- hace 8 meses
Categoría
🗞
NoticiasTranscripción
00:07Thank you all. Thank you.
00:16Thank you all. Thank you all.
00:17Thank you all. Please, please take a seat and we've got got some time to spend with one another.
00:22So I want to first thank a few of the great people who are here who make this possible and
00:28are leading,
00:28I think, helping us lead America's and North Carolina's comeback.
00:32So first of all, to our great Senate candidate here in the state of North Carolina, Michael Watley.
00:37Thank you, Michael, for everything that you're doing.
00:43For our great congressional candidate in this district, Lori Buckout. Where are you, Lori?
00:48Thank you so much. It's good to see you.
00:52An officer in our military and now a person who wants to serve this great district and actually do something
00:58good
00:58for the people of this district instead of just voting with Nancy Pelosi, which is exactly what Don Davis does
01:04every single day.
01:06He's in Washington, D.C. So Lori, thank you. We're going to talk a little bit more about your race
01:10here in a second.
01:11But a lot of you know that this state has a very special place in my heart because I grew
01:15up in a poor family.
01:17I was raised by my grandmother. And then when I graduated from high school back in 2003, I enlisted in
01:23the United States Marine Corps.
01:24And I really spent the first four years of my adulthood, not too far from here in the eastern part
01:30of our state, you know, becoming a young Marine and frankly becoming a young man.
01:36And I'll never forget one of the first major purchases I ever made in my entire life was when I
01:44wanted to buy for the first time.
01:45I wanted to buy my own car as a young Marine. I was probably 19 years old. And I go
01:50to one of these off base used car dealerships and I find a Honda Civic.
01:54It's practical. It's cheap. It does everything I need it to do. And I'm going to get the dealer's low,
02:00low interest rate financing of 21 percent.
02:08And by the grace of God, I had a great United States Marine Corps gunnery sergeant, Gunny Arledge.
02:15I went back. I said, Gunny, I got a great, great news for you. He said, what? He said, I'm
02:19going to buy my first car.
02:21I said, congratulations, Marine. That's a big step for a young Marine. He said, what's your interest rate?
02:26I said, 21 percent. And he nearly smacked me upside the head. And he said, stop being an idiot. And
02:33he didn't say that.
02:33He used more colorful language. But I see we have a couple of couple of young people out there.
02:37He said, go to Navy Federal Credit Union. And I got an eight percent interest rate and bought my car
02:44without breaking the bank.
02:45So that was my. That was one of many, many lessons the state of North Carolina taught me.
02:53But what we're trying to do, I talk about the difference between a 21 percent interest rate that the used
02:58car dealer offered me and the eight percent interest rate that I got offered at a credit union.
03:04And that's pretty much the difference between the Joe Biden and Donald Trump economic plan for the United States of
03:10America, because.
03:16And just a very brief time, we've seen new home purchases rise to their highest level in five years since
03:24the last time Donald Trump was president.
03:26We've seen the cost of rents drop for six months in a row.
03:29We've seen the average tax refund that's going to come to the people of North Carolina about thirty seven hundred
03:36dollars per family.
03:38And we see interest rates that are the lowest they've been since the last time that Donald J. Trump was
03:43president.
03:43My friends, the president is impatient. He's the most impatient person I have ever met.
03:49In fact, he constantly is pressing on the gas.
03:52He wants us to do more. But I stand here proud to say that after the first year of President
03:58Donald Trump and Congressional Republicans leadership,
04:01we are rebuilding the American dream and we're taking back this country for the people of this state.
04:12Now, there are a number of things that I'm proud of, a number of things I want to brag on.
04:17But I actually want to take a little bit of an audience poll because I was looking at some of
04:21the things that we put in the working families tax cut.
04:24This one big, great, big, beautiful bill. Now, that bill is over eleven hundred pages long.
04:29And unlike most of these bills that are way too long, this is chock full of good stuff for the
04:34people of this district, the people of this state.
04:37But there are a few things in particular that I think are important for this state.
04:41Number one, number one, that piece of legislation, the working families tax cuts,
04:46had the biggest tax cut for Social Security benefits that we've ever seen in the United States of America.
