about public safety, not just in michigan, and tell us also about what it really means to have support for police officers and when that support is not here, how it demoralizes the police force. >> thank you, congressman. pleasure to be with you, sir. we have been endorsing you every single time and we will continue to and will never be out of your corner. we represent about 13,000 police in michigan, about three quarters of the group. i don't know anybody here that would want to live or invest or work in a town where they are not safe. no matter what you do money-wise, no matter what you do with everything else in your life, if you don't feel safe, you are not going to want to go to the restaurants. you are not going to want to pump gas in your own car. our job -- the open borders has been an issue with us and we talked about this a little before. what has happened is the honor and luster that came with the badge, the people that wore the

badge -- go back to the old west, the badge meant something. it did even when i was on the job still pushing a cart around, and that luster has tarnished. to get the shine back is a lot harder than it is to lose it. in michigan, we have 700 fewer police officers than we had in 2020. that's a significant number when you look at it. means everybody is working more hours, mandated over time and such. the worst part is our academy's not once had a waiting list for now empty or half full at best. our best recruits -- i was with some high school students the other day. the best recruits we have for police -- it's a different kind of a job. it's a culture, i call it. it's not for everyone. everyone here should not want to be a police officer. we don't want you all to be police officers, but the truth is, when we go to high schools, just like the military, the kids we need are not 28 years old.

they are 16, 17 years old, and our best recruiters over the years were their senior officers, that her dad, uncle, grandpa, who are not telling them, don't do it. we have no retirement health care. if they retire at 55, they are on their own until 65 when medicare kicks in. i have pensions anymore. they get a 401(k), but i don't know how long you are going to live. that's not a really good way to retire at 55. it's not wages that's killing our recruiting. it's the pensions, the health care, but it's that desire to become one, the desire to become a police officer. the open border, what it really did was take the old stock police thing that we use to get away with and vaporized it. what has occurred -- this year,

in 90 days, we had three police officers shot to death on the job separate incidents. not one of them had their gun out of their holster. it was not a bank robbery. these were ambushes. that was michigan, three in 90 days. they never got off a shot. we look the enemy, they have us surrounded. that's how i feel right now. when we see you at a funeral. when we see you writing letters, hugging babies of fallen officers, i want you to know that we feel like our arms are around those people, and i cannot begin to tell you how much that means to us. the things that you do, we've got right now 16 officers and i felonies in michigan that i think if given enough money and time, you will find they are all

innocent -- or most of them. we are human beings. when you see that happen and the bad guys just ignore you -- and anthony will explain more how it affects people, but we cannot hire anybody and it's not about money. people want to give money. you understand that you argue with these people, they say there's no money and it's stupid, but we cannot get the right candidates because we are not convincing them at a younger age that this is an honorable job. the honor is gone. i believe in it. i think people here believe in it. we need good people. the things you do, the things you talk about, qualified immunity -- i think most people don't know what it means. we understand it. i know you do. they think qualified immunity means we can go rob a bank and not get in trouble. nobody understands that that is not the case. the things you do for us, the things you say, the times that you and i have met before -- you

spoke at our convention. the things you do really matter and they do help us, and we are all behind you 100%. [cheers and applause] mr. trump: one thing we are going to be doing, we are going to be doing it strongly, and i have wanted to do it and looked at it for a long time, but we have to do it -- immunity for some of these folks. you said you have 14 people, and you don't believe just maybe one or 2 -- maybe some are guilty of something, but i would bet you a lot of them or not, and they are going through hell and their pension is going to be gone. frankly, their family is going to end up being gone, that her car, their house, everything. we want to do immunity. we also want to go for the death penalty for anyone convicted of killing a police officer. [cheers and applause]

we will be present -- and thank you for your support. >> we got an attorney general that's after us right now. [indiscernible] mr. trump: that's right. i have no money left. that's right. byron: and if you don't mind -- mr. trump: police officers are doing their job. they do their job, and they make a mistake. that can happen. you were telling me, others were telling me, they have, like, a quarter of a second to make a decision. you would have a hard time with that. literally a quarter of a second to make the decision, and it was the wrong decision, their life is over. we have to help people out now. we are going to do the immunity thing and we are going to fight alongside of them. we have to. we have to stop the politically correct. you are always going to have some bad apples, but they are very few. how many of the 14 would you say

would be innocent? >> innocent-innocent? probably about 10 of them. maybe the others are overcharged . mr. trump: pretty tough stuff. it's happening all over. >> it's hard to defend yourself. mr. trump: they want to do their job, but they are afraid to do it. thank you. mr. trump: thank you for your support. byron: we have with us the president of the ligonier police officers association. 20 years on the job, 10 years on swat in western wayne county. you have seen a lot. talk to us about the morale for officers since kamala harris and joe biden came into office. >> i've been on the job 20 years now and i have seven years left for i can retire. since the new administration has taken over, we went from the middle of covid where people work sharing as we were driving

