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Trump referred to the New Zealand attack as "monstrous" and "terror," specifying that it happened at mosques but not mentioning the Muslim community explicitly. "What they're going through is absolutely terrible," he said of New Zealand.
Trump conceded that crime comes from places other than the southern border, then said, with no elaboration or evidence, "But this is the place. This is the place we have the biggest problem by far."
Trump said the vote to terminate the national emergency was a vote "against reality." "Against reality," he repeated. "It is a tremendous national emergency. It is a tremendous crisis."
"People hate the word invasion, but that's what it is," Trump said. He said it's an invasion of drugs and people.
Trump recited the CDC's conclusion that about 70,000 Americans were killed by drug overdoses in 2017, then ad-libbed, "The '70,000 people' is a number that's so low that it probably shouldn't even be used anymore." (He keeps falsely saying it's 80,000 from fentanyl alone.)
"America first," Trump said. "If that's okay. America first."
Pence said he doesn't know if he's ever been more proud to be standing beside Trump than he is today.
Trump went around the room asking people (Nielsen, border-state law enforcement officials, Pence, a mother whose child was killed by an unauthorized immigrant) for their comments; they praised Trump and the national emergency.
Before signing the veto, Trump told the mothers of people killed by unauthorized immigrants that they didn't die in vain, because of what he's doing. Applause.
Trump falsely claims "we're building a lot of wall right now," then acknowledges that people say he's merely building replacement fencing. He says that the old fences were so bad, "it was like paper."
Trump slammed Beto O'Rourke for saying he wanted to take down the existing fencing in El Paso. (When asked today, O'Rourke declined to explicitly say whether or not he stands by that comment.)
Trump boasted that the government is getting better tech for detecting drugs at the border, and also, "We're getting dogs, more dogs...nothing replaces a good dog, is that right?...We haven't been able to match the dogs...certain types of German shepherds."
Asked if he thinks white nationalism is a rising threat around the world, Trump said, "I don't really. I think it's a small group of people that have very, very serious problems."
Asked if he saw the terrorist's manifesto, Trump said no, but "it's a horrible event" and "disgraceful." The end.
A law enforcement official told Trump about his son ,who died from an overdose of heroin laced with fentanyl, Trump said, "It's coming through the southern border, folks. All through the southern border." Last week he claimed 100% of fentanyl comes from China. (Both are wrong.)