04:57Number two, it wasn't just Social Security recipients. Number two, that legislation had the biggest tax cut for people making
05:04under a hundred thousand dollars
05:05that we have ever seen in tax legislation in this country.
05:13And number three, that wasn't in the working families tax cut.
05:16But one of the things I'm very proud of is that we forced all localities,
05:21whether they're red states or blue states, to report crime accurately so we could go to war against violent crime
05:28and the criminals who do that violent crime.
05:34Now, those are three things. And on this part, I only want you to clap once,
05:39because, again, I'm going to take an audience poll here.
05:41I'm going to ask you what your favorite of those three pieces of legislation,
05:46those three accomplishments are that we've had so far in the Trump administration.
05:50So, if your favorite thing of those three is no taxes on Social Security, let me hear it.
05:59Okay? If your favorite thing is the biggest tax cuts for people making under a hundred K, let me hear
06:05that.
06:09Okay? And if your favorite thing is that we've gone to war against violent criminals, let me hear that.
06:21Now, I said only applaud once, and there's a guy up here, he applauded at least twice.
06:28He cheated the system, but I guess he wanted to save his applause till the very end.
06:34But we all heard the response. You know who did not clap for a single one of those great accomplishments
06:40of the Trump administration?
06:41Don Davis. Because he voted against every single one of them.
06:45Don Davis voted against cutting taxes on Social Security.
06:49Don Davis voted against cutting taxes on those making under a hundred thousand dollars a year.
06:55And Don Davis voted against going to war against violent criminals.
06:59Don Davis is not a man who stands for the people of this state or this district.
07:03He is a person who does exactly what Nancy Pelosi tells him to do.
07:08And in November, we're going to send him home and get him out of Washington, D.C.
07:19Now, the crazy thing, y'all, about the crazy thing about a guy like Don Davis is,
07:25you know, sometimes you meet a Democrat in a red district, and, you know, I don't agree with him on
07:32everything.
07:32Of course, Democrats, Republicans disagree on politics from time to time, but you at least have some people out there,
07:38or maybe you used to, who would vote their conscience or vote the interests of their district.
07:43What makes Don so unusual is that we are in a common sense district here in the state of North
07:50Carolina,
07:51and this guy still votes every single time with Nancy Pelosi.
07:55In fact, I asked my team, I said, find a major piece of legislation.
08:00Find something easy where Don Davis could vote against the Democrats and vote with his district,
08:05the moderates, the independents, even the conservative Democrats.
08:08Find me one example where this guy defied the leadership of his own party.
08:12He has never done that on any major issue that we could find.
08:16And here's just an easy, a layup, Don, an easy layup that we gave you.
08:22Frankly, it would have been bad for Lori's, poor Lori's campaign chances, but he couldn't even take the bait on
08:28the Save America Act.
08:30Now, if you know anything about this legislation, what the Save America Act does is that it makes it impossible
08:37for illegal aliens to vote in our elections.
08:40Pretty common sense.
08:46Now, I think that's pretty easy, right?
08:48We don't want illegal aliens voting in our elections.
08:50My favorite thing is whenever I bring this up, you'll have some Democrat on TV who will say,
08:56well, we don't have to worry about that because illegal immigrants voting in our elections is very rare.
09:02Well, number one, how about we put it to zero?
09:05Okay, even if you're right.
09:07Number two, you're not right.
09:09It happens way more often than a lot of people appreciate.
09:12In fact, just this week, ICE arrested an illegal immigrant.
09:17I'm going to read this because I want to make sure I get it right.
09:19An illegal immigrant from Mauritania who's voted in seven federal elections since 2008.
09:26And I haven't got good authority that in every single election he voted for Don Davis.
09:30No.
09:31I don't know about that.
09:32I don't know where he voted, but I guarantee it wasn't for us.
09:35Okay?
09:36It wasn't for America First policies.
09:38Now, here's the thing, though.
09:39Even if you take the Democrats at their word, even if illegal aliens voting is very rare, then why don't
09:47we ban it anyway?
