kier ste kirstjen nielsen. [ applause ] >> thank you have much. good afternoon, i hope everybody had a productive day today. it's a privilege to host this conference and i want to thank rachel for her exception gnat leadership of this initiative and i want to give a special thanks to patrick, who has done a superb job of keeping us on track today and dealing with slight delays and helping to coordinate this program. we began our day with remarks from jeff sessions and we are deeply honored to have our closing speaker, another member of the president's cabinet committed to the fight against human trafficking. kier ste kir steen nielsen. she a superb leader. last year serving as the chief of staff to the department of homeland security and she then severed as deputy chief of staff to president trump. in the george w bush administration, secretary nielsen severed as senior director on the homeland security council. she is supervising law enforcement agency that is play a critical role in the u.s. government's antitrafficking efforts at the boarder an

i also want to thank secretary kirstjen nielsen of homeland security, and all of our prosecutors and law enforcement officers who are here with us today. i will try to be brief, mention a few things so that we can get to some of the leaders who will be talking with us later. my friend, kurtis hill, attorney general in indiana erin neelie , cox and robert from the civil rights division and united states attorney in texas. i want to thank each of them for their hard work putting traffickers behind bars. human trafficking is a violent crime. trafficking victims are often threatened, beaten, drugged, isolated, deceived, and manipulated psychologically in order to make them dependent and control them, to keep them captive. it is hard to comprehend this level of cruelty. human trafficking remains far too common. the fbi estimated at one point that this was the third largest criminality in the world, after drugs and counterfeiting. there are signs it's changing, that is not uncommon, and law enforcement has to change with it. that is just the way the world works. from 2010 to 2015, the nati

>> look, just last week, the department of homeland security secretary kirstjen nielsen met with a number of relevant stakeholders. they are discussing this process. everybody wants to blame this on the trump administration. let's not forget that this happened under the obama administration. >> reporter: this happened over a year ago. what's he done about it? >> we've spent a lot of time working on cyber security, focusing on protecting the fairness on our elections. >> reporter: most recently, the president has criticized barack obama for not responding to the meddling. as for putin, he has suggested the russian leader is sincere in his denials. >> i believe that he feels he and russia did not meddle in the election. as to whether i believe it or not, i'm with our agencies, especially as currently constituted with their leadership. >> reporter: he hasn't even called out putin, he criticized obama, he criticized the fbi, he didn't even criticize vladimir putin in the wake of this indictment. >> he has been tougher on russia in the first year than obama was in eight years combined. >> repo

i personally spoke with kirstjen nielsen who was the head of the dhs, when he led it, they actively engaged to protect our elections. they are working very hard to make sure there are additional protections coming up in the next election. >> laura: thanks so much. strong conservative women suffer a lot of verbal abuse, much of it is really obscene. it is really obscene. now hollywood is in o bibs on people! it is really obscene. now hollywood is in o lobsterfest is back at red lobster... with the most lobster dishes of the year. new dueling lobster tails has two tails that'll fight to be your favorite. one topped with creamy shrimp and scallops, the other... steamed with lemon and herbs. and no, you're not dreaming, classics like lobster lover's dream are back too, along with decadent new lobster truffle mac & cheese. but enough talking about lobster- let's get to eating! - because lobsterfest won't last. so dive in today at red lobster! he gets the best deal on the perfect hotel by using. tripadvisor! that's because tripadvisor lets you start your trip on the right foot... by comparing pri

but the dhs secretary kirstjen nielsen is telling state officials it is still ultimately up to them toection secure. >> she has absolutely no desire or no intention to take over elections and to run elections from the federal level down to the state level. that was the thing we were the most enthusiastic about hearing from secretary nielsen. >> mike: the first primaries of the 2018 cycle are two weeks from tomorrow, so there's a great sense of urgency to beef p cyber defenses even though there still a publicly available evidence to show that russia or anyone ever hacked a holy place to change a ballot. >> mike: peter, thank you. a democratic candidate running to unseat congressman devin nunes of the house intelligence committee ironically complained to msnbc today that the media is too focused on russia. >> one of the things i've been criticized for this really only talking about russia, which couldn't be farther from the truth. no offense, but you folks in the media only talk about the russia thing. so when i'm out there talking about water and infrastructure, that's not covered, or t

i personally spoke with kirstjen nielsen who was the head of the dhs, when he led it, they actively engaged in trying to protect our elections. they are working very hard to make sure there are additional protections coming up in the next election. >> laura: thanks so much. strong conservative women suffer a lot of verbal abuse, much of it is really obscene. now hollywood is in on the act, will tell you more with ann coulter up next i tried hard to quit smoking. but when we brought our daughter home, that was it. now i have nicoderm cq. the nicoderm cq patch with unique extended release technology helps prevent your urge to smoke all day. it's the best thing that ever happened to me. every great why needs a great how. and sometimes, i don't eat the way i should. so, i drink boost. boost high protein nutritional drink has 15 grams of protein to help maintain muscle and 26 essential vitamins and minerals, including calcium and vitamin d. boost high protein be up for it lobsterfest is back at red lobster... with the most lobster dishes of the year. new dueling lobster tails has two tails that'

