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Charlie Kirk
Hey, everybody. Molly Hemingway joins the show. Did Zelensky go into this meeting with intentional sabotage intention? And then we have Todd Bentzman, author of Overrun, but he's got a change the title of his book. Email me as always, freedomarliekirk.com subscribe to our podcast. Open up your podcast application and type in Charlie Kirk show and become a member today at members.charliekirk.commembers.charliekirk.comble up, everybody. Here we Charlie, what you've done is incredible here.
Todd Bentzman
Maybe Charlie Kirk is on the college campus.
Charlie Kirk
I want you to know we are lucky to have Charlie Kirk.
Todd Bentzman
Charlie Kirk's running the White House, folks. I want to thank Charlie. He's an incredible guy, his spirit, his love of this country. He's done an amazing job building one of the most powerful youth organizations ever created, Turning Point usa.
Charlie Kirk
We will not embrace the ideas that have destroyed countries, destroyed lives, and we are going to fight for freedom on campuses across the country. That's why we are here. Noble Gold Investments is the official gold sponsor of the Charlie Kirk Show, a company that specializes in gold IRAs and physical delivery of precious metals. Learn how you could protect your wealth with Noble gold investments@noblegoldinvestments.com that is noblegoldinvestments.com it's where I buy all of my gold. Go to noblegoldinvestments.com joining us now is the great Molly Hemingway from the Federalist. Molly, thank you for joining the program. Molly, what do you make of this idea that Zelensky might have somebody in his ear or that it was an intentional sabotage? MOLLY hemingway, well, it was so weird.
Molly Hemingway
To watch him go into this meeting that was ostensibly to get much further down the road of a peace agreement and see him just being unbelievably hostile. And he had met with all these different members of Congress prior to the meeting. And as everything blew up, they started talking about how either a, they had counseled him before he went into the meeting, or in some cases, like Lindsey Graham said, I counseled him not to behave the way that he behaved. So you realize that there was a lot of strategy going into why he was operating the way he was and the kind of information he was getting. You know, you even saw the New York Post the day before the meeting was saying, zelensky, you should take your case directly to the American people because Trump's position isn't popular now. I think they were wrong. But the point is Zelensky was getting a lot of advice to behave at least somewhat in the manner that he ended up behaving.
Charlie Kirk
Yeah, but I just, I'm trying to understand, though, what does Zelensky want by antagonizing President Trump? What is the. What is the end game here?
Molly Hemingway
Now, it's a little tricky because you wouldn't say that a man whose country has been destroyed by war wants war. But there are aspects where to ending this war that would maybe not go well for Zelensky. He has not had democratic elections for some period of time. It was part of the martial law that has also seen the shuttering of opposition newspapers, opposition political parties, religious groups that are not aligned with his political preference. You know, and there's no election to hold him democratically accountable. I think he legitimately is concerned that if elections were held that he might not win again and that this might raise questions about what is gonna. What his life is gonna be like once the peace is established. And so he's seeking. And his allies in America and throughout the world are seeking US Security guarantees. And it's a nice euphemism, but what does it mean? Well, ultimately, a security guarantee means nothing unless it means US Troops willing to go on the ground to defend Ukraine in this proxy war. Well, that's not what the American people want. It is absolutely what the media complex wants, what the neocons in our country want and what Europe wants. They want us to put our troops and our money to back this security guarantee. And so he thought that he had a shot to get that. And that's what blowing up the meeting was all about.
Charlie Kirk
Okay, let's play cut one here. This is Lindsey Graham. You mentioned this. Cut. Play cut one.
Lindsey Graham
I told him this morning, I told him, don't take the bait. Don't let the media or anybody else get you into a argument with President Trump. What he's doing today is resetting the relationship. You should be grateful. Now, whether or not we can put this back together, I don't know. But Zelensky is going to be on your network tonight. If I were him, I would profusely apologize to the way he treated our President and the Vice President and the Oval Office and show a little bit of gratitude for what the American people have done.
