FBI Director Kash Patel Discusses Trump's Federal Takeover Of Washington, D.C., Police

At a White House press briefing, FBI Director Kash Patel discussed President Trump's federal takeover of the Washington, D.C., Police.

Transcript

00:00about Northern Virginia, if you will. Northern Virginia, we had a big success.

00:04Thank you, Mr. President. Thank you, Attorney General Blondie, for your leadership,

00:07Deputy Attorney General, and the rest of our interagency partners.

00:10Mr. President, the following is what happens when you let good cops be cops,

00:14and I just want to highlight that before I get into Northern Virginia.

00:17This year alone, under President Trump's administration, we've had over 4,000 child

00:21victims identified and found. That's a 33% increase from the same time period last year.

00:2733% increase. We've had a seizure of 1,500 kilograms of fentanyl up to this date.

00:35That is a 25% increase since the same time period last year. And just to put it in perspective,

00:411,500 kilograms of fentanyl is enough to kill 115 million Americans. 115 million Americans.

00:49Cops are getting after it. The FBI has arrested 19,000 people this year alone.

00:54Thanks to President Trump's administrations, that's double than where we were this time last

00:59year. And we have also arrested 1,600 people who have committed violent acts against children.

01:06Children. 270 of them are human traffickers of children. Mr. President, this is what happens

01:14when you have great leadership at the Attorney General with Pam Bondi, your administration's

01:18priority of protecting the homeland and protecting American citizens and protecting our children.

01:23And the murder rates are plummeting. We are now able to report that the murder rate

01:27is on track to be the lowest in U.S. history, in modern recorded U.S. history, thanks to this team

01:33behind me and President Trump's priorities. And how do we do it? And what are we going to bring

01:37to D.C.? What we did in Northern Virginia, thanks to Terry Cole and Governor Youngkin and the team,

01:42we stood up a task force out in my Northern Virginia field office. And we said, let's let good cops be

01:47cops. Let's get them the intelligence and what they need. And let's get the red tape out of their way.

01:51And let's get DOJ partnered up with us to bring great prosecutions. And that's exactly what we

01:56did. In one month, we arrested 545 violent felons. 545 in the state of Virginia, thanks

02:03to Governor Youngkin's partnership. And that simplicity in law enforcement is what's coming

02:08to Washington, D.C. When you let good cops be cops, when you give them the intel they need,

02:13when you work with our Homeland Security Task Force, when you work with Terry and Gaddy and I go way

02:17back to Miami, these guys are great leaders of their respective departments and law enforcement

02:21capacities. And when you have the DOJ and President Trump driving behind this mission,

02:27we are going to clean up Washington, D.C. And we're going to do it the right way, the lawful way,

02:31and we're going to make sure Washington, D.C. is safe again. Thank you, Mr. President. Thank you, Attorney General.

02:36Thank you very much.

02:37Thank you very much.