by their house during the lockdown, we would turn on our lights and sirens, to literally overnight having slurs or flipped off driving down the road doing the same job. i think one of the biggest things is over scrutiny of our job and our profession as a whole after the george floyd incident happened. it made being a police officer difficult. when something like that happens, you expect the pendulum to swing, right, and after ferguson, the pendulum swang, and then it returned to neutral. after george floyd, even now, the pendulum has not come back to neutral, and i attribute that to the current administration's opinion with all law enforcement . they lack support for everyone, and when i say over scrutiny, i'm not saying not holding us

accountable. we should all be held accountable, but now everybody is a self-proclaimed expert in our field, right? there's a big push to have civilian oversight committees, civilians that come in on a day-to-day basis to tell us what we have done right and what we are doing wrong. i have a lot of colleagues that have quit their jobs since george floyd, just left the job entirely, colleagues that i have known personally. i know that is a big thing. another thing, too, now we have less people doing the job that we have been doing all along. now we just have fewer officers. another thing throwing a wrench into it is the bond reform that the current administration has changed because now we arrest somebody, and the personal, the criminal we have arrested has made it home before the officers done with their shift.

but hopefully in november, we can change that. [cheers and applause] byron: mr. president, we also have a friend of ours, former member of congress, mike rogers, running for the united states senate. you heard from law enforcement in the state of michigan. what are your thoughts about the support for law enforcement in the state of michigan, and, frankly, you are going to be a united states senator pretty soon. that's what people tell me. thoughts about the country as well. >> as my mom would say, from your lips to god's ears. people, lighten up, you are here with the next president of the united states. [applause] not only do we have 700 fewer officers, we are 5000 officers short across the state of michigan.

the president talked about qualified immunity for police officers that the democrats have been chipping away and chipping away. that does not mean you don't get charged if you commit a crime. it means if you are doing your job, they cannot take your house. people are making the decision every day in this state about not going into the business or getting out of the business because they are chipping away at their ability to protect their families as well as protect our community. i was an fbi guy working street crime. i will tell you that the search of illegal immigrants and the crime rate of illegal immigrants happening in our state -- sexual assault of young girls, right -- a rape of a young girl in oakland county. an illegal immigrant exposed himself to a young girl. as we know as a former law-enforcement guy, they are on the path to do something really bad. all this is happening here in the state of michigan because of a wide open border that we could

close today, and it will happen when we elect donald j. trump. [applause] representative donalds: we have with us a small business owner. the name of her business is pretty hunter. i'm going to let her talk about what a pretty hunter is. i'm going to let her talk about that. she is also a mother of three and a candidate for the school board here in the state of michigan. [cheers and applause] first of all, explain to us what pretty hunter is, but tell us what is on your mind about what the left is doing in our schools. >> thank you for having me here this evening, congressman donald. it is such a pleasure to be in your presence, president trump. pretty hunter comes from my quest to enjoy the outdoors. we live in a great state of

michigan. we designed jewelry made out of once-fired bullets because last i checked, bullets don't decompose. i like to think our company is saving the earth one bullet at a time. [laughter] yes, it is hunting season in michigan and beautiful as it is, we are in archery. soon, firearms season, but right now, i'm hunting votes in the school district. [cheers and applause] the question of what the left is doing wrong in the school system -- i will try to keep this short and sweet. i can constantly tell you our schools have lost their way. the left has and is inundating your schools with dei and ideological rhetoric while frivolous spending on shiny new buildings with a fireplace and waste buckets shipped to

michigan from california -- i did not know michigan did not have any five-gallon buckets available for our schools. other something about that when i got on the board. meanwhile, our children are not greed -- not reading at grade level. they are unlearning how to critically think for themselves. this is unacceptable. across our nation, our children are not thriving. as i see it, they are simply surviving. we are seeing influence as early as preschool that introduces hate, fear into these young minds. our children are being taught that they have privilege or lack thereof. some are even taught that they are less than because of the color of their skin or because of where or how they were born. president trump, with you that in that oval office, i am

confident that we can make our children's future bright again. [cheers and applause] and one last part -- because schools are focusing on these ideologies instead of focusing on academic foundations, and hunting what is good in the world, we are ruining an entire generation of children. we are at a turning point in history right now. in my opinion, we simply need to get back to basics. literacy, arithmetic -- i don't know, maybe even writing. [laughter] furthermore, we simply need to put edu before dei. thank you. [cheers and applause] mr. trump: thank you. you are right. congressman donald: last but not

