WASHINGTON, D.C. — Congressman Tony Gonzales (TX-23) joined The Joe Pags Show to discuss the recent House Committee on Homeland Security hearing with Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Kristi Noem, National Counterterrorism Center (NCTC) Director Joe Kent, and Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) National Security Branch Operations Director Michael Glasheen. They also discussed other recent homeland security developments happening across the country.
See below for highlights and clips from Congressman Gonzales’ conversation with Joe Pags:
Transcript lightly edited for clarity:
Congressman Gonzales Discusses the Homeland Security Improvements in Texas
"So, this is the House Homeland Security Committee. This is a committee that's built to essentially make sure our homeland is protected. It's partisan, but it shouldn't really be partisan. There are so many things that unite us. Keeping our homeland safe is one of those, and the Democrats, yet took another opportunity to try to polarize things and, honestly, make a mockery of our homeland security and everything President Trump has done to make things safe. We live in Texas. We've gotten our lives back because the border is secure. It was just one thing after another."
Congressman Gonzales names the Top Three Takeaways from the House Homeland Security Committee Hearing
"I'd say three things really stood out to me. One, DHS is now in the process of purchasing their own airplanes, which means they can now fly people out on their own. That's a little confusing, because before they would contract out. So, you would have all these people who were ready to be deported, but they were waiting for the contracted plane to move them. If DHS has a few planes of its own, all of a sudden, now it's not asking for people to deport. We can increase the number of convicted criminals who were deported. That was key."
"Another key was Director of the NCTC Director Kent, who mentioned there were 18,000 known terrorists that are in the United States. That should scare the hell out of everybody.”
"And then the third piece is, just yesterday, a Venezuelan oil tanker was seized off the coast of Venezuela. Well, a lot of people don't realize, they think that it was a Department of War effort. Actually, it was a U.S. Coast Guard-led operation. U.S. Coast Guard falls under DHS."
Congressman Gonzales Discusses National Guard Shooting in D.C.
"This is the conclusion I've come to, and I've only been in Congress five years, but it's long enough for me to realize not everybody is playing for Team America, and it was really hard for me to understand that. Because, you know, I'm a military guy, I've worked with all different types of people, but we always had the same goal in mind, a strong United States."
"How do you defend the actions of somebody that goes out and murders National Guardsman? How do you defend the actions of an illegal alien who killed an American citizen? These are indefensible things. Or the fentanyl that has been pouring into our country. President Trump was successfully elected because he was very firm and said, 'Hey, look, I'm going to stop the poisoning of our children.' That's what he's doing."
"So, I've just come to learn that there are some people within our government that aren't for our government, and those are the ones that they need to be replaced, and they need to be held accountable."
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