Charlie Kirk
Now, I'm trying to understand all this. So first of all, Zelenskyy did not apologize. I mean, Lindsey Graham is chief neocon. I mean, he is one of the chieftains. He's one of the grand poobahs of the war mongering machine. He, alongside of two or three others, design all these failed conflicts. And Stay up late at night thinking of what other countries to invade. Why is it that Lindsey Graham was so quick to cast Zelensky aside? Do you think that Lindsay felt almost personally violated because Zelinsky didn't receive the coaching?
Molly Hemingway
Well, first of all, that's the quote that I think is so, so interesting, where he says, don't take the bait, where these other people are telling you to be hostile. Right? I mean, it's interesting. He's just saying what, what everyone can see that he's getting coaching to be this way. I think Lindsey Graham cares more about continuing the war in Ukraine than he cares about Zelensky. So when he saw Zelensky completely implode in this Oval Office meeting, he realized that the best chance for the war to continue is to get rid of Zelensky. That way, if someone else comes in, you get a fresh start and you can, you know, continue negotiations as opposed to what happened that we all saw, if you watched the full, you know, 50 minutes of this meeting of Zelensky just seeming almost crazed in his. His hostility toward Trump and Vance.
Charlie Kirk
So I want to now get into your, let's say, back and forth with Susan Rice. What happened here? Explain it to our audience. And what did you learn?
Molly Hemingway
Well, it was just interesting. Immediately after everything blows up, Susan Rice goes on CNN to talk about the situation. And she says a lot of stuff that's really interesting. A she opposes the peace deal that would be good for the United States. That alone is kind of shocking to see a former national security advisor openly advocating against a peace deal that's in the United States interest. She also reveals all this knowledge of what was in the mineral agreement. You know, she kind of is suggesting she has deep insider knowled about what was the agreement that Trump wanted Zelensky to sign about the minerals in Ukraine that could help repay us for all the money that taxpayers have spent there. She had the same talking point as Zelensky about concrete security agreements, meaning having U.S. troops on the ground, if they can make that happen. And then she just, like, mischaracterized Trump's behavior. She was so immediate with this that you, you could say, okay, well, maybe this is just Democrat talking points, and it really could be. But given that it's Susan Rice and given how she runs operations, information operations, which she did, you know, with the Benghazi disaster, where she immediately went out and lied and said that the attack on 911 was not part of Islamist attacks on the U.S. it was just an organic protest about a YouTube video that an American had made. And. And then she proceeded to try to criminalize the First Amendment and all that. She also did the Russia collusion hoax. She was in that very tiny meeting at the end of the Obama administration where they kind of hatched what to do with the Russia collusion hooks. So she just. That's kind of like what she does. She was UN Ambassador, she was national security adviser. So seeing that she was out there immediately with this information operation, it looked like she might be knowledgeable of the effort to get Zelensky to do what he did what or, you know, and so I just think that was interesting.
Charlie Kirk
We haven't heard from Susan Rice in quite some time, so it's rather odd that it's coming out now. What would you say is a probable outcome here, Molly? And in closing, what do you make of the Europeans now talking a big game that they're gonna defend Ukraine?
Molly Hemingway
Well, it is a fraught situation, and it's. By the way, Ukraine has been a fraught situation since the implosion of the Soviet Union back during the George H.W. bush administration. It's something we have to be very careful of. So I don't know how things are going to end. I do think Zelensky should stop taking advice from the people who are telling him to be hostile toward American voters and Trump. But a good outcome would be if the European countries really did start spending more on their own defense and did more to back their claims that Russia is a serious threat. A great outcome would be an end to this war on the best possible grounding for Ukraine. I think Trump still wants that. I hope he doesn't want it at the expense of American interest, but hopefully we'll get it there. I don't know if Zelenskyy will survive being president of his country for much longer.
Charlie Kirk
Molly Hemingway from the Federalists. Excellent work as always. Thanks so much.
Molly Hemingway
Thank you.
