Latest / The President's Daily Brief / The PDB Situation Report | October 10th, 2026: How Hamas' October 7th Attack Changed the Middle East Forever

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The PDB Situation Report | October 10th, 2026: How Hamas' October 7th Attack Changed the Middle East Forever · The President's Daily Brief

0:07
Welcome to the PDB Situation Report.
0:09
I'm Mike Baker,
0:10
your eyes and ears on the world stage.
0:12
Oh,
0:13
coming to you today
0:14
from my posh wood paneled office at home on the Boise compound.
0:20
Yeah,
0:20
smells like rich mahogany,
0:21
leather-bound books.
0:23
Let's get briefed.
0:24
First up,
0:25
this week marks 3 years since the October 7th Hamas attacks,
0:29
and the Middle East has been transformed by years
0:31
of war and a widening conflict with Iran.
0:35
Alex Selsky of the Middle East Forum
0:37
will join us to examine how the strategic picture has changed and what lies ahead.
0:41
Later in the show,
0:42
federal officers are reporting a massive surge
0:45
in terrorism-related encounters at the southern border.
0:48
Well,
0:49
that sounds good.
0:50
Art Arthur of the Center for Immigration Studies
0:52
joins us to break down what those numbers mean.
0:55
But first,
0:55
today's situation report Spotlight.
0:58
This week marked 3 years since the brutal October
1:01
7th attacks when Hamas terrorists stormed into southern Israel,
1:05
killing some 1200 people and
1:08
taking more than 250 hostages.
1:11
Three years later,
1:12
the Middle East looks dramatically different.
1:14
Israel has fought a devastating war in Gaza,
1:17
battled Hezbollah in Lebanon,
1:19
and now finds itself confronting Iran in a broader regional conflict
1:23
that's drawn in the US.
1:25
But how has the strategic picture in the Middle East changed over the past 3 years?
1:30
Where does Israel stand today
1:32
following its wars with Hamas,
1:34
Hezbollah,
1:34
and Iran?
1:36
And after 3 years of fighting,
1:37
well,
1:38
what comes next?
1:39
Joining me now is Alex Selsky,
1:41
director of Israel and East Mediterranean Affairs at the Middle East Forum
1:45
and a reserve Major in the IDF Home Front Command.
1:48
Alex,
1:48
thank you very much for taking the time to join us here on the Situation Report.
1:53
Thank you,
1:53
Mike.
1:53
Good evening from Jerusalem.
1:55
Thank you for having me.
1:56
No,
1:56
absolutely.
1:57
Well,
1:58
here we are,
1:59
3 years on
2:01
from
2:02
the 7th of October
2:03
2023 attacks.
2:06
So much has changed,
2:07
uh,
2:07
in the Middle East.
2:09
And
2:10
I know this is gonna be
2:11
a very
2:12
difficult question because
2:14
It's,
2:15
it's hard to prioritize,
2:17
but from your perspective,
2:19
3 years on now from those attacks.
2:23
How would you assess the,
2:24
the,
2:24
the,
2:25
the most important changes
2:27
that have taken place?
2:28
And again,
2:28
that's a big playing field,
2:29
but I want you to go wherever you'd like to go with this.
2:33
Yes,
2:34
well,
2:35
I would like to mention maybe one big change,
2:38
internal
2:39
and one external.
2:41
And I would like
2:42
to start from internal.
2:43
I think that Israelis
2:45
have changed.
2:47
And those who still believed in partnership
2:51
and
2:53
Um,
2:54
negotiations
2:55
with the Palestinians,
2:56
I think were very,
2:57
very disappointed.
2:58
You have to understand that those in the
3:01
area that was attacked,
3:03
those in this,
3:04
um,
3:05
settlements,
3:06
kibbutzim,
3:07
right?
3:07
Kibbutz is a
3:08
kind of,
3:09
uh,
3:10
you know,
3:10
a
3:11
small community,
3:12
communist kind of,
3:14
right?
3:14
It was shared
3:16
and everything is shared between people and the,
3:19
the people who live there.
3:21
With the most pro Palestinian.
3:24
They were helping Palestinians,
3:25
sending their clothes to Gaza,
3:27
taking children,
3:29
Palestinian children to Israeli hospitals by their cars.
3:33
And not only they were those who were attacked.
3:37
In many cases,
3:38
Mike,
3:38
they were attacked
3:40
and the intelligence on their
3:43
home locations
3:45
were provided by the families,
3:48
by the workers that were working in the kibbutzim or by the families that they knew,
3:52
and the disappointment,
3:53
this deep disappointment was,
3:55
was,
3:55
was shocking for them.
3:57
Now,
3:57
you know,
3:57
I in a way grew up in this area.
4:00
I know the Syria,
4:01
I know the people I know the kind of.
4:04
You know,
4:05
their opinions and their living.
4:07
Uh,
4:07
and,
4:08
and I understand
4:10
how deep they were disappointed.
4:12
So I think that Israeli society.
4:15
Has shifted
4:16
toward the understanding that unfortunately
4:20
justice
4:21
doesn't provide security.
4:23
What provides security is power.
4:26
Military power.
4:28
And being nice
4:31
and providing good
4:33
You know,
4:34
doesn't provide security,
4:35
definitely not in our area,
4:37
definitely not with our neighbors.
4:39
And this shift is very significant,
4:41
first of all,
4:42
because I think the young people.
4:45
understood that they have to fight
4:47
and it's not over,
4:48
you know,
4:48
we thought that many Israelis thought that we are in times of the,
4:53
you know,
4:54
beaches and,
4:55
and,
4:55
and,
4:55
and sea and bars
4:57
and.
4:58
And,
4:59
and high tech
5:00
and Tel Aviv,
5:01
you know,
5:01
if you come to Tel Aviv,
5:02
you see California.
5:04
And we thought that we
5:06
are
5:07
in,
5:07
in,
5:08
in a stage of our development where we don't
5:10
want to fight and we think we should not fight
5:13
anymore.
5:14
We want the wars and we're secured.
5:17
And this generation
5:18
of young people is spoiled,
5:20
but we discovered that no.
5:23
The young people
5:24
went to the front line.
5:28
The day after October 7th,
5:30
people were,
5:32
many,
5:32
many young people were abroad in America and Europe traveling,
5:36
you know,
5:36
Israelis love traveling,
5:37
you know,
5:38
if you,
5:38
if you travel,
5:39
I'm sure you hear Hebrew a lot in,
5:41
in,
5:42
you know,
5:43
we would just
5:44
in some
5:45
few places in,
5:46
in,
5:46
you know,
5:46
in Georgia and other places and it's just amazing like you come to places
5:50
you don't imagine you will find Israelis and you find and you hear Hebrew.
5:54
And people
5:55
paid 50,000
5:56
6 $7000
5:58
to get on a plane
6:00
to go back home to fight.
6:03
To fight to defend your.
6:05
You know,
6:06
omelet,
6:07
and,
6:08
and this change is very significant politically
6:11
because it shifts Israeli voter
6:14
to the right.
6:16
It shifts Israeli border against the Palestinian state because nobody
6:21
will now risk
6:23
to establish
6:24
a Palestinian state next to Jerusalem.
6:28
Right,
6:28
and to think that another attack can come to Jerusalem
6:32
and you know,
6:32
the Palestinian Authority spread
6:35
from the negative in the south to the Galilee in the north.
6:39
So Israelis,
6:40
even those who thought that,
6:42
you know,
6:42
it's OK,
6:43
you know,
6:43
we'll give up something
6:45
and they will stop
6:46
now understand that they will not stop and we will not give up,
6:50
and this change is very significant and the external change,
6:53
the biggest one I think.
6:55
I,
6:56
I really hope to believe that the world understood and our enemies understood
7:01
that it's not worth
7:03
raising hands on Jews even if they miss
7:07
and if they
7:08
fail,
7:09
they will go after you
7:11
and they will not give up and they will destroy you
7:15
and I think that we are on our way to destroy Hamas and we definitely.
7:19
On our way to destroy Hezbollah,
7:21
and I hope that we are on our way also to destroy the
7:25
Islamic Republic who is in fact,
7:27
you know,
7:28
in fact the one
7:30
that provides all this
7:33
situation
7:34
and others who support him,
7:36
but we cannot destroy,
7:37
but we,
7:38
I hope,
7:39
will stop and we are very determined
7:41
and we are very strong and we're stronger and we woke up
7:45
at October 7th.
7:47
Understanding that we have to fight and we will fight.
7:52
What,
7:52
what is the potential for
7:54
the upcoming elections
7:57
to change that
7:58
position,
8:00
right?
8:00
What if,
8:01
because I,
8:01
I think in the US sometimes things
8:03
can get
8:04
simplified,
8:04
right?
8:04
And so
8:05
all those young
8:07
folks who go out in the streets and wave their free Palestine.
8:11
Uh,
8:11
signs
8:12
and protests,
8:13
uh,
8:13
against Israel.
8:14
Um,
8:15
you know,
8:16
their,
8:16
their
8:17
number one enemy,
8:18
their Lex Luthor is,
8:19
is Benjamin Netanyahu.
8:21
And
8:21
so I think in their minds,
8:23
you know,
8:23
they,
8:23
they,
8:24
I don't know that they study it much,
8:25
but they look at the upcoming election and they
8:27
think if Netanyahu can just be moved out,
8:29
then things will change.
8:32
Is it,
8:33
Is that the case,
8:35
or do you think that
8:36
Israel will stay the course
8:38
in terms of its approach towards
8:41
these,
8:41
the,
8:41
these enemies of Israel?
8:45
A very good and very important question,
8:47
Mike.
8:48
First of all,
8:48
I want to start from the fact that I don't believe,
8:51
and I think that nobody believes.
8:54
That all these protesters are genuine,
8:57
we understand today very well.
