-When you build buildings like I build buildings,
believe me, walls are easy.
-The border wall -- it's a campaign promise
that helped guide candidate Trump into the Oval Office
and a policy goal that's dominated his time
in the White House thus far.
-If I build this wall or fence or anything
the Democrats need to call it -- because I'm not into names.
I'm into production.
I'm into something that works.
-But there's a lot of uncertainty
surrounding a pretty permanent piece of infrastructure.
Trump has changed his mind on what materials
would be used to build the wall.
-Concrete plank. Of rebar and steel.
So, you have a concrete wall.
See-through capability on the other side
and then solid concrete on top.
-And he's inflated his funding demands.
-That we want $5.
6 billion very strongly.
'Cause numbers are thrown around $1.
6 billion, $2.
1 billion, $2. 5 billion.
-Members of Trump's inner circle and the wider Republican Party
have also shifted their rhetoric surrounding the wall.
-The fence doesn't solve the problem.
Is it -- Is it -- Is it necessary to have one?
Sure. Would it help?
Sure.
But to just say, "Build the darn fence,"
and have that be the end of an immigration discussion is absurd
and almost childish for someone running for president
to take that simplistic a view.
And by the way, the bottom line is,
the fence doesn't stop anybody who really wants to get across.
You go under.
You go around. You go through.
And that's what the ranchers tell us,
is that they don't need a fence.
But there are places where there is no substitute for a barrier.
The barriers we have up now in the high-traffic areas --
over 90% effective.
So, where we have build a barrier
along the Southern border,
it's reduced criminal immigration by more than 90%.
-This president wants to put up a wall,
and you and others want to put up a slip 'n' slide,
just let everybody in.
He's in the -- He's in the White House.
He's in Washington reading to negotiate.
This is important to border security
and keeping the government open.
But if you keep saying, "Wall, wall, wall,"
because you want "wall" to be a four-letter word
and we're not being honest about everything --
-Kellyanne, the president is the one who explicitly said
in the Oval Office, "It's the wall,
and it's the reason why the shutdown is happening."
-And he said in a tweet yesterday --
You can't cherry-pick his tweets.
-Do you mean a big, beautiful, concrete wall
running the entire length of the border?
Or has the president backed down from that
and is willing to talk about all kinds of other measures?
-I detect your usual sarcasm in there, Terry,
but I will just say if you've read his tweets even this week,
if you listened to him yesterday, he clarified that.
He said that you can call it whatever you want.
In other words, we need border security.
It may include a wall. It may include steel slats.
He tweeted this out.
He talked about this -- -It's his words --
"big, beautiful wall."
-Terry, he wants border security.
-Dishonest, which is Hillary Clinton
in the eyes of the American people, beats crazy.
I think Donald Trump's domestic and foreign policy is gibberish.
The wall has become a metaphor for border security.
And what we're talking about is a physical barrier
where it makes sense.
Walls work.
Trump said, "Let's make a deal."
Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer said, "Go to hell."
We'll see what happens.
-There are places along the border --
and I would offer to you down in the southern Rio Grande Valley
-- where a wall, a concrete wall,
makes all the sense in the world for a couple of reasons.
Once we briefed him when I was at DHS
and told him that the real experts
on defending the southwest border,
the Customs and Border Protection men and women,
came in, did, you know, a survey of the border,
there are places where hydrographically,
geographically a wall would not be realistic.
-"To be honest, it's not a wall. The president still says 'wall.
' The president still says 'wall.
' Oftentimes, frankly, he'll say 'barrier' or 'fencing.
' Now he's tended towards 'steel slats.
'" -To us, it's a new wall.
If there was a wall before that needs to be replaced,
it's being replaced by a new wall.
So, this is the Trump border wall.
In many cases, it will -- -Replacing current wall
would count as new wall, in your words?
-Yes, it would. Let me be clear.
Walls work.
That's not my opinion.
It's not a tag line.
It's not a political statement.
It's a fact.
-I know securing the border is going to take a lot more
than just building a wall.
Building that border security
It is the powerful message that we can send.