Charlie Kirk
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Susan Rice
So I share the disillusionment that Ambassador McFaul was talking about. This was a disgraceful performance by the President of the United States, a disgraceful performance by the vice president. They have humiliated the United States on the world stage. It reinforces all the suspicions of our European partners that America can no longer be trusted as an ally. And I think at the end of the day, you know, perhaps this puts to rest some of the things we've been hearing that, you know, there are some members in the gop, for example, senators and others who are trying to change President Trump's mind. I think that's gone at this point.
Charlie Kirk
Look, none of this should be a shock to you guys. You guys know the stated position of President Trump, which is that no longer will our nation be taken advantage of. But understand, President Trump is doing very, very high stakes diplomacy here, incredibly high stakes. And Zelenskyy does not want to engage with that. You have to ask the question, would Zelenskyy rather be conquered by Putin and die fighting than do a deal? He doesn't have a country. Do you know what the average age of a soldier in Ukraine is? The average age? 43 years old. The average age of a soldier in Ukraine is 43. They are taking aging fathers out from communities and farms and putting them on the front lines into the meat grinder. And for what? And what did Zelensky run on? Oh, that's right. He cancelled elections. You don't know if he even has the support of his people. Ukraine is one of the oldest countries in the world. On average, they are burning up their future. They are destroying their demography. For What? An extra 50 miles of land that you may or may not control? Strike a deal. But Zelensky has other means, other goals and some means to get there. What they are exactly, I'm not sure. And Zelensky keeps on saying, well, my people want this. How do you know what your people want if you don't have an election? Abraham Lincoln had an election in the midst of the American Civil War. FDR had elections in the midst of World War II. It's possible to do elections in the midst of war, conflict, strife. You see, Zelenskyy is playing with something very dangerous here. And the Europeans, it's all just a big show. It's all a big show. The Irish are coming out. Yeah. Again, I love Ireland and I love the Irish people. It's not exactly the might. The mighty fighting force of the Irish are gonna stop the Russians. We are risking the highest level stakes. And President Trump was right when he said that you don't know. You do not have the cards. And for anybody that says, oh, President Trump was disrespectful to Zelensky, you gotta reprogram. It's Zelensky that was disrespectful to President Trump. President Trump sat there nicely for 40 minutes. For 40 minutes, Trump rolled out the red carpet. Literally the red carpet. It was an official state visit with the honor guard lining the driveway, the whole. All the trappings. And Zelensky comes in with his arms crossed, threatening the United States of America, effectively threatening our country and threatening all of you. And Zelenskyy is now even done with Lindsey Graham. He's done. President Donald Trump wants to broker an end to the killing, a peace deal that will transcend all peace deals. But the warmongers in this country and Zelenskyy, and he's just blinded by war, you just have to kind of cast him aside. But for our own citizens and our own ruling class, the media chattering class, they want us Marines in Kyiv. And that's not going to happen. Peace is a threat to the warmongers. If we have permanent peace, what are these people going to do all day long? The job justification of our permanent general class. What are they going to do? This whole thing puts on display the military industrial complex, the permanent unelected bureaucratic scientific elite, and there will be no winner. There are only losers. This is a Pyrrhic victory, as they would say that even if you win, you lose. Even if you are the winner, you have no people left. Over 1.2 million people have been killed that we know of. Entire generations are missing. Towns are gone, and Zelenskyy won't come to the table. That's morally objectionable. A ceasefire is the only way. Hey, Charlie, Kirk here. Ever see your dog slowing down or having health issues and wonder, what can I do to make them better? Well, my friend, add rough greens to your dog's food for 90 days and you'll see changes that will amaze you. Guaranteed. 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But honestly, Todd, you're gonna have to come up with a new title and a new book because we're not Overrun any longer. Todd, welcome to the program. Todd is the premier expert on the southern border invasion. Todd, in the last month of Biden's regime, how many people on average were crossing the southern border? And now what have we seen over the last 30 days?
