highlighting the response there. Do you have any thoughts on how

03:41the financial services lane and using all the tools whether it's OFAC or things

03:46that are in Treasury could work with the State Department to provide additional

03:49leverage in your negotiations? Thank you congressman I think we have to keep all

03:54of our tools on the table so to speak we have to use all available tools and

03:59dealing dealing with these issues so as we go forward if there is a need to work

04:04with you more closely on that we're very much interested in doing so. Thank you for

04:09that and then lastly I just talked about you know Vice President Vance really spoke

04:13to I mean he's from my congressional district and frankly if my

04:17constituents could have been in Munich Germany they might have not said it as

04:20eloquently but we're concerned what exactly are we defending when you look at

04:24people who are having to flee the United Kingdom flee Germany even Poland for

04:30asylum in Hungary where they're defending civil liberties in Hungary. How are you

04:35working in the State Department to make sure that the values that we share that

04:40defined our alliances are actually still represented in our alliances? Thank you

04:46congressman I mean I don't I don't think I have to say that the US the United

04:49States considers freedom of expression to be foundational component of our

04:54of our functioning democracy and so this will can be part of our diplomatic

05:00engagement with these countries that you just mentioned that we continue to

05:04stand for the very freedoms that we hold dear and with our fellow democracies

05:10around the world ensure that they continue to see this as a value and that

05:15we're emphasizing it. Thank you so much my time's expired now you'll be

05:18representative Castro thank you thank you chair

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