09:48It's not that complicated.
09:50It is one thing to say, I don't get it.
09:52The Democrats say, this never happens or it happens only very rarely on the one hand.
09:58And on the other hand, we must not stop it.
10:01It doesn't make a damn bit of sense.
10:03We need to get all illegal aliens stopping from voting in our elections.
10:06It's very common sense stuff.
10:14But even on that, even on that, Don Davis could not be persuaded to vote for the people of this
10:21district.
10:21That's like an 85% issue.
10:23You look at the majority of even Democrats across our country, a solid majority of Democrats, want to pass the
10:29Save America Act, but not the guy who allegedly represents the state of North Carolina who represents this district.
10:36So you've got to kind of ask yourself, if you've got a guy who votes against tax cuts for Social
10:42Security, if Don Davis votes against tax cuts for people making under $100,000 a year, if Don Davis votes
10:50against going to war against criminal illegal aliens and violent criminals, then Don Davis doesn't really represent you.
10:57Let's vote for you. Let's vote for Lori, a person who will and will do so proudly.
11:09Now, I want to say a couple other things, because I've given Don Davis a lot of attention here, and
11:15now I'm going to go on to Roy Cooper.
11:20So, first of all, on every single thing, now, Roy wasn't in Washington, D.C., but on every single one
11:26of these critical wins for the Trump administration to have gotten for the people of this district, the people of
11:31this state, Roy Cooper would have voted against all that.
11:34That's reason, number one, we can't send a guy to the Senate. We want a senator who represents you. We
11:41want a senator who doesn't represent illegal aliens and fraud, but who represents hard work and the good people of
11:50the state of North Carolina.
11:51And because we want those things, we need Michael Watley in the United States Senate, not Roy Cooper. Michael.
12:04Now, he stood up and clapped for that. It would have been a bad sign if he would have stood
12:09up and clapped for that, but he passed the test there.
12:11So, here's the thing about Roy Cooper, okay? So, there's been a lot of debate about what exactly our foreign
12:20policy should be with regards to Russia and Ukraine.
12:23The President of the United States has been very clear. He wants the killing to stop. He wants to get
12:27back to commerce. He wants to stop the innocent people who are losing their lives in that conflict.
12:31I happen to admire that. Of course, I'm biased, but I think that's the right idea.
12:35Now, here's the crazy thing, though, about Roy Cooper. Roy Cooper is one of these people who clearly cares way
12:44more for foreign countries than he does the United States of America.
12:48You see the passion in his voice when he talks about protecting illegal aliens. You'll never hear that passion when
12:54he's talking about the people in this room.
12:56You hear the passion in his voice when he talks about sending hundreds of billions of dollars to the war
13:01in Ukraine.
13:01And yet, and yet, the one Ukrainian Roy Cooper didn't care about was this innocent girl, Irina, who had her
13:10throat slashed by a person who should have never been on the streets of this country to begin with.
13:17So ask yourself. So ask yourself, why did he spend his entire career making it hard to lock up violent
13:28criminals?
13:29Why did he spend his entire career going after our brave police officers who are trying to keep our streets
13:35safe?
13:36Why does he care so much about the war in Ukraine 6,000 miles away, but doesn't give a damn
13:42about an innocent Ukrainian girl who lost her life in our backyard because he wouldn't do his job?
13:50And the simple fact is that Roy Cooper doesn't stand for you. He doesn't fight for you. He will never
13:55fight for you. But Michael Watley will.
14:05He better. He better. He better. But he will. I know he will. He's a good man. I know he
14:09will.
14:10Let me just say a couple of final things because I want to brag on the president. I want to
14:14brag on what we've been able to accomplish in Washington.
14:16First of all, we we under the Biden administration, we dug ourselves a hole in this country. We got to
14:22be honest about that fact.
14:24The average American family under Joe Biden's leadership lost about thirty three hundred dollars in take home pay.
14:31Now, that was a combination of higher taxes, but also that terrible inflation crisis that we had when Joe Biden
14:37was president.
14:37When Joe Biden was president, not a single month did we see inflation as low as it was last month
14:46and the month before under Donald Trump's leadership.