Todd Bentzman
Right, we've seen the numbers drop from the last month Biden administration by two thirds just through January, and now it's down by another 2/3 to, for February, 8,326 illegal crossings that have apprehensions. All of those people have been detained and expelled or are being expelled right now. None of them are being released. That number, according to Mike Banks, the new chief of Border Patrol, is the lowest number in U.S. recorded history. Just to give you an idea, 8,000 may sound like a lot to the uninitiated, but in December of 2023, which was the height of the whole thing, if you include the parolees that they were letting fly in and cross in over the land ports, plus illegal immigrants, it was close to 400,000. So that's the night and day. I mean, that's kind of a norm, an Unbelievable norm. 8,000 a day. I hope that they can maintain that. If they do, we'll have the lowest year of illegal immigration on record.
Charlie Kirk
So. So I just Want to repeat that? So how many people a day on average under Biden, it was almost sometimes 5 to 10,000 a day. Is that correct?
Todd Bentzman
That's right. The typical day was 7 to 8,000 a day, but that ranged up to 14,000 a day. Very often we had 9, 10, 12,000 a day. It was just an absolute torrent of humanity. And the reason is simply. I know you know this, but we were releasing most of them into the interior, and once word of that spreads, they're willing to lay down their smuggling fee money and gamble that they're going to get into all that was ever necessary here, there. We didn't need some big Senate bill. Senate bill. The Lankford Senate bill. Remember? Campaign fraud.
Charlie Kirk
That guy is. Can we just. Like Senator Langford. That guy needs to be removed from office. Senator Lankford is a complete fraud. Please continue.
Todd Bentzman
Oh, root causes. We have to fix the root causes of immigration and we've got to do a Marshall Plan in Central America. We have to have comprehensive immigration reform. That's going to take years and complex bipartisan deals and all that kind of stuff. No, all that was ever needed was. Was a push of a button, which is follow the law as it exists. Detention, expulsion, deportation proceedings, no catch and release. That's all that was ever needed. It took all of one hour on Inauguration Day to close the southern border or to get it as close to operationally secure as I think we can ever really hope to get it. Operational, secure border is zero. So if you just have two or 300 a day coming in, I mean, we just. That's pretty good. Take it. That's a win. The. The issue there is that we let America think that there was some big, complicated thing going on, that we had this. We're just victims. We have to just curl up in a fetal position and take the beating because that's just the way the world is. It never was that. It never was that. All that was ever needed was detention, deportation, expulsion, no catch and release, period. End of story. It's over. Now, having said that, probably at the. At the cost of my book sales, whatever it is the truth that we're not. We can't let off the gas because, you know, Trump, the. The policies that he's put in place, those policies which are in line with the law, the law requires, those things have to be maintained rigorously. You can't make exceptions. It has to be evenly applied, border length for the duration, or they will reverse. It will come back. But. But right now you're seeing reverse migration you're seeing in the Darien Gap, which I visited in August, there are thousands of people all around me moving toward the, moving north in the transition period when Biden was still in office. They're reversing, they're going back the other way. Thousands moving from, from Mexico, back through Panama and then back around to Colombia and going home to supposedly very dangerous countries that, that we had to give them refuge from sanctuary and asylum from. They're returning to those countries in large numbers. So this is really extraordinary. I want to say one other thing that we're not done. The Trump administration is just at the beginning. They have to hermetically close that border. They got to stop the bleeding first. Then they've got a big cleanup in the interior. We have 10, 12 million. Nobody really knows how many came in over the last four years. And that's where the Trump administration is gearing up an infrastructure right now. And then there's the cartels, that's part of the policy. And fentanyl trafficking. So the whole three part program isn't over yet. It's just that the first part, the most important part maybe is that the blood is stopped.
Charlie Kirk
So. So, Todd, I just wanna Repeat those numbers. 277 a day and all of which are being returned to their country of origin. They're not being released into the interior. One thing that is striking to me, before we dive more into the cleanup, is that how prepared President Trump's team was for that. You say that it's the lowest ever recorded, but that means that President Trump is even beating his records from the first Trump term. What did the Trump team learn, especially during those four years off? So that day one, they were so prepared where in the first term they were still figuring this out.