9:00
And I invite everybody to uh
9:04
visit online the website of the Middle East for and read
9:08
what we produce.
9:09
Uh,
9:10
most of the discourse and most of the protests
9:15
are not genuine.
9:15
They're all organized,
9:17
funded
9:18
by external external powers by Iran,
9:22
by Qatar,
9:22
backed by.
9:24
Russia,
9:25
China,
9:26
and,
9:26
uh,
9:26
and unfortunately the political discourse today in America
9:31
and partly in Israel
9:33
and
9:34
partly
9:35
also in Europe
9:37
is not local,
9:38
is manipulated
9:40
and uh you know,
9:41
it was very,
9:42
very clear
9:44
that the whole
9:46
attack
9:47
in campuses and in the media on Israel about this genocide lie,
9:52
which is a lie,
9:53
Mike.
9:54
Was orchestrated and pre-prepared now how we can see it very easily,
9:59
you know,
9:59
when was the first protest
10:02
with a sign
10:04
with the claim of genocide in Gaza on it
10:07
on October
10:08
8th,
10:09
you know,
10:09
when the Israeli army entered Gaza
10:13
for ground operation
10:15
two weeks after.
10:17
So we understand
10:18
that the whole media attack
10:21
and the whole
10:23
information warfare attack
10:24
was very,
10:25
very significantly
10:27
pre-organized,
10:29
and the October 7th was actually a hook
10:32
on which they started the whole
10:35
operation
10:36
very,
10:36
very heavily funded.
10:39
This is one
10:40
second part of your question.
10:42
I don't believe.
10:44
That
10:45
even if
10:46
it will be a shift in Israeli politics,
10:50
meaning the opposition will take control,
10:53
I don't think
10:55
that the
10:56
the the major policies.
10:59
Security economically too.
11:02
It will be changed.
11:04
Look at the people in the opposition.
11:07
Lieberman is not different
11:10
in his security views and in a way maybe even
11:14
more
11:15
hawkish than Netanyahu,
11:18
and Eisenutt,
11:19
former chief of staff,
11:21
you know,
11:21
he,
11:22
he speaks softer
11:24
in some things he's softer,
11:26
but.
11:27
I don't think that she
11:29
will be really changing
11:31
major policies.
11:32
Bennett,
11:33
definitely not.
11:35
Lapite,
11:36
no,
11:36
Lapite said we are the new Likud
11:39
in one of the interviews I heard him personally,
11:42
uh,
11:43
couple 3 months ago.
11:45
So Yir Golan maybe,
11:47
but he will not be in,
11:48
in,
11:49
in,
11:49
in,
11:49
in,
11:50
in,
11:50
in a way,
11:51
in a position and capacity to lead.
11:54
So I really don't think maybe,
11:56
you know,
11:56
the change will be.
11:59
More
12:00
Bipartisan approach to American politics,
12:03
for example.
12:04
Maybe it will be more,
12:07
um,
12:08
uh,
12:08
uh,
12:09
you know,
12:10
internally
12:12
some changes,
12:13
definitely much more
12:14
anti-ultra orthodox policy,
12:17
but this is the internal and by the way,
12:19
it's also much more
12:21
pro-security position.
12:23
So
12:23
I don't really think.
12:25
That if this opposition
12:27
wins,
12:28
you will see a major shift
12:30
in security policies.
12:33
OK,
12:33
that's very interesting.
12:34
And,
12:34
and to what degree
12:36
do
12:37
Israelis,
12:37
citizens in
12:39
Tel Aviv and elsewhere,
12:41
Follow
12:42
US politics.
12:43
I mean,
12:44
uh,
12:44
looking at the midterm elections in the US that are coming up.
12:47
Um,
12:49
Is there a concern over what could happen if,
12:51
if,
12:51
for example,
12:52
the Trump administration,
12:53
if the Republicans lose,
12:55
uh,
12:55
control of the,
12:56
the House or possibly even the Senate?
12:59
And
13:00
are they concerned or are they,
13:01
are they,
13:02
are they following this closely and understanding sort of the vitriol and the,
13:06
the,
13:06
uh,
13:06
anger,
13:07
I think that the progressives within,
13:09
uh,
13:10
the Democratic Party have towards Israel?
13:14
Well,
13:14
like,
13:15
I'm must say first of all,
13:16
Israel is very,
13:18
very,
13:18
very pro-American.
13:21
People in the way of
13:24
a,
13:24
you know,
13:24
we leave America.
13:27
OK,
13:27
we speak English,
13:29
uh,
13:30
our movies are with no dubbing,
13:32
with no translation,
13:33
only subtitles.
13:36
Uh,
13:36
if you go to schools,
13:38
you see,
13:39
uh,
13:40
from,
13:40
you know,
13:40
from 3rd grade,
13:42
uh,
13:42
children,
13:43
um,
13:44
learn English in universities,
13:45
you have,
13:46
you know,
13:46
I teach at a college,
13:48
uh,
13:48
and I see how,
13:50
you know,
13:50
uh,
13:51
how many sources are in English and we are demanding our.
13:56
Average Israeli knows what's happening in America,
14:00
been to America many times,
14:02
traveled in America,
14:04
uh,
14:05
knows America,
14:06
has.
14:07
Either family or friends
14:11
in America.
14:14
Watches NBA
14:16
and American movies.
14:17
OK,
14:17
so,
14:18
so first of all,
14:19
average Israeli knows America,
14:21
OK,
14:21
and,
14:22
and,
14:22
and in,
14:23
in a way understand,
14:25
understands American politics
14:27
and more educated people,
14:30
uh,
14:30
definitely understand differently follow differently,
14:34
understand the meaning of American politics
14:37
and if you speak about,
14:38
you know,
14:39
the,
14:39
uh,
14:39
the,
14:40
uh.
14:42
Yeah,
14:42
the care and the,
14:44
the understanding what
14:46
a
14:47
Democratic Party versus a Republican Party can,
14:51
you know,
14:51
can change toward Israel.
14:53
I think that
14:54
Israelis today understand the,
14:57
the risk.
14:59
Unfortunately,
15:00
in,
15:01
in
15:02
the tendencies
15:04
that we see in the Democratic Party in the left
15:07
of the Democratic Party and the far right
15:09
of the Republican Party
15:11
and understand that,
15:12
you know,
15:13
these things have changed toward Israel.
15:16
You know,
15:17
America was very pro-Israel and
15:20
until,
15:21
I don't know,
15:21
58.
15:24
I don't know,
15:24
many even
15:25
will say 3 years.
15:27
It was kind of a,
15:28
uh,
15:29
you know,
15:29
axio that,
15:30
you know,
15:31
people knew America is
15:33
pro-Israeli and Israel is very,
15:34
very pro-American and today to see these changes,
15:37
to see anti-Semitism in New York,
15:39
in New York,
15:40
you know,
15:40
I've been to
15:41
Brooklyn a few months ago and I was,
15:43
you know,
15:43
I was an emissary of uh
15:45
Uh,
15:46
one of the biggest Israeli organizations that works with the Jews
15:49
in diaspora.
15:50
I was an emissary for advocacy on campuses 22 years ago in Brooklyn.
15:54
I know Brooklyn,
15:55
OK.
15:56
I was
15:57
on every CUNY campus you,
15:59
you,
15:59
you,
15:59
you can imagine,
16:00
and I came to my friend in Ocean Avenue,
16:03
you know,
16:03
Ocean Avenue,
16:04
like every two blocks,
16:05
you have a yeshiva
16:06
and you have
16:07
Jews,
16:08
and he tells me,
16:09
listen,
16:09
be,
16:09
be careful with speaking Hebrew outside.
16:11
I'm like,
16:11
what?
16:12
I'm in Brooklyn
16:14
I'm in Ocean Avenue.
16:15
What,
16:15
what do you mean?
16:16
I was shocked,
16:18
uh,
16:19
and,
16:19
and,
16:20
and this is just getting worse
16:22
now.
16:22
I don't want to be political.
16:24
I don't wanna be political,
16:25
but these tendencies,
16:27
I think that people must understand that the problem,
16:29
the biggest problem is.
16:31
That this is external influence,
16:34
that these changes are not American.
16:37
They are orchestrated from outside
16:39
and sorry for saying that,
16:41
you know,
16:41
so sharply,
16:43
but I think that if you don't wake up.
16:46
And if you don't cut it,
16:48
In 20-30 years,
16:49
you will not have America as you love it.
16:52
As
16:52
we love it.
16:53
Yeah,
16:53
I,
16:53
I think it's,
16:54
it's not uncommon for any protest movement,
16:58
um,
16:59
whether it's the Free Palestine movement,
17:01
whether it's,
17:02
you know,
17:02
Black Lives Matter,
17:03
whatever it may be,
17:04
Antifa,
17:06
to,
17:07
you know,
17:07
have the appearance of a grassroots
17:10
sort of community-based protest,
17:12
but
17:13
Inevitably,
17:14
when you peel away the layers,
17:16
you do find
17:18
organization behind it.
17:18
You find
17:19
financing behind it,
17:20
you find legal support behind it,
17:22
communication support behind it,
17:24
and it,
17:25
and it's clear how organized it is.
17:27
It's very interesting.
17:28
Mayor Mamdani from New York City,
17:29
Alex,
17:30
um,
17:31
was out on the streets yesterday for
17:35
a couple of
17:36
7th October
17:38
events,
17:39
one held by,
17:40
uh,
17:40
Israelis for Peace.
17:42
Right,
17:42
which is an interesting
17:44
organization.
17:45
But during that event,
17:47
uh,
17:47
pro-Palestinian protesters,
17:50
uh,
17:50
sort of crashed the event and disrupted it and started yelling,
17:54
and they were very angry with Mokdani.
17:56
And Mamdani was clearly shaken up.
17:58
He's like,
17:58
how,
17:59
how could I be any more pro-Palestinian?
