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Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has refused to rule out the possibility of military action against Mexican drug cartels. In an interview with Fox News Channel’s Fox & Friends on Friday morning, Hegseth said that “all options are on the table” when it comes to dealing with foreign terrorist organizations.
Here is a transcript of the exchange:
KILMEADE: “If we find that they continue to fire at Border Control and they continue to put fentanyl into our country, as a secretary of defense, are you permitted now to go after them in Mexico or where they are?”
HEGSETH: “Brian, I don’t want to get ahead of the president and I won’t. That’s ultimately going to be his decision. But let me be clear. All options will be on the table if we’re dealing with what are designated to be foreign terrorist organizations who are specifically targeting Americans on our border. We’re finally securing our border. We’ve been securing other people’s borders for a very long time. The military is orienting, shifting toward an understanding of homeland defense on our sovereign territorial border. That is something we will do and do robustly. So we’re already doing it. Should there be other options necessary to prevent the cartels from continuing to pour people, gangs, drugs, and violence into our country — we will take that on. So the president will make that call. I’ll work with him in that decision-making process. Ultimately, we will hold nothing back to secure the American people.”
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On his first day in office, President Donald Trump signed an Executive Order designating cartels and other organizations as “Foreign Terrorist Organizations and specially designated global terrorists.” This order has led to fundamental changes in how law enforcement is allowed to handle counter-narcotics investigations because authorities are granted additional powers when dealing with terrorists or those deemed a threat to national security.
The order stated:
“The Cartels have engaged in a campaign of violence and terror throughout the Western Hemisphere that has not only destabilized countries with significant importance for our national interests but also flooded the United States with deadly drugs, violent criminals, and vicious gangs. The Cartels functionally control, through a campaign of assassination, terror, rape, and brute force, nearly all illegal traffic across the southern border of the United States. In certain portions of Mexico, they function as quasi-governmental entities, controlling nearly all aspects of society. The Cartels’ activities threaten the safety of the American people, the security of the United States, and the stability of the international order in the Western Hemisphere. Their activities, proximity to, and incursions into the physical territory of the United States pose an unacceptable national security risk to the United States.”
Hegseth, meanwhile, is still adjusting to being in charge of the Pentagon after he was confirmed to the role by a 51-50 vote in the Senate, in which Vice President J.D. Vance acted as a tiebreaker. All Democrats voted against Hegseth’s nomination, while RINOs Mitch McConnell, Susan Collins, and Lisa Murkowski also refused to support him.
