Donald Trump Name-Checks Colorado on Meet the Press

When Donald Trump came to Aurora in October for his first appearance in Colorado in years (outside of a private Aspen fundraiser), he announced that he'd be launching Operation Aurora his first day back in office.

Although the word "Aurora" was not mentioned when once-and-future-President Trump sat down with Meet the Press's Kristen Welker yesterday, that major interview devoted considerable time to immigration...and Colorado definitely came up.

Here's that segment:

Kristen Welker: But is it your plan to deport everyone who is here illegally over the next four years?

President-Election Donald Trump: Well, I think you have to do it, and it’s a hard — it’s a very tough thing to do. It’s — but you have to have, you know, you have rules, regulations, laws. They came in illegally. You know the people that have been treated very unfairly are the people that have been on line for ten years to come into the country. And we’re going to make it very easy for people to come in in terms of they have to pass the test. They have to be able to tell you what the Statue of Liberty is. They have to tell you a little bit about our country. They have to love our country. They can’t come out of prisons. We don’t want people that are in for murder. So we had 11,000 and 13,000, different estimates. 13,099 murderers released into our country over the last three years. They’re walking down the streets. They’re walking next to you and your family. And they’re very dangerous people —

The 13,000 figure I think goes back about forty years.

It goes — nope. No, it doesn’t.

That 13,000 figure.

It’s within the three-year period. It’s during the Biden term. No, that was a fiction that they put that out. This was done by the border patrol. It’s 13,099 and it’s during the Biden period of time. And these are murderers, many of whom murdered more than one person. You don’t want those people in this country.

But you’re saying something, sir, that’s significant. So...I just want to make sure I’m clear, which is that you’re saying, yes, you’re going to focus on the people with criminal histories, but everyone who’s here illegally has to go, is what you’re saying.

I’m saying this. We have to get the criminals out of our country. We have to get people that were taken out of mental institutions and put them back into their mental institution no matter what country it is. Do you know that in Venezuela their prisons are, are at the lowest point in terms of emptiness that they’ve ever been? They’re taking their people out of those prisons by the thousands and they’re drop — and just to get back, because I know exactly what you’re getting at. Number one, we’re doing criminals and we’re going to do them really rapidly. We’re getting the worst gang probably with MS-13 and the Venezuelan gangs are the worst in the world. They’re vicious, violent people. And you’ve seen what they’ve done in Colorado and other places. They’re taking over, they’re literally taking over apartment complexes and doing it with impunity. They don’t care. They couldn’t — they just are — they’re in the real estate business, okay?

You know that local police say that is not the case in Colorado.

Oh, it’s totally the case. I mean, they have it on tape.

You don’t believe the local police?

I play it, I used to play it at my rallies every single night. No, it was breaking into doors. They’re taking over the building.

But sir, you raised the point —

And by the way, the police, the police...are afraid to do anything.

You raised the point that the logistics are complicated. You said it yourself —

Sure, they are. But everything’s complicated.

— yeah, you need 24 times more ICE detention capacity just to deport 1 million people per year, not to mention more agents, more judges, more planes. Is it realistic to deport everyone who’s here illegally?

You have no choice. First of all, they’re costing us a fortune. But we’re starting with the criminals and we’ve got to do it. And then we’re starting with others and we’re going to see how it goes.

Who are the others?

Others are other people outside of criminals. We have convicted murderers. And we don’t mean people that are even on trial. We have people that have murdered numerous people are on our streets and in our farms and we have to get them out of our country....

We need deterrence. Look, ready? When somebody comes here illegally, they’re going out. It’s very simple. When they come here illegally, they’re going out. Now if they come here illegally but their family is here legally, then the family has a choice. The person that came in illegally can go out, or they can all go out together....

There's more, lots more, which you can read on this NBC transcript.