18:01
But
18:01
you can't satisfy them because
18:04
even Mamdani was
18:06
taking criticism and they were shouting at him
18:08
and selling today saying he's a sellout.
18:10
And he was clearly
18:12
shaken up.
18:12
I,
18:13
I don't know why he should be smart enough to know that you can't satisfy the mob,
18:17
right?
18:18
Um,
18:18
and so anyway,
18:19
I feel,
18:19
I,
18:21
Uh,
18:21
I'm sorry,
18:21
I,
18:22
I,
18:22
I,
18:22
I've gotta stop right there just for a second.
18:24
We gotta take a quick break.
18:25
I apologize for that.
18:26
But when we come back,
18:28
I,
18:28
I wanna talk more,
18:29
uh,
18:29
with,
18:30
uh,
18:30
with Alex about Iran in particular.
18:33
Uh,
18:33
we'll be right back here with more on the situation report.
18:36
So you know what I always say,
18:37
Well,
18:38
stick around.
18:39
Hey,
18:39
Mike Baker here with a scenario that might sound familiar.
18:43
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18:44
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18:46
right?
18:47
Hey,
18:47
you're trying to figure out what a Roth conversion is and how it works.
18:50
Well,
18:51
look,
18:51
honestly,
18:52
you didn't work
18:53
this hard for your life to be doing this research yourself.
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18:57
maybe,
18:57
OK,
18:57
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19:57
Welcome back to the PDB Situation Report.
20:00
Joining me once again is Alex Selsky,
20:02
director of Israel and East Mediterranean Affairs
20:05
at the Middle East Forum.
20:06
He joins us from Jerusalem.
20:08
Alex,
20:08
thank you very much,
20:09
uh,
20:09
for being here on The Situation Report.
20:12
And cute
20:14
Now,
20:17
I,
20:17
I,
20:17
this is,
20:18
uh,
20:18
this is a tough one,
20:21
because,
20:21
in part because I think the numbers
20:23
are never accurate.
20:24
They never are in a,
20:25
in a war zone.
20:26
Um,
20:27
but all those that are accusing Israel of genocide,
20:30
right?
20:31
They tend to cite the Gaza Health Ministry,
20:33
which of course is run by Hamas,
20:35
and they cite over 70,000 killed,
20:38
um,
20:39
during the course of this.
20:41
Uh,
20:41
after the 7th October attacks.
20:43
First of all,
20:44
do you have any insight into the credibility of that number?
20:49
And then second of all,
20:50
to those that say this is horrendous or they
20:53
call it genocide or they say it's a disproportionate
20:56
response,
20:57
the 7th of October,
20:59
how do you respond?
21:00
What do you say to that?
21:03
Unlike,
21:03
as I already mentioned,
21:05
uh,
21:05
very unfortunately,
21:06
we see that all these claims didn't start after Israel
21:11
entered with ground operation in Gaza.
21:13
All these claims started before the operation,
21:16
which just shows us
21:18
that they didn't really mean
21:20
to claim something justified.
21:22
They just wanted to attack
21:24
and discredit Israel by any means.
21:27
Uh,
21:28
and it was a very planned,
21:30
very well funded
21:33
campaign in media,
21:35
in social media,
21:36
on campuses,
21:37
on every street.
21:38
Now
21:39
regarding the claim itself,
21:41
uh Mike,
21:42
I am a reserve major
21:44
in the IDF.
21:45
What I do in the army,
21:48
uh,
21:48
is I speak on the media
21:51
to Israeli public when the rockets fall
21:54
to give them the instructions of the home front command.
21:58
To explain the instructions of the home front command
22:02
and to keep their
22:06
resilience strong to,
22:07
to,
22:08
to keep going.
22:10
During emergency
22:11
And I can tell you from within,
22:13
you know,
22:13
I'm
22:15
almost 50.
22:16
And I'm in the IDF.
22:18
I think this is the organization I'm the longest time in
22:22
since I was 19,
22:23
right?
22:23
Not every day,
22:24
you know,
22:25
reserve is
22:26
23 months a year,
22:27
but,
22:28
but,
22:28
but you leave this.
22:30
The way the army of Israel.
22:34
Tries to do everything like everything
22:38
to not hurt
22:40
those who should not be hurt is,
22:43
is,
22:43
is outstanding.
22:45
I know,
22:46
you know,
22:46
Israeli army is people's army.
22:49
It's not professional army.
22:51
It's my brother,
22:53
it's me,
22:54
it's my sister,
22:55
it's my friends.
22:56
It's not somebody,
22:58
it's us,
22:59
OK?
23:00
And.
23:01
People,
23:02
you know,
23:02
and the Israeli army in,
23:04
in,
23:04
in,
23:05
in a,
23:05
in a very significant way is based on reserve.
23:08
Now reserve are those who have families.
23:11
Have children.
23:12
You
23:14
believe me,
23:14
you,
23:15
you,
23:15
you will not see people who want to kill.
23:18
And if you just learn history,
23:20
and you understand Jews,
23:21
and you know Judaism,
23:23
and you know the approach to life,
23:25
you know,
23:25
the Jews
23:26
not only don't like
23:28
violence,
23:29
they're not violent people historically.
23:32
OK,
23:33
so these claims are so false.
23:35
Now,
23:36
if you just go into these claims really,
23:38
uh,
23:39
and you start looking at it,
23:41
so how can you trust these numbers to what the,
23:44
the
23:45
health
23:46
department,
23:47
the health ministry,
23:48
this is Hamas.
23:49
They will say everything,
23:50
you know,
23:51
just to understand Hamas and their cruelty.
23:54
Go and see.
23:55
I really,
23:56
really,
23:56
really ask every viewer,
23:58
you,
23:58
Mike,
23:59
go and see.
24:01
The ceremony
24:03
Of the returning of the bodies of the small children.
24:08
Of Biba's family.
24:10
They created
24:12
big
24:14
uh uh black,
24:16
um,
24:17
how do you call it,
24:18
uh,
24:18
you know,
24:19
where you put the bodies in
24:20
and they called
24:22
small children.
24:23
They were children.
24:24
One of them I think was less than one year,
24:26
and they called that they were,
24:28
uh,
24:29
you know,
24:29
they called the,
24:30
uh the soldiers or something.
24:32
They lie.
24:33
They do propaganda all the time.
24:35
That's all they do.
24:36
They lie all the time.
24:37
We know about this
24:39
industry of lie.
24:40
And we know how much of what they show
24:43
is just false.
24:45
We cannot,
24:46
we,
24:46
we cannot,
24:47
how you believe them.
24:48
This is one,
24:49
and I want to say something else,
24:51
but I want to say something else,
24:52
Mike.
24:52
Oh,
24:52
OK,
24:53
go ahead,
24:53
go ahead.
24:54
But I want to say something else.
24:56
You know,
24:56
I can explain to you
24:58
how they're bad and how we are good
25:01
and how we try and how they lie,
25:04
but I will tell you something very,
25:05
very different.
25:07
You don't want casualties.
25:10
Don't raise hands on our children.
25:12
If you raise hands on our children,
25:13
you'll have casualties.
25:15
And let it and these times,
25:18
this era.
25:20
When Jews were homeless,
25:22
weak,
25:23
minority without any power that you could beat
25:27
without paying a price are over.
25:30
If you raise hands on Jews,
25:31
you'll pay a very significant price.
25:33
They don't talk to me,
25:34
please,
25:34
about portion disproportional.
25:37
I don't care.
25:39
You know now
25:40
you don't have Jews.
25:41
Don't mess with Jews.
25:43
We are very good in science and business and culture.
25:46
We are so good
25:47
in peaceful things.
25:49
Do business with us.
25:50
You want to fight with us,
25:51
that's what you get.
25:53
Yeah,
25:53
I think this,
25:54
I mean,
25:54
clearly,
25:55
I'm not sure how you argue against the notion that if,
25:58
if Hamas,
25:59
Yahya Sinwar and,
26:01
and,
26:01
uh,
26:02
their Iranian puppet masters and others had
26:05
not
26:06
gone into southern Israel and brutalized and killed
26:09
all those Israeli civilians and families,
26:12
yeah,
26:13
that total number
26:14
of,
26:15
wouldn't be 70,000 or plus or whatever it is based on the Hamas's own numbers,
26:21
it'll be 0.
26:22
So,
26:24
yeah,
26:24
again,
26:24
I think there's,
26:25
and,
26:25
and,
26:26
and I do,
26:27
I do agree.
26:27
I,
26:27
I think it's important for people because it's very easy.
26:30
And I think in the US,
26:32
um,
26:33
in part because
26:34
there's a lot of people,
26:36
young people in particular,
26:37
who don't necessarily feel as if they've got a,
26:39
A mission or a purpose or a community
26:42
or whatever.
26:43
So it's very easy to glom on to something,
26:45
to attach themselves to something.
26:47
So when you get a protest movement like this,
26:49
you can feel very self-righteous,
26:52
but you don't have to do anything about it.
26:53
You don't do anything other than maybe wave a sign,
26:56
um,
26:57
or criticize,
26:58
and
26:59
you don't do the research.
27:00
Now,
27:01
let,
27:01
let me ask you this.
27:03
There's been a lot of talk
27:05
about
27:06
And kind of taking a little bit of a shift.
27:08
There's been a lot of talk about
27:10
how it happened.
27:13
Do you think there's any
27:15
Truth to the idea,
27:17
to the concept that
27:18
the Israeli government was,
27:20
was essentially lulled
27:22
into a state of complacency by Hamas.
27:25
Meaning Hamas actually by design,
27:28
wanted the Israeli government to think that they were
27:31
turning over a new leaf.
27:32
It was a new day.
27:33
They weren't necessarily interested in hos uh hostilities.
27:36
They wanted to
27:37
just find a better life.
