Governor, I'm glad you
brought up immigration
because we have a question on immigration
from our next questioner.
This is Joseph.
How he as a business
consultant from Des Moines,
who is a former Iowa
libertarian state chair,
he now says he is a Republican
and he's undecided.
JOSEPH Yeah, thanks for being here.
Governor
Almost all illegal migrants
crossing the border
carry a backpack or bag,
and very few are cartel members.
If you ought to shoot on site
now, excepting women and children,
how many innocent people are
you willing to have killed to kill one
low level drug mule?
Well, Joseph, thanks for that.
But I
but I take issue with the premise
of that.
When you're conducting
military operations,
you're not just doing that willy nilly.
I'm the only one running for president
that actually has served overseas
and in a war in the Iraq campaign.
They didn't dress,
they didn't wear uniforms.
You had to positively identify
people would have hostile
actions, hostile intent,
and then you would be able to engage.
So it's going to be
the same type of thing.
It's not going to be in its
anything like we do, even in domestically
when a police officer would engage.
So it's not going to be done
the way the media is saying
it's going to be done.
But I will tell you this.
I've been down there.
The cartel will cut holes
in the actual border wall
and they will come through with fentanyl.
So my question to you and other critics
who don't say
how many fentanyl deaths are enough,
are we just supposed to sit here
and let this happen?
I think a president not only has a right,
I think you have a responsibility
to fight back against these people.
I am sick and tired
of seeing the carnage in this country.
And in my travels through Iowa,
I've met angel
parents, people that have lost kids
to fentanyl overdose.
And a lot of times
these are not drug addicts.
These are maybe a college student
that is stressed out during exams.
So they buy a pill thinking
that's going to help them
get through the night.
And it turns out
it's laced with fentanyl.
That could be enough to poison
that student to death.
And so this is shattering families.
It's shattering communities.
The people in D.C.,
they just shrug their shoulder.
They could care less
about what's going on.
Well, I care about this.
I care about defending
American communities
and American families.
And so, yes,
they have killed more Americans
than all the terrorist groups
in this
in this world combined
over the last five years.
When is enough? Enough?
But you do think
you would have the intelligence
to do that?
Absolutely. Yes.
Look, we have we have surveillance.
We have drones.
We have intel.
We have a whole bunch of stuff.
This is something it's a matter of will.
We can do it if we want to do it.
And I would note
I was the candidate
that came out to do it.
Now, you have other candidates
that are saying they want to do this.
Some had opportunities
to do this in the past.
Others had not even supported
things like border walls in the past.
So we've been a leader on this issue.
We're going to continue to do it.
But here's the thing.
As Republicans,
how many years
have we been talking about the border
and various iterations?
It's been going on my entire adult life.
Isn't it
about time
we had a president that solved it
once and for all?
I will solve it once and for all.
A question on immigration as well,
because this is something
that you've said.
You said that you would take action
to end
the idea
of birthright citizenship
for kids of undocumented immigrants.
Does that mean
ending birthright citizenship?
What does that what does that mean?
So the 14th Amendment obviously applies
to U.S. citizens.
It was meant to overturn
Dred Scott versus Sanford,
which one of the worst
Supreme Court cases in history
to ensure that African-Americans
were citizens in spite of what Dred
Scott had said the decision.
Now, it was never the intent to say
you come illegally across the border,
have a kid, and all of a sudden the kid
is an American citizen.
That creates an anchor in the society
so that you then can't deport
the illegal aliens who came in.
It's an incentive to come illegally.
That was not the intention of that.
So, yes, we oppose we support
American citizens, obviously.
But when people are coming illegally,
they do not have a birthright
at that point
that will get litigated
by the Supreme Court.
But I'm convinced the court
has never actually addressed that issue.
And I think we would win on the law
because that was not
what the 14th Amendment
was intended to do.
That would be an executive order.
And then you expect
that it would be legal
and also be legally challenged.
I do want to go to
and by the way, on this.
Go ahead.
Donald Trump ran in 2016
saying he would do
exactly what I just said.
Did he ever sign his name
to an executive order
when he promised the voters
that he was going to do it?
Never signed it.
What is he now telling people in Iowa
this time around?
He says he's going to do the same thing
that he didn't do the first four years.
I mean,
sometimes you can say
Congress stymied you,
all this other stuff.
All he had to do was put his John Hancock
on on a piece of paper,
and he did not do it.
So, look,
I mean, when I tell you
I'm going to do something,
you can take it to the bank.
I'm going to do it. Are you saying
we've got another voter question?
But just
it sounds like you're saying
Republican voters
can't trust Donald Trump.
Well, what I'm saying
is, if you've run before, promise things
didn't deliver
and then you're running
on the same things,
wouldn't it be reasonable to say,
well, gee,
I don't know that
I can take that to the bank
going forward?
So, yes,
I think the fact that he's
campaigning on something
that does not mean
that he would actually
follow through on it.