least, we have with us tim gregory, a uaw worker for 46 years with gm. 46 years. mr. trump: looks good. looks good. >> he does look good. >> looks young. congressman donald scott: i know for you, god comes first, then your family and in this country. tell us how you truly believe that donald trump is the answer, not just for michigan, but for uaw workers to not only keep their jobs here in michigan but also to keep the auto industry alive and well in the united states. >> thanks a lot for the introduction. thank you for being here. first of all, i would like to thank you, president trump, for being so tenacious and not giving up when others would have . [applause]

and also because of the years i have working for the uaw and general motors, i think that your record shows that because you have a background of being in business, i think that you see the changes and where we need to go in order to grow the business and grow the jobs. i also see that your policies in the past and the policies you say you will enact with the border, with china, with our energy resources, the direction you want to do take from a long time ago back when you work president before -- that's why i think you are best for this country, best for the uaw, and best for the workers. [cheers and applause]

also, i would like to take this opportunity -- i don't have my notes, but i just want to say that i always saw you as the most genuine candidate. a regular joe, as they introduced me as in the bio. i appreciate that. i think you are for the people and for america. that's why i think you are the best. mr. trump: thank you. i want to start by saying you look a lot younger than you must be because you have worked for the company 46 years -- that's a long time. you look like you are 35 years old. what's that all about? what are you doing? when you believe in god. >> i hear that as well. mr. trump: you are doing well.

thank you very much. i want to -- it sort of pertains to what you are saying. i would just make this statement. a big thing happen over the last couple of days for michigan and detroit and the country. howard knows all about this, but some of the biggest auto jobs -- auto plants in the world were planned for mexico. i have been talking about the whole concept for 10 years, 15 years. even as a private person, i cannot believe how companies and countries were coming and stealing our jobs, stealing our plants. everyone is unemployed. then they sell cars back in. all you do is you get fired, and they make the car and they sell it into our country. they make a lot of money. we make nothing. i have watched it for so long, and it's disgraceful. i have good news for you. i have been talking about in particular one giant plant bigger than anything you have ever seen. you know the story where a

person i know, he builds plants. that's what he does. i said i want to see a plant, a big one, about a year ago, year and a half ago, and he said, ok, when do you want to go to mexico ? i set i want to see it here. he said we don't build them here big. we build them but they are little by comparison. china is building one of the biggest ones in mexico. i said, that's not good. i don't like that. he said, that's the way it is. i said, i'm not going to mexico. i want to see them here. anyway, time went by. i've been thinking about it. it is just an automatic instinct to me. i started saying, well, if they are building a plant, they are going to wipe out here, that means they are building a plant, they are going to send cars into our country one way or another by the millions. detroit and michigan -- you are probably 60% wiped out from what it was in its heyday. i said, you are going to get wiped out. then you have a union head who

wants to build electric cars so they will all be made in china. you know that. we have a thing called liquid gold, which is oil and gas. we have a lot of it. by the way, brian, stand up for a second if you would please. this guy is like -- he's like you. he gets it so much. [applause] he gets it like nobody. he has been fighting against all of this nonsense for so long. so the electric cars are going to -- and by the way, elon musk is a great friend of mine. he gave me a tremendous endorsement. he is right now campaigning in pennsylvania because he thinks we have to win it or we will not win this election because she is a marxist. and this woman has no idea what she is doing. we cannot let her be president. i don't want to be rude about it. we cannot let her be president. this country is finished if happens. beyond

what happened is, i've been thinking about it, these are plants that are bigger than anything you've seen, they will knock out the yeurks press the button, the whole things starts operating. i started talking about this about what do you think, about a year ago, less than a year ago, i won't let it happen, a year ago. yeah. and i said i'm not going to let it happen. if they do this plant in mexico, right near the border, and a couple -- and a couple of others, i'm going to put giant tariffs on them, 100%, if that doesn't work, i'll go to 200%. they won't be selling cars here. if they want to build the plant here, i hope here. but someplace in the united states. that's a whole different ballgame. we're not going to have them building them in other country, sending them into the united states and taking all those jobs. i've been announcing it, been talking about it. i saw the gentleman this builds the plants. i was here a couple of weeks ago at the detroit conference as you know. and it was really the auto

conference. and so i look in the audience, there he is the man that builds the plants. i said can i see you a minute before the speech? after the speech i saw him. i said so, how is that plant doing? he said, sir, they've decided not to build. i said why? he said because they think you're going to be elect fsmed you put tariffs, if you put tariffs on -- [cheers and applause] and that was -- that was easy. i didn't even do anything other than say -- i'm telling you. the man said it right over here. it's the most beautiful word in the dictionary. you have a lot of words that are damn nice like love. but i think it's more beautiful than love. the word tariff. so here -- here it works without doing anything. they thought it was a chance. they're not going to spend $2 billion on building a plant and