27:39
And so perhaps that led to some complacency.
27:45
Like,
27:45
you know,
27:46
we Jews,
27:47
we want to believe in peace,
27:50
and it's very,
27:51
very easy for us to believe in peace,
27:53
you know,
27:54
I,
27:54
um,
27:55
I can
27:56
recommend you many,
27:57
many books that show how
27:59
You know,
27:59
Israelis were shifting very,
28:02
very fast after signing agreements with our
28:06
neighbors and,
28:07
and thinking of,
28:08
you know,
28:09
a cooperation and travels and tourism.
28:13
So yes,
28:14
for
28:15
us,
28:15
it was apparently,
28:17
and we started,
28:18
you remember speaking about the
28:20
people in the kibbutzim who were.
28:23
So
28:24
kind and so naive,
28:26
you know,
28:27
helping to Palestinians thinking that,
28:29
you know,
28:30
if,
28:30
if we help them,
28:31
they will stop their violence and they discovered that it's exactly the opposite,
28:36
that the hate is so big that they even.
28:40
Ready to kill those who helped them.
28:42
So yes,
28:43
I'm sure that the Israeli leadership that the Israeli military,
28:47
you know,
28:48
as I told you,
28:48
Israeli military,
28:49
it's not
28:51
some professional army,
28:52
it's us.
28:54
It's us,
28:54
it's me.
28:55
OK,
28:56
and I have children,
28:57
and believe me,
28:57
I don't want to hurt anybody.
29:00
But,
29:00
but war is not nice.
29:02
And you know,
29:03
this hypocrisy that,
29:04
you know,
29:05
uh,
29:05
that everybody can fight,
29:07
right?
29:07
Everybody can fight to defend himself.
29:10
I just want to remind you,
29:11
you know,
29:11
America defended itself
29:13
and ended the biggest,
29:15
the bloodiest war on earth in history,
29:17
the Second World War,
29:19
not by justice,
29:20
by two
29:22
bumps
29:23
on.
29:24
250,000 innocent people.
29:28
That's how they
29:29
finished the war with Japan.
29:31
And now coming to Israel and saying,
29:33
you know,
29:34
how can you fight?
29:36
Excuse me,
29:37
why everybody can't fight and win,
29:39
but Jews know,
29:40
so again,
29:42
please get this idea
29:43
finally.
29:45
The Jews
29:46
have the right to live
29:47
and have the right to have self-determination.
29:50
By the way,
29:51
our country is so small,
29:53
when you come here,
29:54
you discover you're not.
29:56
We want our small room
29:59
to be able
30:00
to sleep here
30:02
and to be as we are.
30:04
And by the way,
30:05
we did it
30:06
after 2000 years.
30:07
Nobody wanted us
30:08
in any place.
30:09
Everybody expelled us.
30:10
I came from the former Soviet Union to Israel,
30:13
and before that my family escaped during the Holocaust from
30:16
Poland and before that from Spain to Poland.
30:18
I'm not running away anymore.
30:20
I came back.
30:22
The family name of my mother is Israel,
30:24
so no doubt.
30:26
That I'm from here originally.
30:29
We are back
30:30
and please stop this hypocrisy.
30:31
Get the idea
30:33
that Jews.
30:35
Uh,
30:36
you know,
30:36
you,
30:36
you,
30:36
you,
30:37
you,
30:37
you cannot demand from Jews more than from all the others.
30:41
Jews want to leave,
30:42
Jews will leave,
30:43
and Jews will defend themselves.
30:45
Yeah,
30:46
there is a very worrisome
30:47
sort of anti-Semitism that's rising in the,
30:50
in the US it seems.
30:52
And
30:53
sometimes it's masked.
30:53
They'll,
30:54
you know,
30:54
you talk to someone and they'll say,
30:55
I'm not anti-Semitic,
30:56
I'm anti-Zionist.
30:59
And
31:00
that's an easy cover for them to,
31:02
to say,
31:03
well,
31:03
look,
31:03
I see,
31:04
and they,
31:04
then they,
31:04
so they can justify it by trying to say
31:06
that they're anti-Zionist.
31:08
Um,
31:08
let me,
31:08
let me,
31:09
let me ask you this though,
31:11
because again,
31:11
3 years on from 7 October,
31:14
I know that there has been a lot of reflection within the government,
31:17
within the security services,
31:19
within the military
31:20
over just
31:21
how this
31:22
happened.
31:22
And so that's kind of what I'm drilling down on.
31:24
I just wanna know
31:25
what your assessment is because obviously,
31:28
look,
31:29
You know,
31:29
I spent 20 years in,
31:31
in,
31:31
in
31:31
intelligence and
31:34
So it's not,
31:35
it's not,
31:36
you know,
31:37
unfair to say this was an intelligence failure to a degree.
31:41
I'm curious about
31:43
what you've seen or
31:45
your perception
31:46
of lessons learned in terms of how it happened.
31:50
Where was the breakdown.
31:53
Um,
31:54
3 things.
31:57
And I want to go from,
31:58
you know,
31:58
from big to small.
32:00
First of all,
32:00
as I told you,
32:01
I think that,
32:02
you know,
32:02
this,
32:03
you know,
32:04
we call it in Hebrew
32:06
on Sea,
32:06
like this perception.
32:09
Of
32:10
a um.
32:11
If
32:12
our neighbors want to leave.
32:15
Uh,
32:16
because we think so,
32:17
because we want to live.
32:19
Uh,
32:19
and they just want to rule,
32:21
and they love their children too.
32:24
Um,
32:25
uh,
32:26
Jews,
32:26
again,
32:26
you know,
32:27
we came back after 2000 years of,
32:30
uh,
32:32
of diaspora.
32:34
And uh um
32:36
And after a few wars,
32:38
uh,
32:39
Israelis wanted to really
32:41
think
32:41
that,
32:42
you know,
32:42
we,
32:42
we,
32:43
everything is normal,
32:44
and they believed
32:46
that our neighbors want
32:48
the same,
32:48
but
32:49
they didn't.
32:50
Now,
32:51
if you drill in into the,
32:54
the exactly the situation,
32:55
so two things.
32:57
First of all,
32:57
it was a policy of the government
33:00
of Netanyahu.
33:02
To keep
33:03
Hamas
33:05
as a terror
33:06
organization on our southern border.
33:09
In order to prevent establishment
33:12
of the Palestinian state because he believed.
33:16
And justified belief
33:19
that
33:20
while
33:21
the Palestinian movement is split,
33:25
And one of them
33:27
I
33:28
identified as a terror organization,
33:30
the world will not let them
33:32
have a state.
33:34
This is true,
33:36
but Hamas
33:38
grew up
33:39
too much
33:41
and became too strong
33:42
and too threatening.
33:44
Now today,
33:45
the,
33:45
the,
33:46
the,
33:46
the common perception is that Israel had to
33:49
fight Hamas and disarm Hamas,
33:52
at least with the rockets
33:55
and missiles,
33:57
rockets,
33:58
um.
33:59
That can strengthen Israeli civilians in
34:03
the Gaza war in 2014,
34:05
and Israel didn't do that.
34:07
Why?
34:07
Because of the price
34:09
of
34:11
lives
34:11
of soldiers that we
34:13
apparently had to pay.
34:16
And uh and this is first.
34:19
So the policy was having Hamas.
34:23
Age politically
34:24
assuming that it will serve Israel and we know today that
34:27
Netanyahu had this policy backed by
34:30
other
34:31
partners in the government.
34:33
And the second
34:34
is,
34:34
as I told you,
34:35
this perception
34:37
backed by our
34:39
desire to believe that our neighbors love their children too.
34:43
In intelligence,
34:44
I think that
34:45
in terms of intelligence,
34:47
the army,
34:48
the Shin Bet,
34:49
the Mossad had the information.
34:51
The problem was not collecting the intelligence.
34:55
The problem was
34:56
to translate the data
34:58
into intention.
35:00
You know,
35:00
intelligence is not only about
35:02
data,
35:03
about knowing,
35:04
you know,
35:04
you can know that your neighbor
35:06
has a gun.
35:09
But
35:10
do you really believe that he will use it?
35:13
So we today understand that when your neighbor has a gun
35:16
and he tells you that he will use it,
35:18
believe him.
35:20
OK,
35:21
and prevent him.
35:23
So this,
35:24
I think that the problem was not the intelligence.
35:27
The problem was
35:28
that the people
35:29
who had the intelligence didn't believe
35:32
that Hamas would really strike
35:34
because,
35:35
you know,
35:35
Hamas is weak.
35:36
We will beat him,
35:37
you know,
35:38
how come they can do that?
35:39
How come they would do that?
35:40
And Hamas,
35:41
by the way,
35:41
did smartly everything
35:43
during a few years before
35:45
to,
35:45
you know,
35:46
to make,
35:46
to,
35:47
to,
35:47
to,
35:47
to,
35:47
to,
35:48
to make us very sleepy.
35:50
And think that they really want just rule.
35:52
And,
35:53
and by the way,
35:53
the life in Gaza
35:55
prior to October 7th was very,
35:58
very good.
35:59
If you just look
36:00
at the,
36:01
at the standard of living in Gaza before October 7th,
36:04
it was higher than uh than,
36:07
than you think.
36:08
It was not,
36:09
you know,
36:09
as Palestinians like to claim that it was,
36:11
you know,
36:12
a closed,
36:13
uh,
36:14
um.
36:16
Uh,
36:16
uh,
36:17
you know,
36:17
closed,
36:18
isolated community with nothing entering in
36:22
a prison,
36:23
right?
36:23
It was not prison.
36:24
It was a thriving
36:26
place.
36:26
By the way,
36:27
one of the
36:28
most beautiful beaches in the world are in Gaza,
36:30
OK,
36:31
and,
36:32
uh,
36:32
and
36:33
Israelis looked at it and thought,
36:35
OK,
36:35
they want to live.