Todd Bentzman
Right. This is definitely lower than even the first term. The big change was to bring the Mexican military on board. They used that 25% trade tariff cudgel sledgehammer. If you don't put out down there, Mexico, we're gonna, we're gonna put your economy in recession inside of a month or two with these trade tariffs. So they put out 10,000 troops that are turning anybody that they catch back down into southern Mexico and even doing their own deportations from southern Mexico to home countries that the Trump administration did that in the first, in 1.0. But they, they did it much later in the administration now. They did it first and using the cudgel of a trade sanction. So that was huge. And the other thing is that we're using something called 212F, which is an instant expulsion authority. That's clearly spelled out in current law, the INA 212F. Go Google it, look it up. There's been some litigation with it, but it allows the President to instantly expel all comers without providing asylum. Now, they expected there'd be some litigation, so they put in behind it, remain in Mexico, which also allows quick expulsions. You can claim asylum, but you have to wait in Mexico. You don't get released. That's a huge. That's the big thing that has been vetted all the way to the supreme court from Trump 1.0. So that's ready to go too, as a. They've got multi layered architecture in there. They put far more military personnel down there for spotting, to be able to fill gaps and to hold, you know, to be in places where Border Patrol isn't. And that's making an impact. But, but another big impact is the fact that since they're not releasing everybody that comes to the border, they don't need Border patrol to process them in. So they're out there catching illegal immigrants and detaining them instead of doing babysitting and, you know, providing baby formula and food and water while they process people into the interior. Everything's different than the first time. They definitely learned a lot from 1.0 on how to shut that border down.
Charlie Kirk
And also that there were several Supreme Court decisions that laid the basis that they could move quickly. Remember last time there was injunction after injunction. You can't build the wall of military equipment, you can't deport, you can't do that. They remain in Mexico on forward. All that is now settled. Is that correct?
Todd Bentzman
That's correct. And that wall will be built. They're already getting it, getting things ginned up for that. That will be built too. So all of those things are, you know, they can't be lit. They were litigated. Almost all their policies were frozen and neutralized during the beginning of Trump 1.0. As soon as the world found out that Trump wasn't actually doing the things that he promised in 1.0, they came in massive waves. We had like 900,000, almost a million family units cross in. And Trump couldn't really do anything about it, cuz he was litigated. He was, his hands were all tied. None of that's the case now.
Charlie Kirk
And just a reminder, everybody, James Lankford, if you're from Oklahoma, that guy lied to you. He went and tried to do a deal with the worst people in the world, the Democrats saying we need all this money to secure clear the border. No, what you needed was President Trump. And you gave the Democrats an unnecessary talking point throughout the election that probably helped them win one or two extra Senate seats. That's all on Mr. Lankford, so don't forget that. Lankford. Oh, we need to have a bipartisan bill. No, we didn't. And he was the lackey for Kamala Harris. I'll never forget that. With the stock market at record highs, are you confident your portfolio can weather the next big downturn? Market corrections are quick and unforgiving, wiping out hard earned gains in an instant. Smart investors know the key to financial security is diversification. That's why Noble Gold Investments makes it easy for Americans to help hedge market volatility and diversify their investments with gold. Since 2010, central banks have steadily increased their gold reserves. And in 2024, gold prices soared over 25%. Gold is simple. You buy it, you own it, you control it. Over $2 billion in precious metal sales. Noble Gold Investments has helped thousands of investors diversify their portfolios with gold IRAs and physical gold. And now when you open a qualified account, Noble Gold will gift you 5 ounce silver America the Beautiful coins as a thank you. Don't wait for the next downturn. To catch you off guard, visit noblegoldinvestments.com today and see how easy it is to incorporate gold into your investment strategy, that is. Noblegold investments.com noblegoldinvestments.com so, Todd, how many illegals are in the interior of our country and how do we remove them?
