MSNBC "Tucker"- Transcript

Interview

MSNBC "Tucker"- Transcript

(Begin videotaped segment.)

REP. TANCREDO: Hi, I'm Tom Tancredo, and I approved this message because someone needs to say it.

ANNOUNCER: There are consequences to open borders beyond the 20 million aliens who've come to take our jobs. Islamic terrorists now freely roam U.S. soil, jihadists who froth with hate, here to do as they have in London, Spain, Russia -- the price we pay for spineless politicians who refuse to defend our borders against those who come to kill.

(End videotaped segment.)

MR. CARLSON: Tom Tancredo is running for president. He's running for the Republican nomination. The campaign ad you just saw has gotten a lot of attention. Some claim it's fear-mongering. What does he say? Well, wait no longer, because the man himself is at the set. Joining us now, Republican Congressman from Colorado Tom Tancredo.

Congressman, thanks for coming on.

REP. TANCREDO: It's a pleasure, as always.

MR. CARLSON: (Laughs.) So, I mean, I'm an admirer of your work. I'm an admirer of the ad. A little over the top?

REP. TANCREDO: Well, it certainly pushes the envelope a little bit. I will agree to that. But, in fact, Tucker, if you think about it, and if you cut it up into its segments and look at it, I mean, what am I saying that is not true, certainly number one, and what am I saying that has not been said by other entities like the FBI?

Four days -- five days ago now, I think it was, I read an ABC report where FBI had come out with an alert to the local law enforcement agencies that said they believed -- they had credible evidence that al Qaeda was going to attack malls in the United States, Chicago and Los Angeles. Now, this was an FBI alert, okay? It's not the first of that kind. Of course, there have been others. We all know that these people are here.

If you read what I read in what's called the National Intelligence Estimate, which is a compilation of intelligence- gathering activities, the stuff that's declassified tells you they are here. They are planning. They are planning something catastrophic.

Now, the question is, how'd they get here? Who are these people? Did they come across our southern border? Did they come in with visas and just overstay them? They are certainly violating them if they are planning to do something like this.

MR. CARLSON: But see, I watched that ad and I think, "Well, gee." I mean, I agree with you; I think the ad is defensible point by point. There's nothing in there that is, as far as I can tell, untrue. But I watched that ad and my first thought is, "Well, holy smokes, what about the northern border?" Canada has had all these asylum policies over the years that have, in effect, let all these crazies into Canada, and it's pretty easy to come down from the north.

REP. TANCREDO: You bet. Borders are really the important thing to think about, northern and southern.

REP. TANCREDO: But all the emphasis is on the southern border.

REP. TANCREDO: Well, it's because that's where, of course, we've gotten recently a great many people coming across who are coming from countries of interest. We nabbed somebody not too long ago, it's my understanding, across that southern border that had -- and the reason why, Tucker, is because there is a huge, huge benefit, economic benefit, to people being brought across.

The coyotes can charge 1,500 bucks for a Mexican national. They charge $25,000 to $50,000 for someone from the Middle East. We got somebody -- I started to say, we got somebody down there the other day they turned over to the FBI almost immediately. That guy is now in Gitmo, because, of course, he is, in fact, connected with a terrorist group.

So it's not that we should be just concerned about the southern border. It's just that the huge numbers --

MR. CARLSON: Right. That's where the volume is.

REP. TANCREDO: Yeah.

MR. CARLSON: Give me your quick rebuttal to the point that Hillary Clinton has made, Eliot Spitzer has made, other people have advocated from time to time, giving IDs, driver's licenses, to illegal aliens. They make the point that, look, that's an imperfect solution, but we need to know who is in the country, and this is a way to do it. What's your response?

REP. TANCREDO: Here's a way to know. You stop, first of all, giving people jobs who are not in this country. It's illegal to do that, right? So if you actually enforce that, if you truly mean what you say about caring about open borders and illegal immigration, enforce the hiring laws. That, in and of itself, begins -- you will begin a process of self-deportation. Millions of people will leave, because the thing for which they came, the job, is no longer there.

In Oklahoma they have passed state legislation that has done essentially that, and they have seen already an exodus, some say as high as 20 percent of the Hispanic population gone because they no longer have a job. Now, they may have gone to Arkansas or Kansas, or they may have gone home.

The fact is that we can do this. We can do it without, quote, "rounding people up." And then you begin to identify them throughout the system, because local law enforcement come in contact with these people all the time. It's the guy with the light that's out and they pull him over and he has no driver's license, no insurance, and he can't speak English.

You start the process, as I say, with the employers. It goes down from there. And you can concentrate -- you've got to begin to drain the swamp so that you can concentrate on the people who really are very dangerous here. And it's not just people who are coming across the border for the job that no American would want.

MR. CARLSON: Congressman Tom Tancredo of Colorado, running for president on the Republican side, thanks for joining us. I appreciate it.

REP. TANCREDO: Tucker, it's a pleasure to join you.

MR. CARLSON: I'll defend your ad, even if no one else will.

REP. TANCREDO: (Laughs.) You're about the only one on the --

MR. CARLSON: I am the only one.

REP. TANCREDO: That's okay. I'll take it.

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