36:36
But again,
36:37
we don't want,
36:38
we don't,
36:39
I don't want to generalize all the Gazans,
36:41
right,
36:41
and definitely not all the Gazans support Hamas,
36:44
and many,
36:45
many of them exactly like in many other
36:48
Muslim countries
36:49
are forced
36:50
to support Hamas because they don't have other choice,
36:53
like,
36:53
you know,
36:54
speaking of
36:55
journalists in Gaza,
36:56
you know,
36:56
you cannot be journalists in Gaza.
36:58
You can be
36:59
just
37:00
someone that serves Hamas,
37:01
otherwise you will be killed brutally.
37:03
OK.
37:04
Think about Taliban in Afghanistan.
37:06
This is not.
37:07
So far from that.
37:08
So that's,
37:09
that's the real problem,
37:10
and I think we woke up
37:12
and we understand today that,
37:13
you know,
37:14
if your neighbor has a gun
37:15
and he tells you that you want to use it,
37:17
be with him.
37:19
Yeah,
37:20
I look,
37:20
the,
37:20
the,
37:21
the,
37:22
the situation you're describing from an intelligence perspective is not unlike
37:26
9/11 in the US,
37:28
right?
37:28
We were collecting intelligence.
37:30
Part of the problem was
37:32
it wasn't being shared,
37:33
so nobody
37:34
was really collecting.
37:35
Intelligence from various elements.
37:37
It was all being siloed,
37:39
and
37:40
nobody was looking at the bigger picture.
37:42
Part of it also,
37:43
I think what you're describing is
37:46
the way that intelligence collected by whomever,
37:49
Mossad and Shinbed,
37:52
uh,
37:52
can be manipulated by a government's agenda
37:56
or by a desire of a government to go a certain direction.
38:00
So sometimes the intelligence is missed,
38:03
sometimes it's ignored,
38:05
sometimes it's manipulated.
38:08
And,
38:08
uh,
38:08
yeah.
38:09
Listen,
38:09
Alex,
38:10
this has been fascinating.
38:11
We haven't even gotten into the discussion about Iran.
38:13
So you know that means
38:15
that you have to join the Situation Report again,
38:18
uh,
38:18
if you will,
38:19
Adley,
38:19
Mike.
38:21
Excellent.
38:21
Listen,
38:22
thank you,
38:22
Alex Zelsky,
38:23
very,
38:24
very good to have you here on the show.
38:26
Middle East Forum,
38:27
uh,
38:27
from Jerusalem.
38:29
Uh,
38:29
a lot of complex issues there,
38:31
you know,
38:32
2025 minutes,
38:33
30 minutes doesn't give us time to do much,
38:35
but scratch the surface.
38:36
But I think it's extremely important to get perspective from
38:40
somebody like that sitting in Jerusalem,
38:43
uh,
38:43
with the IDF,
38:45
um,
38:45
and
38:46
you can agree,
38:47
you can disagree.
38:49
But you still have to listen,
38:51
and that's,
38:52
that's the way that you
38:53
legitimately form an educated,
38:56
uh,
38:56
thought.
38:57
Derek,
38:58
now I can climb off my soapbox.
39:00
Coming up next,
39:01
more than 11,000 terrorism-related encounters at southern border ports of entry
39:06
and a surprising explanation
39:08
for why those numbers are climbing.
39:10
Art Arthur,
39:10
you know him,
39:11
he's a friend of the Situation Report.
39:13
He's with the Center for Immigration Studies.
39:15
He joins us to dig into the details.
39:17
Stay with us.
39:19
Hey,
39:19
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40:29
Welcome back to the PDB situation report.
40:32
A remarkable new statistic from the southern border is raising questions about
40:36
who is trying to enter the US and how effectively we're catching them.
40:41
According to Customs and Border Protection,
40:42
CBP,
40:44
officers at Southwest border courts of entry recorded more than 11,000.
40:49
11,000 terrorism-related encounters
40:52
during the 1st 11 months of the fiscal year.
40:54
Let me repeat that.
40:55
11,000 terrorism-related encounters
40:58
during the 1st 11 months of the fiscal year.
41:01
That's more than triple the previous year's total.
41:04
But there's an important distinction here.
41:06
These encounters don't necessarily involve
41:08
known terrorists,
41:09
and the Trump administration's decision
41:11
to designate major drug cartels as terrorist organizations,
41:15
well,
41:15
that helps explain the surge.
41:17
So,
41:18
let's find out what's really behind these numbers.
41:21
Joining me now is the resident fellow in law and policy at
41:23
the Center for Immigration Studies and good friend of the show.
41:26
Art,
41:26
thank you very much for coming back on the Situation Report.
41:30
Thanks so much for having me today,
41:31
Mike.
41:32
Absolutely.
41:33
Well,
41:34
let's tuck into these numbers.
41:35
What do you think accounts for the surge
41:38
that we're seeing at the southwest border in
41:41
In terrorism suspects coming across the border.
41:47
Yeah,
41:47
actually it's a great question because there's no one single factor.
41:52
There are a number of very important factors,
41:55
and they all actually favor the Trump administration.
41:58
The first one is that uh.
42:01
And
42:03
The 1st 11 months of FY 2026,
42:05
we saw 11,283
42:09
terrorism-related encounters at the Southwest border ports.
42:13
Now,
42:13
that's up from,
42:15
uh,
42:15
80 in 2023,
42:17
1952 in 2024.
42:19
And the reason,
42:21
the first reason for that is that the land between the ports of entry,
42:25
that 1,954 mile open border,
42:29
is now secure.
42:30
It's secure in a way that it wasn't under the Biden administration.
42:33
Border patrol agents.
42:35
have gone from apprehending more than
42:37
100,000 illegal migrants per month to arresting
42:42
fewer than 100,000 illegal migrants in the 1st 11 months of FY 2026.
42:47
So
42:48
this is the most secure border in US history.
42:51
The president has talked about it.
42:53
Tom Homan has said it.
42:55
But I've actually busted the numbers,
42:56
Mike,
42:57
and I can assure you that it is more difficult to get into the United States
43:01
through the Rio Grande,
43:02
through the Sonoran Desert today
43:04
than it ever has been in US history.
43:07
And that's a credit to the president,
43:09
to Tom Homan,
43:10
the border czar,
43:11
but especially to an unsung hero,
43:12
Rodney Scott,
43:13
who's the CBP commissioner.
43:15
So,
43:16
prior to
43:18
Trump too,
43:19
during Biden,
43:20
Biden won,
43:21
Biden,
43:22
uh,
43:23
What we saw were,
43:25
you know,
43:25
so many migrants coming across the border,
43:28
the vast majority of whom gave themselves
43:30
up that they overwhelmed border patrol agents,
43:33
and that created what is called controllable gaps along that border.
43:37
So
43:38
smugglers would send large numbers of women with children or families
43:43
up to the border.
43:44
A large number of border patrol agents would have to
43:46
convene on that spot where they had come over.
43:49
And all of the other parts of the,
43:52
that sector
43:53
were then open for
43:55
smugglers to bring in drugs,
43:57
to bring in criminals,
43:58
and to bring in potential terrorists.
44:01
So,
44:01
uh,
44:02
that was a field day for the bad guys at the southwest border,
44:06
and they were running it and they were running it in such a way
44:09
that it advantaged
44:11
all of the bad actors that you could imagine.
44:14
Because that's not the case today,
44:16
because that border is locked down.
44:19
Those criminals,
44:20
those smugglers,
44:21
those cartel members,
44:22
and those potential terrorists,
44:24
Mike,
44:25
have to now make the riskier run
44:28
through the ports of entry.
44:29
There are
44:30
a series of ports of entry,
44:32
8 major ones,
44:33
and a number of minor ones along that border.
44:36
And when they go to those ports of entry,
44:39
even if they have legal documents to get into the United States,
44:42
they're going to be stopped by a CBP officer.
44:45
That CBP officer is going to ask them questions about why they're coming,
44:49
what their intentions are in coming to the United States,
44:52
and they're also going to be subject
44:54
to a lot of other
44:57
non-intrusive inspections.
44:59
There are going to be dogs that are going to be going around looking for drugs,
45:02
for weapons,
45:03
for cash.
45:04
There are gonna be,
45:05
uh,
45:06
cameras everywhere watching the responses of the people
45:09
who go to that port of entry.
45:11
So I think the reason that we sort of the way that,
45:14
sort of the way that a,
45:15
a,
45:16
an efficient,
45:17
non-dysfunctional
45:18
border security operation should be run.
45:22
Yeah,
45:22
I,
45:22
I,
45:23
I can't,
45:23
you know,
45:25
I can't put it in better words than that.
45:26
And this is the sort of border
45:28
that the 9/11 Commission report
45:31
back in 2003
45:33
recommended that we have
45:35
that,
45:36
you know,
45:36
they described those ports of entry as checkpoints that people have
45:40
to go through where we could assess what their intentions are.
45:43
So,
45:44
first you had the open border,
45:45
now you've got a closed border.
45:47
And the,
45:48
uh,
45:48
open border,
45:49
people didn't have to take the risk at the,
45:51
at the ports.
45:52
Now they do.
45:53
That's factor number one.
45:55
Factor number two is the fact that in,
45:57
uh,
45:58
early 2025,
46:00
Secretary of State Marco Rubio designated
46:04
two gangs,
46:05
Trende Aragua
46:06
and MS-13,
46:08
and a group of cartels,
46:10
mostly Mexican cartels,
46:12
including Sinaloa.
46:14
Uh,
46:14
CNG or CJNG and,
46:17
uh,
46:18
the Gulf Cartel
46:19
as
46:20
terrorist organizations,
46:22
significant government-designated terrorists.
