Minneapolis says agent pullback isn’t true de-escalation (Full Transcript)

[00:00:00] Speaker 1: Sir, how would you characterize? You say it's not a de-escalation. What is it? What does it mean that 700 of these agents are leaving?

[00:00:08] Speaker 2: Well, obviously there is a de-escalatory element if you are decreasing the number of agents that are on the street. That being said, when you have 2,000 agents that are still here, approximately 20 times that which we had prior to Operation Metro Surge, that, relatively speaking, no, is not a de-escalation.

[00:00:31] Speaker 1: Sir, of course, this coming from Tom Homan, the Border Czar who was sent in to replace the Border Patrol head who had been in Minneapolis. You've now had a number of meetings with Homan behind closed doors. Do you trust Tom Homan?

[00:00:48] Speaker 2: The meetings that we've had with Border Czar Homan, the meeting that we had with Trump was a positive meeting. It was affable, it was collegial, and at the same time, we continue to have very clear asks. Those asks are in Operation Metro Surge. Obviously, they have talked about wanting to improve safety in a number of cities throughout the country, and if this is about safety, hey, we're on board to catch offenders of violent crime. We've worked extensively with a number of different federal agencies, from the DEA to the ATF to the FBI and the U.S. Attorney's Office to successfully drive down crime in Minneapolis to where we're seeing record lows in some areas right now, and we have been for quite some time. But again, that is not what this has been about over this last month and a half. What this has been about is not about safety, it's not about even immigration. This has been about creating some sort of political narrative and seeking political retribution on people that don't agree with the president.