

Sunday on Meet The Press, President Trump defended his failure to secure America's southern border by saying the "border's doing great" and "the wall is being built."





[Embed starts at 7:35]



Transcript via NBC News:

CHUCK TODD:



What would a candidate Trump have said about a president who, on his watch, had Iran shooting down a drone, a Venezuelan dictator thumbing his nose at you, Obamacare still on the books and no results yet on the border? The border getting tough --



PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP:



Well, let's, let's take a look. Let's take a look --



CHUCK TODD:



I just say -- what would candidate Trump have said about that?



PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP:



Okay, let's take a look. The border's doing great. Mexico's been fantastic. They've been trying to get a deal with Mexico for 45 years, right? So for 45 years, they couldn't get a deal. I got one in one day. I said, "We're going to put tariffs on and we're going to either have a deal or not. We agreed in one day." Mexico just moved 6,000 people to their southern border. 6,000 troops to their southern border. The border's working out well. And the wall is being built. I mean, a lot of people don't like to talk about it. We're building the wall. We will have 400 miles of wall built by the end of next year and that's hard because the Democrats don't want to approve it. We just beat them in a big lawsuit, as you know, in Washington, in D.C. We just beat them in a very big lawsuit.



CHUCK TODD:



But does it frustrate you that your border numbers are worse than Obama's?



PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP:



No, because the people are coming up because our economy is so good. They're pouring up because the economy is so good. Obama had a lousy economy. It was a dead economy. Trump also defended ending family separation even though it's a large part of what has let to the disaster on the border:



WATCH: Trump says administration doing a "fantastic job' on the border.



Chuck Todd: “Why let the political debate hurt these children?”



President Trump: “If the Democrats would change the asylum laws ... everything would be solved immediately. But they refuse” pic.twitter.com/fU1EeDbQW0 — Meet the Press (@MeetThePress) June 23, 2019

Transcript: CHUCK TODD:



I want to ask what's going down with the, these, the children in these migrant camps. The stories are horrible, Mr. President. You have children without their parents. You have kids taking care of kids.



PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP:



Yeah.



CHUCK TODD:



You've, you’ve read these reports. I know people are coming to you. I know you think this is the Democrats' problem.



PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP:



Well, it --



CHUCK TODD:



Forget it.



PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP:



It was --



CHUCK TODD:



Why aren't you doing something?



PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP:



Are you ready?



CHUCK TODD:



They're in terrible shape down there, Mr. President. Down in Homestead, Florida, that's where I grew up, it’s, the conditions are terrible.



PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP:



I agree. And it's been --



CHUCK TODD:



Do something.



PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP:



-- that way for a long time.



CHUCK TODD:



Do something.



PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP:



And President Obama built the cages. Remember when they said that I built them? And then it was 1914 --



CHUCK TODD:



Do two wrongs --



PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP:



Excuse me.



CHUCK TODD:



-- make a right?



PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP:



It was 2014. Chuck, just listen for one second.



CHUCK TODD:



Ok. Alright.



PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP:



Separation, President Obama, I took over separation. I'm the one that put it together. What's happened though are the cartels and all of these bad people, they're using the kids. They’re, they’re, it's almost like slavery.



CHUCK TODD:



But let's not punish the kids more.



PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP:



No this has been happening --



CHUCK TODD:



Aren’t you -- the kids are getting punished more.



PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP:



You're right. And this has been happening long before I got there. What we've done is we've created, we’ve, we’ve ended separation. You know, under President Obama you had separation. I was the one that ended it. Now I said one thing, when I ended it I said, "Here's what's going to happen. More families are going to come up." And that's what's happened. But they're really coming up for the economics. But once you ended the separation. But I ended separation. I inherited separation from President Obama. President Obama built, they call them jail cells. They were built --



CHUCK TODD:



Let's talk about what's happening now.



PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP:



-- by the Obama --



CHUCK TODD:



Your administration, and--



PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP:



I'm just telling you --



CHUCK TODD:



--you’re not doing the recreation. You're not even schooling these kids anymore. You've gotten rid of all that stuff.



PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP:



We're doing a fantastic job under the circumstances. The Democrats aren't even approving giving us money. Where is the money? You know what? The Democrats are holding up the humanitarian aid.



CHUCK TODD:



It looks like these kids are being used as, as some sort of -- is it hostages? They're being held --



PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP:



Well, they are being used.



CHUCK TODD:



-- hostage.



PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP:



They are being used by very bad people on the other side where they actually get --



CHUCK TODD:



But now they’re politically being used.



PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP:



--paid, where money is being made using them because our laws are so bad. Because if you have a child, you have an advantage. You know that better than anybody. And what should happen, Chuck --



CHUCK TODD:



But why let the political debate hurt these children?



PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP:



Chuck, we could --



CHUCK TODD:



They could be impacted for years.



PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP:



If the Democrats would change the asylum laws and the loopholes, which they refuse to do because they think it's good politics, everything would be solved immediately. But they refuse to do it. They refuse to do it.



CHUCK TODD:



Let me ask you this.



PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP:



You know what? If they change those, I say, I used to say 45 minutes. It's 15 minutes. If they changed asylum and if they changed loopholes everything on the border would be perfect. While it's true the Democrats are openly in favor of open borders and enjoy watching our border being overrun, President Trump has the power to close our border immediately under 8 U.S.C. § 1182(f), which reads:

Whenever the President finds that the entry of any aliens or of any class of aliens into the United States would be detrimental to the interests of the United States, he may by proclamation, and for such period as he shall deem necessary, suspend the entry of all aliens or any class of aliens as immigrants or nonimmigrants, or impose on the entry of aliens any restrictions he may deem to be appropriate. The law is clear as day but he's refusing to use it.



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