46:25
And now that they have that designation,
46:27
when one of those cartel members or an associate shows up at the port,
46:32
the port officer now has greater authority to stop
46:35
that person from coming into the United States.
46:38
Put those two factors together,
46:39
the greater border security.
46:41
And the expanded definition of terrorist organization,
46:45
and you're going to get to 11,283
46:49
Aroha encounters at the,
46:50
uh,
46:50
Southwest border ports in 11 months.
46:53
Now,
46:53
it seems like,
46:55
I just,
46:55
one thought that occurred to me as you were,
46:57
as you were finishing that
46:58
comment was,
46:59
you said that because they identified
47:02
TDA and MS-13 and,
47:03
and,
47:04
you know,
47:04
some of the cartels as,
47:05
as terrorist organizations,
47:07
that they
47:08
now had more ability to stop them.
47:11
You would have thought,
47:13
even without that,
47:14
That if we had in their databases that they were a member of a cartel or
47:19
MS-13 or TDA,
47:21
wait,
47:22
what have
47:23
stopped them.
47:23
We wouldn't have needed
47:24
to have them designated as terrorist organizations.
47:28
Right,
47:28
but if you think about it,
47:30
when they're not designated as terrorist organizations,
47:33
then you need cold,
47:34
hard evidence
47:36
to keep them out of the United States.
47:38
Simply,
47:38
well,
47:39
you know,
47:39
I knew a guy who knew a guy,
47:41
and,
47:41
well,
47:41
you know,
47:42
I'm not a bad guy myself.
47:43
I,
47:44
I just have a lot of friends who have some unusual.
47:47
Hobbies.
47:48
Now that they're designated,
47:49
now that they have the intelligence,
47:51
they could actually send them to what we call secondary inspection,
47:54
that little room in the back of the port
47:56
where they go through all of your belongings and everything that you own.
48:00
So,
48:01
heightened scrutiny is a key aspect of that expanded designation.
48:06
But it still has,
48:07
it has to depend on what's in the database,
48:09
right?
48:10
So there has to be something
48:12
that flags an individual,
48:14
uh,
48:15
even before this known terrorist or,
48:16
or this terrorist organization designation.
48:19
It would have had to have been something in the database that would flag them as a,
48:24
you know,
48:24
potential
48:25
cartel member or member of MS-13.
48:28
And I guess my point is,
48:29
I understand what you're saying and I think it's,
48:30
it's logical.
48:31
It certainly makes sense and accounts for the,
48:33
the rise in numbers.
48:34
I'm just thinking,
48:35
you know,
48:38
Logic would dictate
48:39
that if you had even,
48:41
uh,
48:41
likely,
48:42
you know,
48:43
a member of a cartel or that,
48:45
you know,
48:45
you,
48:46
are you really gonna struggle with the idea of,
48:48
oh,
48:48
no,
48:48
we gotta get,
48:49
you know,
48:49
100% proof here.
48:50
We've gotta get full evidence,
48:52
or we're just gonna turn them back.
48:53
And
48:54
I,
48:55
I would argue that we're being,
48:57
you know,
48:57
overly gracious.
48:58
Um,
49:00
to say that,
49:00
well,
49:00
there's a real,
49:01
there's a good chance that they're a cartel member,
49:03
but we don't know for sure.
49:04
So we're gonna let him go through because he didn't have anything in his,
49:07
in his belongings.
49:08
Um,
49:09
I guess,
49:09
I don't know,
49:10
maybe I'm just being a churlish art.
49:11
I don't know.
49:13
Yeah,
49:14
well,
49:14
you know,
49:14
it is interesting because there was a lot
49:16
of overly graciousness under the Biden administration,
49:19
and,
49:20
you know,
49:20
this is probably a that
49:22
was probably a tertiary reason why the terrorist encounters were so low,
49:27
uh,
49:27
under Biden.
49:29
In addition to all of those legitimate travelers who came in through the ports,
49:33
the people that had proper documents and had everything in order,
49:37
the Biden administration,
49:38
and you
49:39
plainly remember this.
49:41
Allowed up to 1450 facially illegal aliens,
49:46
people who didn't have any documents or any right to enter the United States,
49:51
to download the CBP1 app to make an appointment at the ports of entry,
49:56
and to show up daily,
49:57
1450 daily,
50:00
to show up at those eight major ports
50:02
to be inspected
50:04
by an immigration officer.
50:06
Now,
50:06
again,
50:06
they didn't have any right to come into the country.
50:09
But the Biden administration essentially gave them the right
50:13
to be inspected.
50:14
And if that officer didn't find anything in the course of that inspection,
50:18
primary and secondary,
50:20
they then paroled those individuals into the United States.
50:24
That put a huge strain Mike
50:26
on the inspectors at the ports.
50:28
Today,
50:28
they see a lot of people that they see every day.
50:30
They see a lot of constant travelers,
50:33
school kids,
50:33
and things like that.
50:35
Uh,
50:35
but they,
50:36
you know,
50:36
see some unusual individuals.
50:39
They're now in a better position to send those people to secondary
50:43
to inspect them to a higher degree
50:45
than
50:45
back in the days under Biden when they had to,
50:48
you know,
50:48
preserve all of that space,
50:50
all of that manpower,
50:51
and all of those resources
50:53
to take a look at people
50:55
who plainly didn't have any right to be in the United States to begin with.
50:59
So,
50:59
yeah,
51:00
the border is an interesting place,
51:01
Mike.
51:02
I know you've been there,
51:03
and,
51:03
you know,
51:04
The line between,
51:06
you know,
51:06
the normal and the abnormal is pretty thin down there.
51:10
Now they're in a better position to parse that line,
51:13
to find the abnormal,
51:15
the really abnormal,
51:16
and to keep those people out of the United States or refer them for prosecution.
51:22
Yeah,
51:22
no,
51:23
that,
51:23
that makes sense.
51:24
Um,
51:25
I,
51:25
I've got some questions I wanna
51:26
kind of
51:27
cross
51:27
in a different direction,
51:29
maybe and,
51:29
and start talking a little bit about,
51:31
um,
51:32
ICE operations because obviously,
51:34
it,
51:34
it,
51:34
it consumed the headlines for a period of time,
51:37
particularly with the,
51:38
uh,
51:38
the shootings and,
51:39
and,
51:40
and it's fading now.
51:42
Uh,
51:42
it's,
51:42
it's not an issue.
51:43
It's not an issue,
51:44
it seems to the most part leading into the midterm elections.
51:48
But before I can ask you those questions,
51:49
Art,
51:49
uh,
51:50
I need to take a quick break.
51:51
So if you could stay right where you are,
51:53
we'll be back with more from Art Arthur.
51:56
You're on the PDB Situation Report.
51:58
Stay with us.
52:00
Welcome back to the PDB Situation Report.
52:03
Joining me once again is Art Arthur of the Center for Immigration Studies.
52:07
Art,
52:07
thanks very much for sticking around.
52:08
It would have been awkward if you'd just gotten up and left in between
52:11
our segments.
52:13
But,
52:13
um,
52:13
let's talk about,
52:14
let's talk about ICE operations for just a minute if we could.
52:17
Uh,
52:17
obviously,
52:18
one could argue that they had an optics problem,
52:22
um,
52:23
in the early stages of their operations
52:26
to try to round up illegal immigrants.
52:29
Uh,
52:29
the whole concept was we're gonna go after those with
52:32
criminal,
52:32
uh,
52:33
backgrounds,
52:34
criminal activity.
52:35
Uh,
52:36
and I think
52:37
you had bipartisan support for that.
52:39
People are saying,
52:40
sure,
52:41
let's,
52:41
let's round up anybody who's got criminal activity who's not here legally,
52:45
and that's fine.
52:46
And then I think it,
52:47
it started to head south and clearly
52:49
shooting US citizens,
52:50
you know,
52:51
that,
52:51
that,
52:52
uh,
52:52
didn't help to make ICE's case.
52:55
Where,
52:55
where,
52:56
where are we now with ICE operations at this stage?
53:00
Right now,
53:01
ICE is making,
53:02
according to what it says,
53:04
official numbers haven't come out,
53:05
is making about 50,000 to 55,000
53:09
arrests of,
53:10
uh,
53:11
aliens who are removable from the United States,
53:14
illegal aliens if you will,
53:16
uh,
53:16
each month.
53:17
That is a tremendous number.
53:20
Just to put that number into context,
53:22
Mike,
53:22
the high water mark for,
53:25
uh,
53:25
immigration arrests in the United States was about 4000.
53:29
Around 2008 to 2010,
53:32
we were running a pretty good clip at that point.
53:34
The Obama administration imposed a lot of
53:36
restrictions and then more restrictions on,
53:39
uh,
53:40
ICE officers.
53:42
So by the end of 2016,
53:44
right before Trump took office the first time,
53:46
they were only making about 64,000 arrests,
53:50
uh,
53:50
in a given year.
53:51
Today we're up to 55,000 per month,
53:54
and they've been,
53:54
uh,
53:55
running operations like that for the last 4 months.
53:58
But you,
53:59
you touch on a very important point,
54:01
and that is,
54:03
you don't,
54:03
you know,
54:04
see the videos,
54:05
you don't see the flash bang grenades,
54:07
you don't see,
54:08
uh,
54:09
officers wrestling with people in the street the way that you used to.
54:13
And the reason is that,
54:14
you know,
54:15
when,
54:15
um,
54:16
after the shooting of Alex Freddy,
54:19
In Minneapolis,
54:21
President Trump went to border czar Tom Homan,
54:23
a guy who has experience in immigration enforcement going back to 1984,
54:29
to actually quarterback that.
54:31
Prior to that,
54:32
Uh,
54:32
Christy Nome,
54:33
uh,
54:33
the then DHS secretary Greg Bovino,
54:36
who was Border Patrol chief from the El Centro,
54:39
uh,
54:39
sector of the Border Patrol,
54:41
were in charge of those operations.
