Transcript - Remarks: Donald Trump at Border Wall Prototype Review in San Diego Part 1 - March 13, 2018 | Factba.se

Donald Trump

00:00:00 - 00:00:11 (12 sec)

So we're looking at the wall and the wall systems, and we have a lot of them, and this gentleman who is a real expert you've been doing this how long?

Unidentified

00:00:11 - 00:00:12 (1 sec)

Donald Trump

00:00:12 - 00:00:14 (2 sec)

And you were here before they had a wall?

Unidentified

00:00:14 - 00:00:17 (2 sec)

Correct. I started here in 1992.

Donald Trump

00:00:17 - 00:00:27 (11 sec)

What was it like until you built the wall? And the wall by the way is that wall up there, which is just sheet metal. But still at least it works a little bit. How was it before you built the wall?

Unidentified

00:00:27 - 00:00:37 (10 sec)

So there was effectively no border in San Diego. It's a chaotic situation. The fence behind me was made of scrap metal. The military wasn't using it we set in place to really just delineate the border.

Donald Trump

00:00:37 - 00:00:39 (1 sec)

You needed something.

Unidentified

00:00:39 - 00:00:48 (9 sec)

And itself and it change our environment. We went from... We decreasing the cross-border traffic by 95 percent with that fence and the roads and the lights and the technology.

Donald Trump

00:00:48 - 00:01:07 (19 sec)

So that's 95 percent with a scrap metal wall that they just put together with excess material and it worked 95 percent and that wall they could get over very easily. These walls they can't. For the people who say no wall if you didn't have walls over here you wouldn't even have a country. You wouldn't even have a country.

Donald Trump

00:01:07 - 00:01:28 (21 sec)

And by the way the state of California is begging us to build walls in certain areas. They don't tell you that. We said, no, we won't do it until we build the whole wall. But there are certain areas as you know where they are really wanting us to build a wall. Because the people are complaining. People are pouring in, so they don't talk about that.

Unidentified

00:01:28 - 00:01:29 (1 sec)

Do you have a preference?

Donald Trump

00:01:29 - 00:01:52 (22 sec)

Well, I do have a preference, the problem is you have to have see through. You have to know what's on the other side of the wall. A preference is something like that the problem is you don't know what's on the other side of the wall. You could be two feet way from a criminal cartel and you don't even know they're there. Now we have equipment to take care of that, x-ray equipment, et cetera.

Donald Trump

00:01:52 - 00:02:01 (9 sec)

But if you are on that side of the wall, that is the hardest wall to scale, it's got a lot of assets, but the problem is tell them, what do you think of the importance of see-through?

Unidentified

00:02:01 - 00:02:13 (12 sec)

When I have a see-through wall, sir, I know what's approaching the border before it approaches. We have great partners in Mexico with law enforcement on that side. I can call them for assistance. I don't get the opportunity to get ahead of a threat if I can't see the approach.

Donald Trump

00:02:13 - 00:02:16 (3 sec)

And what's the danger of not having the see through.

Unidentified

00:02:16 - 00:02:34 (18 sec)

The steel metal fence behind us, we learn from that, in fact in the 90s we went in and actually cut in ports where we could see on the south side. We found smugglers were using the fence to hide behind, and they were either rocking our agents or they would acquire large groups of people and narcotics and they would just rush across the border quickly.

Donald Trump

00:02:34 - 00:02:42 (8 sec)

Now, if you just have a pure fence. Now that's a fence, a very sturdy fence. But coming up I noticed the first thing I noticed, look how many holes are in that fence.

Donald Trump

00:02:42 - 00:03:03 (21 sec)

Now they fix the holes. But it doesn't look very good. They just patch it with more fence. If you take a look at the fence, and it's a very powerful fence. Not doing the trick. Because they cut holes in it and then they're patching holes all the time. I'm just looking. You have hundreds of holes cut in and patched. So, the fence is not strong enough. It's not the right idea.

Donald Trump

00:03:03 - 00:03:27 (23 sec)

But for those people if you don't have a wall system we're not going to have a country. There is a lot of problems in Mexico. They have a lot of problems over there. They have the cartels, and the cartels we're fighting the cartels. And we are fighting them hard. Nobody ever fought them like we fought them. We fight them hard. But the fact is if you don't have a wall system, it would be bedlam I imagine.

Unidentified

00:03:27 - 00:03:30 (4 sec)

It's very hard to control with just personnel, sir. It's a combination of all of the above.

Donald Trump

00:03:30 - 00:03:40 (9 sec)

So, we're looking at the walls where you have some -- really some see-through capability. If you don't have some see through it's a problem. So, we will take a look up here.