Todd Bentzman
Well, the center for Immigration Studies estimates that there's somewhere on the order of about 12 million that came in under this particular historic crisis. So those are recent arrivals. Most of them or many of them are on public welfare systems. And some of them are in sort of like a quasi legal state of applying for different kinds of benefits. So there's going to be, we can't just swoop in and get everybody, but there are undoubtedly many millions that are completely illegal. There's at least half a million or 650,000 criminal aliens that are immediately deportable if we can get, if we can lay hands on them, 1.4 million who are under final judicial orders to be removed, but that the last administration refused to ever remove anybody. And then you've got everybody else that haven't been, they haven't gotten in any trouble yet. They haven't been through all the appeals. There are people who are here on parole programs, so all different categories. Plenty of work to do, to be able. Look at it this way, it's like a Category 9 hurricane just raked the country for four years back and forth. And now you've got this mammoth cleanup to do. And it's not going to be easy. It's going to be expensive and it's, it's, it's going to take phases and of for to do the mass deportations. And one of the key problems challenges is that the Biden administration systematically dismantled the detention deportation machine and there's parts laying all over, you know, the garage, basically. So you have Tom Homan. Everybody's got to come in and rebuild that infrastructure, to rebuild that machine and get it tuned up. So chill out. It's going to happen. It's just going to take a little bit of time. But they've moved out 50,000 criminal aliens already in a month or month and a half. That's 50,000 of the worst, first worst they said. And many more are like that are coming, but eventually they will expand out as they get more detention space, more officers, more of everything. There's $175 billion request in, in the budget, current budget package for this kind of work. We will need to see that if they want to get the infrastructure back to where it was before Biden wrecked it.
Charlie Kirk
Explain to the audience, or especially to me, the tension between states that declare themselves sanctuary states like California and federal immigration law. Has that been settled?
Todd Bentzman
It's being settled. The problem is that we call it sanctuary policy. These are sanctuary cities. I don't really like that term. The term, the term sort of papers over what, what it's really at root about. At root, what sanctuary policy is about is that local police chiefs, sheriffs, prison officials won't simply call ice. Pick up the phone and call ICE and let them know when a criminal alien is about to be released so that ICE can be right there to pick them up and they don't enjoy one moment of freedom and then we deport them. They won't do that simple thing. Well, that is mostly the, the category of, of immigrants that you're talking about. There are criminals. Why any mayor or police chief or sheriff anywhere in the world would be down with that. To inflict those kinds of illegal aliens on their own people, I'll never understand as long as I live, but they're doing that. That makes, makes ICE officers have to go track them down at their homes or in their workplaces or whatever. And it's an officer safety issue. It's not easy to catch them. They're, you're going to find all kinds of other illegal aliens around them that aren't criminals, that have to be swept up as well. Not it's not efficient and it's not safe. And I think what the Trump administration is endeavoring to do is to withdraw federal funding from sanctuary jurisdictions until they play ball. And why wouldn't you want to play ball on something like that? Why wouldn't you?
Charlie Kirk
So, Todd, your next book is going to be called Once Overrun, Now Liberated. That should be the new title. Thank you, Todd. Excellent work. Come back anytime. Thank you.
Todd Bentzman
Thank you.
Charlie Kirk
Thanks so much for listening, everybody. Email us. As always, freedom at charliekirk. Com. Thanks so much for listening and God bless.
Todd Bentzman
For more on many of these stories.
Charlie Kirk
And news you can trust, go to charliekirk.
Todd Bentzman
Com.
Podcast Information:
In the episode titled "Saving The Border in One Month," host Charlie Kirk delves into pressing national and international issues, focusing primarily on U.S. border security and the ongoing conflict in Ukraine. The episode features insightful discussions with Molly Hemingway from The Federalist and Todd Bentzman, author of Overrun. Throughout the episode, Charlie offers his unmistakably conservative perspective, critiquing current administrations' policies and highlighting efforts to restore security and sovereignty.
Charlie initiates the conversation by addressing a contentious meeting between President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine and former President Donald Trump. He questions whether Zelensky entered the meeting with "intentional sabotage" (00:00).
Molly Hemingway provides a detailed breakdown of Zelensky's behavior during the meeting:
Hostility and Strategy: Hemingway observes that Zelensky displayed unexpected hostility, possibly fueled by strategic advice from U.S. Congressional members. She notes, “Zelensky was getting a lot of advice to behave at least somewhat in the manner that he ended up behaving” (01:41).