54:43
Homan is a guy who's been doing this for a long time,
54:46
and remember,
54:47
he was a high ranking,
54:48
uh,
54:49
officer
54:50
under the Obama administration.
54:52
He knows how to do this and a and,
54:54
and,
54:55
and sorry,
54:55
all right,
54:56
uh,
54:56
sorry for interrupting.
54:57
I just wanted to point out and was
54:59
awarded,
54:59
commended by the Obama administration.
55:02
Yes,
55:03
when he was the executive associate director of,
55:06
uh,
55:06
ICE in charge of enforcement and removal operations,
55:09
exactly what we're talking about right now,
55:12
he,
55:12
uh,
55:13
left,
55:13
uh,
55:14
that position with a presidential,
55:16
uh,
55:17
meritorious award
55:19
for all of the work that he had done.
55:21
And,
55:21
and,
55:22
you know,
55:23
And I think that that's really the difference.
55:25
The secret sauce right now that we didn't have before is Tom Homan.
55:28
He's a guy who knows the,
55:29
uh,
55:30
job,
55:30
knows how to do it politically,
55:32
uh,
55:32
properly,
55:33
and,
55:34
you know,
55:34
know,
55:34
knows how to get it done without making a big show of it.
55:38
What do you,
55:39
what do you make of,
55:39
what's your assessment of the,
55:42
The databases,
55:43
right?
55:43
Because so much of this depends on the information
55:46
that they have access to,
55:47
right?
55:47
And you pointed it out earlier,
55:49
so the problem with the
55:52
The,
55:52
uh,
55:53
application process
55:54
to come into the country for those who
55:56
had no documentation.
55:58
And,
55:59
you know,
56:00
in all honesty,
56:01
look,
56:01
they were stretched so thin
56:03
that
56:05
the people would just come down to the border,
56:06
they'd give a name,
56:07
you know,
56:07
maybe they get a,
56:08
the,
56:08
uh,
56:09
you know,
56:09
an appointment date down in the future.
56:11
But you didn't really know what the validity or the credibility of the
56:15
information that was being provided by the individual looking to cross the border.
56:19
But,
56:19
so,
56:20
What do you,
56:20
how do you assess
56:22
the quality,
56:23
uh,
56:24
of the
56:26
information that,
56:27
that is
56:28
in the databases that allows them to pursue individuals?
56:33
You know,
56:34
that's an excellent question because we use the word
56:38
garbage in garbage out when we talk about computers,
56:41
but the same thing is true when you talk about vetting and screening.
56:44
A lot of individuals who come to the United States,
56:47
you know,
56:48
uh,
56:48
even with visas,
56:49
there's only so much we can know about those individuals.
56:53
But if they've come into the United States illegally,
56:56
we literally know nothing about those individuals aside from
57:00
any touches we refer to it in the United States with a law enforcement agency
57:05
or what those individuals decide to tell us.
57:08
Fortunately,
57:09
uh,
57:10
the,
57:11
you know,
57:11
ever since September 11th,
57:13
and especially under the Trump administration,
57:15
they've been gathering that evidence from around various government databases.
57:20
You
57:21
yourself have worked
57:23
in the intelligence field,
57:25
and you can remember the old days of stovepiping
57:27
when agencies would gather up their own intelligence,
57:30
hold it close to their heart,
57:32
not share it with anybody else,
57:34
uh,
57:35
and use it to their own ends.
57:37
So they're starting to,
57:38
uh,
57:39
you know,
57:39
grind down
57:41
those walls that existed between the FBI and the CIA and the NSA
57:46
and even within,
57:47
uh,
57:48
departments themselves,
57:49
even within DOJ,
57:51
FBI,
57:52
even within DHS.
57:53
So
57:54
breaking that information down,
57:56
uh,
57:57
we,
57:57
we could talk for two hours about all of the work that they're doing,
58:01
that they're doing to consolidate that information.
58:04
But,
58:04
you know,
58:05
when you're talking about the border,
58:06
you're talking about the tech system,
58:08
the old Treasury enforcement computerized system.
58:11
Uh,
58:11
we have a lot of intelligence databases that flow into that,
58:14
and,
58:15
uh,
58:15
agents and officers have access,
58:18
who have access can get some higher-level information.
58:21
Uh,
58:22
that was definitely a big defect of the,
58:24
uh,
58:24
Biden administration.
58:25
You could probably remember.
58:27
That there were watchlisted aliens who were apprehended at the southwest border.
58:32
We knew they were watchlisted,
58:35
and yet they were released.
58:36
In fact,
58:37
in one high profile situation.
58:40
That person was released and TSA ended up flagging them when they
58:44
attempted to get on a commercial airliner in the United States.
58:47
That's how bad it was.
58:48
The Trump administration isn't playing that game anymore.
58:51
Now,
58:51
again,
58:52
you know,
58:52
bureaucrats are going to bureaucrat and,
58:55
you know,
58:55
uh,
58:56
breaking down those walls is always a challenge.
58:59
But,
58:59
you know,
59:00
the,
59:00
the president does have good people at the
59:02
Office of the Director of National Intelligence.
59:05
At the,
59:06
uh,
59:06
Central Intelligence Agency.
59:08
Mark Wade Mullen,
59:09
for whatever else you think about him,
59:11
uh,
59:11
you know,
59:12
is a pretty
59:13
even-tempered guy who wants to get things done.
59:16
So,
59:17
uh,
59:17
you know,
59:18
you have the right team in place.
59:20
We have the intelligence that we need.
59:22
It really the key part,
59:23
and you could probably speak to this better than I could,
59:26
is getting that intelligence,
59:28
the officer in the field in real-time
59:30
so that they can use it so that it can become what we call actionable.
59:35
Yeah.
59:36
Yeah,
59:36
I would,
59:36
I,
59:37
I think a part of this is also,
59:38
I mean,
59:38
we've seen it over the,
59:40
well,
59:40
it's been increasing over the past,
59:42
you could argue 20 years,
59:43
but
59:43
the importance of
59:45
whatever,
59:45
private,
59:46
public sector
59:47
cooperation
59:48
and coordination,
59:49
because there's,
59:50
there are some,
59:52
Situations,
59:52
I think this would be one of them where
59:55
you could argue the government agencies are just overwhelmed or they're,
59:58
they can't move fast enough,
1:00:00
or
1:00:01
they don't have the ability to,
1:00:04
uh,
1:00:04
to improve or adjust,
1:00:06
uh,
1:00:06
the databases and,
1:00:07
and the,
1:00:08
the flow of information.
1:00:09
So,
1:00:10
you know,
1:00:10
I think that,
1:00:10
that comes into it to some degree.
1:00:12
I,
1:00:12
I would expect
1:00:13
with,
1:00:14
uh,
1:00:14
an operation like this.
1:00:16
But I,
1:00:17
I,
1:00:17
I am concerned only because,
1:00:19
you know,
1:00:20
for years now,
1:00:22
we really haven't known,
1:00:24
you know,
1:00:25
with any specificity who's been coming across the border.
1:00:28
And
1:00:29
from a national security perspective,
1:00:32
yeah,
1:00:32
that's an issue.
1:00:32
And I know some people roll their eyes and they go,
1:00:34
you're just being a spook.
1:00:36
Um,
1:00:37
but if anybody thinks the cartels,
1:00:39
the,
1:00:40
you know,
1:00:41
um,
1:00:41
adversaries that we have overseas,
1:00:44
uh,
1:00:44
terrorist organizations,
1:00:46
um,
1:00:47
China with their espionage concerns,
1:00:49
if anybody thinks that people weren't looking at the border situation and how
1:00:54
open it was and didn't take advantage of it during that period of time,
1:00:58
um,
1:00:59
I,
1:01:00
I don't know how to explain that mindset.
1:01:01
It's either naive or willfully ignorant.
1:01:05
Yeah,
1:01:05
and let me quantify exactly what you're describing.
1:01:09
We know that during the 4 years of the Biden administration,
1:01:12
there were 2 million gotaways.
1:01:14
Now when we talk about the border,
1:01:15
we generally talk about it in terms of apprehension.
1:01:18
Those are the people we caught.
1:01:20
The 2 million gotaways are individuals who we don't know who they are,
1:01:25
but we know how many came over.
1:01:27
We can,
1:01:27
you know,
1:01:28
we have cameras,
1:01:28
we have sensors,
1:01:29
we have aerostats.
1:01:31
We can identify when somebody's entered that we haven't caught.
1:01:35
2 million people came into the United States that way.
1:01:39
And in March 2024,
1:01:40
then Border Patrol,
1:01:42
Biden's Border Patrol Chief Jason Owen said those were
1:01:44
the people that kept them up at night.
1:01:46
What did they have,
1:01:47
uh,
1:01:48
to hide?
1:01:48
You know,
1:01:49
what was their intention in coming to the United States?
1:01:52
Why didn't they let themselves be known?
1:01:54
Because under the Biden administration,
1:01:56
if you got caught,
1:01:56
if you were simply an illegal alien,
1:01:58
the odds are you were going to get released.
1:02:00
These people went to great,
1:02:02
uh,
1:02:03
great,
1:02:03
uh,
1:02:04
trouble and paid a lot of money
1:02:06
to ensure that they could make it into the
1:02:07
interior of the United States without being caught.
1:02:09
Again,
1:02:10
you want to know why there are 11,283,
1:02:13
uh,
1:02:14
You know,
1:02:15
terrorism-related encounters at the Southwest border ports,
1:02:18
look no further.
1:02:20
A lot of those people are people who would have paid a,
1:02:22
uh,
1:02:23
coyote
1:02:24
to bring them in the back door,
1:02:25
bring them all the way up to the 10 or the 20,
1:02:28
so that they could,
1:02:29
you know,
1:02:29
get on a,
1:02:30
uh,
1:02:30
highway and just blend into the United States.