14:48That's something big to brag on. That's something big to celebrate, because what that means is that you and your
14:54families can afford to live a better life.
14:57When Joe Biden was spending all that money on green new scams, when he was driving up the cost of
15:03everything, he was making it hard for you and your families to get by in this beautiful country that all
15:08of us love.
15:09So I happen to think it's a pretty nice thing that we've got a president of the United States that
15:14is not fighting to give away hundreds of billions of dollars to green energy scams,
15:19but is fighting to keep the American people's money in the American people's pocket because that's exactly where it belongs.
15:32But what we've seen in about, you know, a year and a month, I guess, of President Trump's leadership is
15:38that the average American family, while they lost thirty two hundred dollars when Biden was president,
15:44they've gained about thirteen hundred dollars while Donald Trump was president. Now, that's dollars and cents.
15:49Now, there's a good news and a bad news to that. The good news is that means you're thirteen hundred
15:55dollars richer than you were about a year ago.
15:57That's what we're fighting for. That's what we care the most about is your prosperity.
16:02The bad news is we are still going to dig ourselves out of that hole that Joe Biden put us
16:07in.
16:07I think the best way the best way to confront this problem is to be honest about it.
16:13And we all know Joe Biden put us in a big hole.
16:17So to the Democrats who talk about affordability a lot of the time, why don't you look yourselves in the
16:23mirror?
16:23Because the president who caused an affordability crisis was Joe Biden.
16:28And the president who has made the American people thirteen hundred dollars richer is Donald J. Trump.
16:40We got all these things we could talk about. We talk about the fact that we have homicides in this
16:44country at the lowest level that they have been in a hundred and twenty five years.
16:51Unreal. Just absolutely unbelievable progress on so many of these issues.
16:58And we ought to talk about why is it that we got homicides so low?
17:02And I'll give you two reasons.
17:03Number one, the president of the United States, the vice president of the United States,
17:07happened to believe that we ought to be using federal power to support our cops instead of fighting against them.
17:14Isn't that common sense?
17:18But we also believe that the best way to lower homicides and carjackings and other violent crime is to get
17:29the illegal alien criminals out of the United States of America.
17:33And that's what we've been doing.
17:39And I just can't get over the fact that Democrats are so passionate about defending the rights of illegal aliens
17:49over American citizens.
17:50It is the one thing that will get the Democrats really fired up.
17:54You know, a few weeks ago, we had the State of the Union address and like the Speaker of the
17:59House, I'm one of the people who has a very unique perspective into the State of the Union
18:04because I'm sitting directly behind the president of the United States.
18:07And maybe my favorite point in that whole speech is when he's and he actually added this line towards the
18:13end of the day before he gave the speech.
18:15But where he says, I'm going to say something and I want you to stand up and applaud if you
18:20agree with it.
18:20And he says, we believe that the American government should serve the interests of the American people, not illegal aliens.
18:28OK, again, a layup for our friend Don Davis.
18:31He should have been up there clapping and cheering. Who could possibly disagree with that?
18:35But of course, he did nothing like the rest of the Democrats.
18:38But the funny thing about it is they were so miserable because they realized that we had them in a
18:46bind.
18:46You could tell even a few of them were looking around like, well, this is like we should be standing
18:52up and clapping for this.
18:54But like, what is our leaders going to get mad at us?
18:57Is Nancy Pelosi going to, you know, going to take away some of our campaign money?
19:01You could tell they didn't know what to do.
19:04And that's maybe the biggest indictment of the modern Democratic Party.
19:07We talk about all these policies that you and I care about.
19:11We talk about lowering taxes on Social Security, about putting more money in your pocket.
19:15We talk about bringing tons of resources into this country to rebuild the American economy.
19:20Public safety, all this stuff matters.
19:23But the thing that maybe matters way more than any single issue is that Democratic leadership in Washington, D.C.,
19:31they cannot stand up for the simple principle that they fight for you and not an illegal alien.