. -- kirstjen nielsen. this is an evil person, an evil act. i can't imagine. i have children and grandchildren and my want everyone to be safe. >> shannon: governor, you are the leader of the state but in circumstances like this, you are expected to be a comforter. for families, law enforcement officials. what can you tell us about what you found, how people are coping. >> you always have to appreciate law enforcement willing to put their lives at risk not knowing what is behind the door, around the corner. and the broward sheriff, the deputies showed up and they did their jobs, and i know they are working hard. talking to families tonight, i can't imagine how this could happen. i can't imagine how it could happen, why would an individual take somebody else's life like this? we don't understand. broward county sheriff's office is doing a thorough investigation to find out the facts. they will put out the facts and then we will figure out what to do. we have gone through other incidents like this, the shooting at the airport. the terrorist attack in orlando. ou

the dhs secretary kirstjen nielsen is telling state officials is ultimately up to them to keep electionecure. >> she has no desire or no intention to take over elections and run elections from the federal level to the state level. that's the thing we were most enthusiastic about. stick with the first primaries of the 2018 cycle are two weeks from tomorrow. there's a great sense of urgency to beef up cyber defenses even though there still no publicly available evidence to show russia or anybody ever hacked a polling place in 2016. >> john: they've got a big task ahead of them. no question. one state wants to turn back the clock in order to secure its elections. jonathan serrie reports from atlanta on big changes being talked about. >> voter fraud is very, very common. >> it was a problem long before the 2016 presidential race. now a unique effort underway in georgia to safeguard elections by taking voting machines back to the future. >> the most secure elections in the world are conducted with a piece of paper and pencil. >> state representative scott turner has introduced a bill to repl

kirstjen nielsen briefed people in dc who were here for a conference. made clear dhs will help make elections safe, they are not going to take elections over. >> the main thing she indicated to us is she's open, willing and able to work with us at the state level. she wants to do so. she has absolutely no desire or no intention to take over elections and to run elections from the federal level down to the state level. that was the thing we were the most enthusiastic in hearing from. >> reporter: 21 states were targeted in the 2016 election. focus is on shrinking that number and the states who are most concerned about it learned a little something from friday's mueller indictment. >> there was one piece of information in the mueller -- there's a lot there. there's one that i thought was relevant to this discussion. that was a million dollar a monthed operation. that give mess an idea of the resources that we're working against. >> reporter: most of that money was spent on propaganda, propaganda is still seen as the biggest problem in elections because th

>> look, just last week, the department of homeland secured secretary kirstjen nielsen met with a number of relevant stakeholders. they are discussing this process and going through and looking at every single day at the best ways forward. everybody wants to blame this on the trump administration. let's not forget this happened under the obama administration. >> it happened over a year ago. what is he doing about it? >> we spent a lot of time working on cyber security protecting fairness on our elections. as i just said department of homeland security met with state and local officials just over the last several weeks, along with election vendors to make sure our lexus tem is secure. just last week we called out russia by name. it was one of the first times that you've seen something like that take place. we are going to continue doing things like that. >> but the president hasn't called output inabout this. he criticized obama and fbi. he didn't even criticize vladimir putin. >> he has been tougher on russia in the first year than obama was in eight years combined of the he's imposed sa

i've talked to president trump, the secretary of homeland security kirstjen nielsen, superintendent runcie, the commissioner law enforcement, and i know everybody has worked tirelessly to make sure we do everything to keep everybody safe and to have a thorough investigation. my prayers are with everybody impacted. i can't imagine what the families that are sitting there wondering if they've lost a family member, they don't know yet. those that do know they've lost a family member, i just -- i mean, i can't imagine how their lives have been changed. like all of us, we'll be praying for each of those. everybody in the hospital, i pray for their full recovery. all the individuals that unfortunately had to go through this experience, i know that there's going to be grief counselors, and i'm sure it's going to be very, very difficult as they think through what happened and replay in their mind what happened. i just can't imagine going through that. after this press conference, i'm going to be going to the hospital to do everything i can with those families. i'm going to continue to let local la

homeland security secretary kirstjen nielsen was on the ground in the twin cities getting realtime updates of this level 1 national security event, the highest designation. what do you think when you walk into the stadium given your job title? >> we've been working closely with them so we've actually built the security in. >> reporter: what is kind of built in already to a place like this? >> so, it's the cameras, the surveillance, the ability to information share within the walls. there's a variety of detection, the evacuation routes are very well thought out. >> reporter: more than 1,700 specially trained federal agents are in town assisting local agencies. why such big numbers this year? >> i think there's just some unique challenges here like the weather. so, for example, we'll screen a lot of the people offsite so that nobody has to wait in line in the freezing cold. >> reporter: and, dan, paula, about that cold, this is my fourth day on the air here in minneapolis. the first day i was on the air it was 1 degree. the next day, it was 2 below, the next day, 7 below and today it's actua