1:02:33
Those days are over,
1:02:34
at least for now.
1:02:36
Last question,
1:02:37
Art,
1:02:37
wanna be mindful of time,
1:02:38
but
1:02:40
set up a scenario.
1:02:41
Midterm elections show up,
1:02:44
um,
1:02:45
let's say that it's a bad day for Republicans.
1:02:48
Well,
1:02:48
I guess in today's world,
1:02:49
it's gotta be like a bad couple of weeks.
1:02:50
It depends on how long it takes to count the votes.
1:02:53
So,
1:02:54
um,
1:02:55
they lose the house,
1:02:56
possibly the Senate.
1:02:58
Now,
1:02:59
we have,
1:02:59
you know,
1:03:00
a year and a half or so of dysfunction in DC,
1:03:03
all sorts of,
1:03:04
of blocks and,
1:03:05
you know,
1:03:05
efforts to,
1:03:06
to go after Trump.
1:03:08
Um,
1:03:10
And I guess looking towards the presidential election.
1:03:13
I guess where I'm going with this question is,
1:03:16
do you think
1:03:17
that,
1:03:18
you know,
1:03:18
if the election
1:03:20
goes south for the Republicans,
1:03:22
and then they lose the White House
1:03:24
in 28,
1:03:25
that we'll see a change in,
1:03:27
in the border again?
1:03:30
Without a doubt.
1:03:32
Uh,
1:03:32
I,
1:03:33
you know,
1:03:34
this border
1:03:35
is the way that it is because of Donald Trump's will.
1:03:39
If a president,
1:03:40
uh,
1:03:41
you know,
1:03:41
AOC,
1:03:42
a President Newsome,
1:03:44
you know,
1:03:44
takes office.
1:03:46
Kamala Harris takes office,
1:03:48
what we're going to see is a return to the policies that we've had in the past.
1:03:52
We're gonna see,
1:03:53
you know,
1:03:53
all these poor people,
1:03:55
they're just coming to the United States for a better life.
1:03:57
They're all asylum seekers.
1:03:59
We need to release them into the United States,
1:04:01
and you're going to see a mad rush on the border.
1:04:03
We're going to be back to,
1:04:05
keep in mind,
1:04:05
Mike,
1:04:06
those Biden border numbers
1:04:08
were double,
1:04:09
triple whatever we'd seen in any four-year period in the past.
1:04:14
So if you could imagine Biden,
1:04:16
and then you turbocharge it
1:04:18
because there's a lot of pent up demand,
1:04:20
you know,
1:04:20
throughout the Americas,
1:04:22
and,
1:04:22
you know,
1:04:22
in Africa,
1:04:23
Asia,
1:04:24
even further abroad,
1:04:25
there are a lot of people who want to come to the United States.
1:04:28
They just can't come now.
1:04:30
If you take off all of the governors that you have on the system,
1:04:34
leave that border wide open,
1:04:36
vilify border patrol agents,
1:04:38
disband ICE,
1:04:40
there's not going to be any enforcement.
1:04:42
And you're probably going to see 20 to 30 million
1:04:45
people enter the United States in a 4-year period.
1:04:49
Have there been any credible numbers?
1:04:50
I,
1:04:50
you know,
1:04:50
I lied.
1:04:51
I said that was the last question,
1:04:52
but now I just
1:04:54
thought,
1:04:54
let me throw this one at you.
1:04:56
And you may not have the answer,
1:04:57
but that means you have to come back with the answer.
1:04:59
Uh,
1:05:00
have you seen a credible number,
1:05:02
uh,
1:05:03
in terms of the cost
1:05:05
to
1:05:06
US taxpayers,
1:05:07
to,
1:05:07
to the federal government,
1:05:08
to state governments
1:05:10
for
1:05:11
The immigration policies of the Biden administration,
1:05:14
right?
1:05:15
Not that,
1:05:15
not,
1:05:15
I mean,
1:05:15
you know,
1:05:16
I'm not,
1:05:16
I'm not
1:05:17
like
1:05:18
taking a hard political position.
1:05:19
I'm just saying,
1:05:20
what was the cost
1:05:22
to having an open border
1:05:24
for that period of time?
1:05:27
Here comes the sad part,
1:05:29
Mike.
1:05:30
The meter is still running on that cost.
1:05:33
Reuters reported in
1:05:35
middle of 2024
1:05:38
that more than 500,000 migrant children had entered the United States.
1:05:42
This is just one data point I could give you a lot more.
1:05:45
500,000 school-age migrant children entering the
1:05:48
United States and attending US schools
1:05:51
times $20,000 per pupil per year is $10 billion per year.
1:05:56
And that's not money that the federal government's paying by and large,
1:05:59
they do help subsidize the local schools,
1:06:01
but not much.
1:06:02
Most of that money comes out of property taxes and the local sales taxes.
1:06:07
Anybody who pays a property tax bill is really paying to fund their local school.
1:06:12
So,
1:06:12
you know,
1:06:13
in Iowa,
1:06:14
in Michigan,
1:06:15
in,
1:06:16
uh,
1:06:17
you know,
1:06:17
Washington state,
1:06:19
People are paying hundreds of dollars extra to educate just those children.
1:06:24
Then you talk about the Medicaid costs.
1:06:26
Now,
1:06:27
remember,
1:06:28
most people who are here illegally,
1:06:30
Cubans and Haitians excepted for reasons that I can't quite understand,
1:06:33
are not immediately eligible for Medicaid.
1:06:36
But what they are eligible for is emergency medical,
1:06:39
uh,
1:06:40
treatment and Active Labor Act and PALA treatment,
1:06:43
what we call emergency Medicaid.
1:06:45
That runs into the tens of billions of
1:06:47
dollars because most of those migrants use that
1:06:50
as their primary care physician.
1:06:52
My kid's got an earache,
1:06:53
he's going to the emergency room.
1:06:55
The toilets got to cover that.
1:06:57
I said,
1:06:58
uh,
1:06:58
about 3 years ago,
1:07:00
toward the end of Biden,
1:07:01
that it would take $1 trillion in a decade before the United
1:07:05
States was able to undo all of the damage that the,
1:07:08
uh,
1:07:08
that the Biden border did.
1:07:10
And I stand by that figure.
1:07:12
$1 trillion
1:07:15
All right.
1:07:16
Well,
1:07:16
I'm not good at math,
1:07:17
but that's,
1:07:17
that's a whole lot of fat stacks.
1:07:19
Um,
1:07:20
Art,
1:07:20
listen,
1:07:21
as always,
1:07:21
if anybody can make a discussion about
1:07:23
immigration,
1:07:24
delightful,
1:07:25
well,
1:07:25
it's you.
1:07:26
So,
1:07:27
I wanna thank you for coming back on the Situation Report,
1:07:29
Matt.
1:07:29
And I hope that when we call again,
1:07:31
you'll,
1:07:32
you'll pick up the phone and say yes,
1:07:33
cause we'd love to have you back on.
1:07:36
I always love being here,
1:07:37
Mike,
1:07:37
and I like the extended format.
1:07:38
It gives us more time to really get into the numbers
1:07:41
and,
1:07:41
you know,
1:07:42
not to,
1:07:43
not to,
1:07:43
uh,
1:07:44
preach or,
1:07:45
you know,
1:07:45
to sing to the choir,
1:07:46
but,
1:07:47
you know,
1:07:47
you're a great host
1:07:48
and now you really do present this in a good
1:07:50
way to help the American people understand what's going on.
1:07:54
It's true.
1:07:56
Oh,
1:07:56
well,
1:07:57
thank you.
1:07:57
I,
1:07:57
I,
1:07:58
I am nothing if not underdressed today.
1:08:00
Let's,
1:08:00
let's put it that way.
1:08:01
Well,
1:08:02
thank you very much.
1:08:03
All right,
1:08:03
I'll,
1:08:03
I'll hopefully see you soon.
1:08:06
Thanks again,
1:08:06
Mike.
1:08:06
All right,
1:08:07
well,
1:08:08
there you go.
1:08:08
Art Arthur of the Center for Immigration Studies.
1:08:12
That's all the time we have for this week's PDB situation report.
1:08:15
I know,
1:08:15
don't be sad,
1:08:16
we will be back
1:08:17
next week.
1:08:18
That's very exciting.
1:08:19
I know you're thinking,
1:08:20
oh good,
1:08:20
my week is saved.
1:08:21
If you have any questions or comments,
1:08:23
maybe you got a humorous anecdote,
1:08:24
well,
1:08:25
just send them on
1:08:26
at PDB at the first.
1:08:27
B
1:08:28
com
1:08:29
Highlight of every week,
1:08:30
of course,
1:08:31
at the PDB headquarters,
1:08:32
Secret compound
1:08:34
is when Carl the mailman
1:08:36
somehow finds our secret compound and
1:08:38
drops off another sack filled to the brim with your postcards and emails and faxes.
1:08:43
And every course,
1:08:44
every month,
1:08:44
our amazing team,
1:08:46
including
1:08:46
our well above average intern team,
1:08:48
uh,
1:08:49
they all gather around our big conference table
1:08:52
and,
1:08:52
uh,
1:08:53
they choose the best ones or just the most interesting ones.
1:08:56
And we put them into an episode that we call Ask Me Anything.
1:09:00
Finally,
1:09:00
to listen to the podcast and the show ad for-free,
1:09:02
you can do that.
1:09:02
It is very simple.
1:09:03
Just become a premium member of the President's Daily Brief
1:09:07
by visiting PDBpremium.com.
1:09:10
I'm Mike Baker,
1:09:10
and until next time,
1:09:12
well,
1:09:12
stay informed,
1:09:13
stay safe.
1:09:14
Stay cool.