19:38They can't stand up and clap the fact that we're going to go to war on fraud in this country
19:42like we've never done,
19:44instead of taking your hard earned money and giving it to people who don't deserve it.
19:48The entire Democratic Party, all of these policy disagreements, all of that stuff doesn't matter compared to the fact that
19:57they don't see themselves as your advocates.
20:01And Republicans, we do.
20:03Now, I'm not saying that's true of the Democrats all across our country.
20:07I think there are a lot of Democrats like my ma'am on papal were Democrats, conservative Democrats who love
20:12their country.
20:12But the Democrats that we have in Washington, D.C., they are a different breed.
20:16And we cannot fool ourselves that something has gone fundamentally wrong in that party.
20:22Their reason for existing is to fight for fraud, to fight for corruption, and to fight for people who have
20:30no right to be in this country.
20:32And Michael Waltley and Lori Buckout, their reason for being is to fight for you.
20:38And that's why we're here today.
20:48Now, I have just a couple of final thoughts, and I'll take a few questions from the media, and then
20:51we'll have to get on the road.
20:53So one final thought is, and Kelly knows this.
20:56Michael Waltley knows this.
20:58By the way, I forgot to say thank you to our great SBA administrator, Kelly Loeffler.
21:02Thank you, Kelly, for everything that you're doing.
21:07Kelly has already identified hundreds of millions of people who are here.
21:10She's got billions of dollars of fraudulent payments and has cut that stuff out of our system.
21:14I think it'll be billions by the end of the year.
21:17She is fighting for you every single day like all of us are trying to do in the Trump administration.
21:23And as Kelly knows, when you give a speech, you talk to people, and it's, you know, I'm sure it's
21:30being televised right now because I am the vice president.
21:35The president, thank you.
21:42But the president always called me, and he'll always say, like, she talked about coal earlier.
21:46You know, I've talked so many times about ending the war on coal.
21:49We've got great coal resources.
21:51And I'll come off stage and think I did a great job.
21:53And the president will call me and say, J.D., you did a great job, great speech, but it's not
21:58coal.
21:59It's clean, beautiful coal.
22:02So for the president, you've got to know, his strong political advice is it's not coal anymore.
22:09It is clean, beautiful coal.
22:12But I actually was with the president earlier today in the Oval Office.
22:15We were talking about, you know, a lot of issues that are going on.
22:17And he said, J.D., tell the people of North Carolina two things.
22:21And I was I almost forgot this and I was going to get in trouble.
22:23I was going to get one of those phone calls, Kelly.
22:25But the president said, tell the people of North Carolina two things.
22:30First of all, tell them I love them and we're going to be with them every single step of the
22:34way.
22:35That was the first message from the president.
22:36So I've now delivered that.
22:44And and tell them that they're great furniture industry.
22:48You know, all the the cabinetry, the beautiful craftsmanship that this region of our country was known for.
22:54Tell them that we are going to fight for that industry like never before.
22:58And if and if you're building something, if you're building a furniture facility, a furniture business right here in the
23:06state of North Carolina,
23:07we're going to cut your taxes.
23:09But if you're trying to bring in foreign furniture to undercut the jobs of the people of North Carolina, we're
23:15going to raise your taxes by 50 percent.
23:17We're going to put a big fat tariff on those foreign companies bringing that stuff in the United States.
23:28So, Mr. President, I've delivered that message to I hope I get an A plus on this particular speech.
23:34But here, let me let me just leave you with one final thought.
23:37You heard Kelly and Michael and everybody's talked about this.
23:40This is one of, as I know very personally, one of the proudest states for military leadership and military service
23:47anywhere in the country.
23:49And I know you all are proud of that and you should be.
23:54We've got incredible bases from all across the services.
23:58We've got great marine bases, army bases and so forth in the great state of North Carolina.
24:03And I know it's such an important part of this state, not just economically, that matters, but set to the
24:09side, the dollars and cents.
24:11You all, I mean, raise your hand if you've served in the United States military.
24:16Let's give those guys a round of applause.
24:23So thank you to all of our veterans, a pretty good chunk of veterans just here in this audience.
24:28But here's here's the thing.