then have, you know, trump get elect and put 200% and if that wasn't enough i'd raise it -- and again, the higher it go, the more likely it is that they build in this country. but think of it. a giant plant just on the basis, now if i don't get elected they'll start it up as sure as you're sitting there. these people have no clue. she has no clue what she's doing. wants to raise everybody's taxes. she's a disaster. and other than that, i like her quite a bit. [laughter] you know. net care even about like, dislike. somebody has to come in. we did great the first time. we did better the second time as everybody knows. we got millions more votes. and frankly if i didn't, some bad things happened, let's not talk about it. because we're going to make up for it this time. too big to rig. but i'll tell you, if i didn't do well the second time, i wouldn't have done it. but i watched biden and her and now especially her, she's worse

than biden, i said i've dwt to run again. they're ruining our country with the open border. 8,000, just, the drug dealers, 8,000 drug dealers, 13,099 murderers in jail, they'll let them out of jail. some with the -- some with death penalties. they're going to say this is easier. send them to the united states. their people don't know what -- think, 13,000-plus people who murdered people and they're going to be let free in our country. and then you have their prisoning with emp tied up, venezuela emping their prisons. crime down 72% in venezuela. if they get elected we're all friends. if they get elected, we'll all meet next year in venezuela because it'll be the safest country. because they've emptied -- and let me tell you it was a very unsafe country. caracas, you couldn't walk across the street. sort of like some of our cities are getting. our cities are getting like that. just the thought of me getting

elected stopped somebody from destroying the rest of detroit. from destroying the state of michigan. auto industry. with the auto industry, so goes michigan. it's a big deal. we're going to bring actually reverse that very easily. he knows because he's got a natural. when i explained it to him. he's a business, like -- he's a savant. he's a savant. he knows. it took me about two minutes. after about two minutes, how long did it take you to understand the word tariff? two minutes or less? >> from you, two minutes. mr. trump: he figured it out quickly. he said you mean you can do that? couldn't believe it. and we have another one. paulson, he's sort of -- he can't even sleep at night he's so excited about it. but they have to be. then we have stupid people that don't knowing, you know. they say, oh, tariff. very stupid people. we have a senator from pennsylvania who decided not to

run. he fought me all the way on tariffs thch gay fought me and fought moasm his name is toomey. he fought he and fought me. i wouldn't endorse him. he decided not to run based on that. that's good. i said if charges -- if china charges 100%, can we for a similar product charge them 100%? no, sir. ok. can we charge them 5% or 25%? no, sir. why? it's not free trade. i said explain that. can we charge them 10%, 2% #-rbg%? no, sir, it's not free trade. i said yao got to be kidding. i said i wouldn't endorse you under any circumstances. [laughter] i don't know if he really believed this or -- he's not a stupid guy. did he believe this? was there something else going on? anyway. so we're going to bring back the auto industry. also a lot of other industries. this pertains to many, many. we talk about cars.

it's so nice to talk about cars. the ultimate thing to manufacture. but we're going to bring back a lot of industry. it's going to be great. fantastic presentation. we appreciate it from everybody. from everybody. is that your father over there? who is that guy? the good-looking guy? is that your father with that shirt on? i like that color. going to wear a couple of them now. i've got such support if the teamsters, i have to wear that i think. but i want to thank everybody. again, support always, you've been with me. i appreciate it very much. thank you very thank >> later today, tim walz will rally supporterin omaha, nebraska. decrats hope to flip a house seat and when that single

electoral vote. watch live, starting at 6:15 eastern on c-span or online at c-span.org. on monday,eplican presidential nominee, donald, speaks to voters in a cpaign in greenville, north carin coverage is on c-span, c-span now, our free mobile app or online at c-span.org. >> c-span is your unfiltered view of government. we are funded by these television companies and more, including sparklight. >> what is great internet? is it strong, is it fast, is it reliable? at sparklight, the connection goes way beyond technology. from monday morning meetings and friday nights with friends to everything in between. the best connections are always there, right when you need them.

we are sparklight and we are always working for you. >> sparklight pports c-span as a public service along with these other television providers, giving you a frt row seat to democracy. >> coming up on washington journal this morning, we take your calls and comments live. and then dan kaufman, contribute in right or for the new york times magazine will talk about the impact the nafta trade agreement has on politics and presidential elections. also, a look at the use of artificial intelligence with cats at christie -- cat zakrzewski. washington journal starts now. ♪ host: this is washington journal for saturday, october 19. today is 17 days