Democratic Accountability Concerns: She raises concerns about Zelensky's lack of recent democratic elections in Ukraine, suggesting his actions may be driven by a desire to maintain power without electoral accountability (02:35).
A recorded clip of Senator Lindsey Graham criticizes Zelensky's approach, urging him to "profusely apologize" and show gratitude towards the American people (04:10).
Charlie plays another clip featuring Susan Rice condemning the U.S. leadership’s performance, stating it has "humiliated the United States on the world stage" and damaged trust with European allies (10:44).
Charlie queries Molly about Europe's stance on defending Ukraine, to which Hemingway emphasizes the complexity and historical fraught nature of U.S.-European relations with Ukraine. She posits that a positive outcome would involve Europe enhancing its defense spending and ultimately seeking a sustainable peace agreement that aligns with U.S. interests (08:17).
Transitioning to domestic issues, Charlie welcomes Todd Bentzman to discuss the significant improvements in southern border security under the new administration.
Bentzman notes a dramatic decrease in illegal crossings:
Statistics: Illegal crossings have dropped from nearly 400,000 during the Biden administration’s peak to approximately 8,326 apprehensions in February 2025—the lowest in U.S. history (17:06).
Comparison to Previous Administration: He contrasts the current figures with the typical 7,000 to 14,000 daily crossings under Biden, highlighting the effectiveness of the new policies (18:32).
Bentzman outlines the strategies that led to this reduction:
Military Collaboration: Deployment of Mexican military forces to assist in border security, leveraging trade tariffs as leverage (23:33).
Legal Frameworks: Utilization of section 212F of the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA) to enforce instant expulsions without asylum (26:11).
Infrastructure Enhancements: Rebuilding detention and deportation facilities dismantled during the previous administration, with a significant budget allocation of $175 billion (28:54).
Bentzman acknowledges ongoing challenges, such as rehabilitating the immigration enforcement infrastructure and addressing the remaining millions of undocumented immigrants within the country. He emphasizes the administration’s commitment to maintaining low crossing numbers and continuing the rigorous application of immigration laws (28:54).
Bentzman provides estimates on the undocumented population within the U.S., discussing the complexities of deporting individuals with criminal backgrounds and those who have not yet been processed through the legal system.
Numbers: Approximately 12 million undocumented immigrants are currently in the country, with an additional 650,000 classified as criminal aliens eligible for immediate deportation (28:54).
Deportation Efforts: The administration has deported 50,000 criminal aliens in the latest month, with plans to expand these efforts as detention capacities increase (31:37).
The episode addresses the tension between federal immigration laws and sanctuary states like California:
Policy Enforcement: Bentzman criticizes sanctuary policies, arguing that local law enforcement’s refusal to cooperate with federal immigration authorities hampers effective deportation efforts (31:49).
Federal Response: The administration plans to withdraw federal funding from jurisdictions that do not comply with federal immigration laws, pressuring these states to align with national policies (31:49).
Charlie Kirk wraps up the episode by reaffirming the significant strides made in securing the southern border and critiquing political figures who have opposed stringent immigration measures. He underscores the necessity of continuing these efforts to ensure national security and uphold the rule of law. The episode concludes with a call to action for listeners to support initiatives aimed at maintaining border security and resisting policies that enable illegal immigration.
Notable Quotes:
Molly Hemingway (01:41): “Zelensky was getting a lot of advice to behave at least somewhat in the manner that he ended up behaving.”
Lindsey Graham (04:16): “I told him, don’t take the bait. Don’t let the media or anybody else get you into an argument with President Trump.”
Susan Rice (10:44): “This was a disgraceful performance by the President of the United States, a disgraceful performance by the vice president.”
Todd Bentzman (17:06): “What we're seeing is the lowest number in U.S. recorded history.”
Todd Bentzman (26:30): “The wall will be built. They're already getting it, getting things ginned up for that. That will be built too.”
This summary encapsulates the critical discussions from the "Saving The Border in One Month" episode, providing a comprehensive overview for those who have not listened to the full episode.