24:31You all know that right now we are engaged in a military operation to ensure, as the president has said
24:36repeatedly,
24:37that Iran can never have a nuclear weapon.
24:40That is a simple, simple principle and standard.
24:43Frankly, every president has taken affirmative steps to ensure that Iran can never have a nuclear weapon.
24:53Now.
24:59But we also know that there are a lot of people from the state of North Carolina who are in
25:04harm's way right now.
25:05And so I want all of us when we go home, we leave this event.
25:09I want all of us to say a prayer, not just for the North Carolinians, but for the people of
25:13all of our 50 states who put on the uniform and are willing to sacrifice for the safety and security
25:19and freedom of the United States of America.
25:22I want every single person.
25:24I want you to tell every single person who is serving overseas in harm's way that this crowd in North
25:29Carolina has their back.
25:39So with that, let me take a few questions from our media and then I'll and then I'll have to
25:44hit the road here.
25:45I'd like to start with the local reporters.
25:47We'll get time to the national folks if we got it.
25:50Hi, I'm Danielle Battagli.
25:52I'm with the News and Observer.
25:53You've spoken a lot today about Irina Zarutska's death and that resulted in Operation Charlotte's Web.
25:59Senator Tom Tellis has asked a lot from the Department of Homeland Security about what happened with Operation Charlotte's Web.
26:06He said his answers are or his questions are unanswered by DHS.
26:10And one of those questions is if American citizens were arrested during Operation Charlotte's Web.
26:15I was wondering if you could answer that today.
26:18Well, look, Operation Charlotte's Web is fundamentally an operation to try to make our country safe by getting violent criminals
26:26off the streets of the United States of America.
26:29Now, I was not aware that Tom Tellis, who's a friend of mine, he and I have had our disagreements,
26:32but Tom Tellis and I know each other.
26:35I'll go back and offer to speak with Tom about this.
26:37I didn't know that he said his questions had been unanswered by DHS.
26:41Now, that may be because he asked those questions a week ago and they haven't had time to answer him.
26:45You may have seen we've had a little bit of turnover in the Department of Homeland Security.
26:50But what I do promise Tom is that the new leadership at DHS is going to get him a response
26:55to his questions.
26:56But we're going to keep on using the Department of Homeland Security to do the very simple thing of making
27:01the homeland more secure.
27:03That's why it exists and we're going to keep on doing that.
27:10Hi, Mr. Vice President, Bill Barrow with the Associated Press.
27:14What did you advise the President initially as he considered his actions in Iran and what are you urging him
27:20to do now,
27:22especially with Americans seeing higher prices at the pump and some of the fallout from that across the economy?
27:28Do you express any concerns like those you've expressed in the past on the possibility of these extended wars?
27:34Well, Bill, I appreciate the question. I know you guys have to ask it, but imagine the situation.
27:40We're in the situation room where you can't even take your iPod in there or your AirPods, I guess what
27:48they're called.
27:49You can't take your iPhone in there. You can't take anything in there because it is the most classified space
27:53anywhere in the world.
27:54And I sit there with Pete Hegseth and General Cain and Marco Rubio and the entire White House team.
28:00And the President and I and the entire senior team are talking about the options and about what we need
28:06to do and about how we must best protect the American people.
28:09I hate to disappoint you, but I'm not going to show up here and in front of God and everybody
28:12else tell you exactly what I said in that classified room,
28:15partially because I don't want to go to prison and partially because I think it's important for the President of
28:21the United States to be able to talk to his advisers
28:24without those advisers running their mouth to the American media.
28:37Now, that said, one thing I can promise you is that Chris Wright, our great Secretary of Energy, and Scott
28:42Bessent, our Secretary of the Treasury,
28:44have been running the administration's response to the economic element of this because we know, obviously,
28:49when the President takes action to make sure the American people are safe,
28:54we've got to do everything that we can to deal with the consequences of that economically.
28:57And it's not just, you know, oil, there's a whole host of things that we're focused on in the administration
29:02to try to ensure that we do the right thing by the American people.
29:06What the President has said very clearly is that he does not like oil prices, higher oil prices, and neither
29:11do I,
29:12but he also believes that we're going to make the American people safer
29:15and that we're going to bring those prices at the pump back down to the levels they need to be
29:20for the American people.
29:22Now, here's the interesting thing. All this conversation happens where Joe Biden left us in a terrible situation,
29:30and the reason why gas prices are where they are today is because of Donald Trump's work to get them
29:38lower,
29:38because in the Biden administration they were crazy high.
29:41The gas prices we're seeing today are nothing like what we saw at the peak of the Biden administration,
29:46because the President has set us up for energy dominance.
29:49And one of the lessons we all have to take away, frankly, every time we get involved in anything overseas,
29:56whether it's in the Middle East or anywhere else, the thing we've got to take away from it is energy
30:01dominance and energy independence.
30:03Rely on our own people, rely on our own energy.
30:13President, thank you. I'm Dina with CBS 17 right over in Raleigh.
30:17Eastern North Carolina, Western North Carolina, two communities that have been really, really impacted by disasters.
30:23Hurricanes over in Eastern North Carolina, they happened a decade ago.
30:28Western North Carolina still dealing with Hurricane Helena recovery.
30:30We heard from Governor Josh Stein several times that North Carolina has only gotten a fraction of what other states
30:36have gotten in federal funding for recovery for both communities.
30:39Can you talk a little bit about what your administration is doing to help the people that are still out
30:43of their houses, still not having businesses the same?
30:46Yeah. So one of the things I love about Michael Watley is, look, he obviously is a Republican.
30:53He's committed to the conservative agenda. He's a great guy.
30:56And obviously, I'm aligned with him politically.
30:58But he's not afraid to say to me or to the President of the United States or anybody else,
31:03we've got to get these resources out faster to protect the people of North Carolina.
31:07So I actually, before you ask that question, I heard that from Michael Watley.
31:11And I actually talked to the Secretary of the Treasury because I knew Michael was going to ask me about
31:15it again.
31:16When I saw him here today, the simple fact is we have made this a priority.
31:21We are going to get the resources to the people of North Carolina that are necessary.
31:24We recognize that there we recognize, frankly, that we needed the new leadership to hasten that delivery of resources to
31:33the people of North Carolina.
31:34A lot of people in the media have said that, you know, the reason why we made a change at
31:39DHS is because the Trump administration is backing off of its illegal immigration enforcement policy.
31:44That couldn't be further from the truth.
31:46The reason that we're making this change is because Kristi Noem has a great opportunity to serve in this new
31:52shield of the Americas position.
31:53I think she's going to do a great job.
31:55And on the other hand, we think it's useful to have somebody come in and focus on some of this
32:00disaster relief and recovery stuff.
32:02And that's exactly what we're going to do.
32:04But I appreciate Michael bringing that to my attention.
32:06And I appreciate all the great people that represent North Carolina, even many Republicans.
32:11OK, you might think just because they're politically aligned.
32:15Trust me to all the people.
32:16I want them to know that even maybe especially the people who are politically aligned are more willing to be
32:22independent and more willing to tell us we got to quicken those resources to the people of North Carolina.
32:27I admire them for their courage, and it's going to mean better results for the people in this district.
32:35Why don't we take one more question?
32:37Mr. Vice President Preston Meizel with Fox News Digital.
32:39I want to ask you real quick, you're leading the Anti-Fraud Task Force.
32:43I wanted to get a quick update on that, maybe some of the findings that you found in Minnesota.
32:47But also you've mentioned before that you're interested in targeting other states as part of that task force.
32:51Are there other states that you've been looked at that you've looked at or that you may have flagged for
32:55potential fraud?
32:56Well, you know, we know there's a lot of fraud in California and we're trying to get to the bottom
33:01of exactly what it looks like.
33:02And what we've done in the Trump administration, the president has really empowered us to do this, is to take
33:08the first national look at the way the American people have been defrauded over many, many years.
33:13And I'll give you a few very concrete examples.
33:16So in the state of Minnesota, you asked about Minnesota, we think that there's probably been 19 billion dollars at
33:22least of fraud just committed in Minneapolis and the surrounding areas.
33:26Let me give you an example of this, because it's not just the American people being defrauded.
33:30It's not just your tax dollars that are being stolen out of your wallet and given to fraudsters.
33:35It's the fact that the services we need to deliver to needy people are not getting delivered because they're going
33:41to fraudsters.
33:42So, for example, there's a program that we have, and I believe it's under Medicaid, where we try to help
33:47kids who have, you know, autism, Asperger's and so forth.
33:52Sometimes they need a little extra help.
33:54Sometimes they need somebody to sit with them after school.
33:57Sometimes they need somebody to provide transportation to certain places.
34:00And we have a program within Medicaid to ensure that these needy kids get the resources that they need.
34:06And it's one of the things, by the way, I love about the United States of America.
34:10We want everybody to work hard.
34:12We want everybody to play by the rules.
34:14But if we've got a needy kid in our community, we're not going to let that person fall down on
34:18their own.
34:18All Americans are going to lift that kid up together.
34:21That's an amazing thing about our country.
34:26But you know what was happening for this program that was meant to help needy kids is you would have
34:32Somali fraudsters, many of them illegal immigrants, who would go and say that they had an autistic kid even though
34:38they didn't.
34:39They would collect that money for themselves.
34:41You had businesses that were going around and rewarding families for engaging in this fraud.
34:47So the businesses were skimming off the top and getting rich in the process.
34:51How disgraceful is it that Democrats allowed a program that was meant to help needy American children to go to
34:58Somali illegal aliens?
35:00The President of the United States stopped it, and there's a lot more fraud beyond that that we're going to
35:05stop as well.
35:12The one last point that I'll make here before we have to hit the road is I hate to say
35:16this, and it's been shocking to me as we've gotten in this.
35:19And we want to, you know, frankly, we want to arrest the people who engaged in criminal fraud.
35:24We want to make sure that the people who did this stuff realize there are serious consequences for it happening.
35:29We want to make sure that the needy kids all across our communities get what they need.
35:33There are so many layers to this anti-fraud initiative that the President has directed the administration to focus on.
35:40But you know what's so crazy about this?
35:43That nobody until Donald J. Trump thought to focus on it.
35:47Now, obviously, I love the President. I admire the President.
35:51But this fraud was staring us in the face, and nobody was doing anything about it.
35:58This is not rocket science.
35:59When you have a Somali fraudster come into the United States illegally and then set up a school to collect
36:06tax dollars.
36:08And the name of the school is the Quality Learning Center.
36:11Learning Center.
36:13But when they put the sign up, they take the N out.
36:16So it says Quality Leering Center.
36:19And that group, the Quality Leering Center, I don't know about you, but I don't want to send my kids
36:25to a school where they can't spell learn.
36:29That group was getting millions of dollars from the American taxpayer.
36:35There is so much fraud in our system.
36:38There are illegal aliens who shouldn't be here who are on Medicaid.
36:40There are companies that are set up to provide medical devices, you know, knee joints and hip joints and other
36:50medical devices that are necessary for people's health that have collected hundreds of millions of dollars and have produced precisely
36:57zero medical devices that have helped our people.
37:00This stuff has been going on forever, and every single person in this audience should be scandalized by it.
37:08But here's the crazy thing.
37:10It's not that all of you are scandalized that you're getting stolen from.
37:13The crazy thing is that we had a Democratic leadership who didn't do anything about it.
37:19And so here is what I promise every single person here, every single person watching, every single person in the
37:25state of North Carolina, that we are done allowing you to be stolen from.
37:30We are done allowing you to be defrauded.
37:33We are going to go after the fraud, and we are going to rebuild the American dream by making sure
37:38that it goes to Americans first and Americans only.
37:42God bless you all, and thank you for having me.
37:45God bless you all.
37:46God bless you all.
37:52God bless you all.
37:55God bless you all.
37:57God bless you all.
37:58God bless you all.
37:59God bless you all.
38:00God bless you all.
38:00God bless you all.
38:00God bless you all.
38:00God bless you all.