conference on human trafficking with attorney general jeff sessions and homeland security secretary kirstjen nielsen and later, actress rose mcgowan talked about heir memoir, brave, and her career in hollywood. live coverage here on c-span 2. >> sunday night, on "after words," former speech write are for president george w. bush and atlantic columnist, david from, with his book "the corruption of the american republic, trump october contractsy. o'"hi i speaker individual by carlos -- >> comes from the same root as democracy, is a book about the study of power. that's what the sufficient fix means. the story another donald trump's power, he does it get it, obtain it, get away with it. it's a system of enabling, the system in the white house, the system between trump and congress, the statement between trump and the media that enables him and creates an audience. the system that involves the republican donor elite, the traditional elements of the republican party and between him and that core group of his voters, within the republican party, who enabled him to win the republican nomination and then go

i've talked to president trump, the secretary of homeland security, kirstjen nielsen, superintendent runcie, rick squireng in. i know everybody has worked tirelessly to keep everything safe. my prayers are with everybody impacted. i can't imagine families who are sitting there wondering if they've lost a family member, they don't know yet. those who do know they've lost a family member, i just can't imagine how their lives have been changed. i pray for everybody in the hospital, i pray for their full recovery. all the individuals that unfortunately had to go through this experience, i know that there's going to be grief counselors, and i'm sure it's going to be very, very difficult as they think about what happened and replay in their mind what happened. i can't imagine going through that. after this press conference, i'm going to be going to the hospital to do everything i can with those families. i'm going to continue to let local law enforcement, the school district, everybody involved know, whatever state resources are necessary, we will provide whatever resources are needed to d

i've talked to president trump, the secretary of homeland security kirstjen nielsen, superintendent runcie, the commissioner law enforcement, and i know everybody has worked tirelessly to make sure we do everything to keep everybody safe and to have a thorough investigation. my prayers are with everybody impacted. i can't imagine what the families that are sitting there wondering if they've lost a family member, they don't know yet. those that do know they've lost a family member, i just -- i mean i can't imagine how their lives have been changed. like all of us, we'll be praying for each of those. everybody in the hospital, i pray for their full recovery. all the individuals that unfortunately had to go through this experience, i know that there's going to be grief counselors, and i'm sure it's going to be very, very difficult as they think through what happened and replay in their mind what happened. i just can't imagine going through that. after this press conference, i'm going to be going to the hospital to do everything i can with those families. i'm going to continue to let local law

department of homeland security secretary, kirstjen nielsen, met with a number of both state, local, and federal officials working on ways that we can best frent thin -- prevent things like this in the future and we're looking at a number of different options. >> admiral rogers is the one that would have -- the agency that could actually go and confront russian intrusion at the source. and he hasn't been given the authority. in fact, he says that the russians haven't paid a sufficient price to make them change their behavior. he's the one with the power, with the means to do it. all he needs is a presidential directive, the authority -- >> i disagree with the premise of your question. it's not just one individual. it's looking at a number of different ways -- >> -- but he's in charge of cyber command. why not give him the authority? >> no one is denying him the authority. we're looking at a number of different ways that we can put pressure -- look, this president, as i told you last week, has been much tougher on russia than his predecessor. let's not forget that this happened under

dhs secretary kirstjen nielsen will address the conference that will talk place at about 4:30 eastern. u.s. senate will have brief pro-forma session in ten minutes. we'll have live coverage of that we'll return to the conference after that ends. while we're on a break, we'll show you comments from this morning's session, from attorney general jeff sessions. [applause] >> good morning. thank you all for being here. thank you, rachel for your kind words and more importantly for your strong leadership as our third in command of the department. those two are rod and rachel, are harvard graduates. they are experienced lawyers. they are, rod had 27 years in the department. rachel has had a number of years in the department previously, so they both represent the kind of quality and leadership that we want in the department. we are focused and are proud really of the work that has been done over a number about years, maybe, over the last 10 years. we've seen an increasing focus on fighting human trafficking, and i wanted to thank all of you that have been important leaders in making this a re

lap wrapping up the conference with kirstjen nielsen. the conference reairs tonight on chops c-span and later available on our win page, type justice department in the video library search bar on the home page. attorney general jeff sessions was first on the conference this morning. he spoke to the attendees right around 9:00. [applause] >> good morning. thank you all for being here and thank you, rachel, for your kind words and more importantly for your strong leadership as our third in command of the department, those who ron and rachel are harvard graduates, they're experienced lawyers, they are -- rod has had 27 years in the department, rachel has had a number of years in the department previously, and so i they both represent the kind of quality and leadership we want in the department. we are focused and proud, really, of the work that's been done over a number of years, maybe over the last ten years, we have seen an increasing focus on fighting human trafficking, and i want to thank all of you that have been important leaders in m

dhs secretary kirstjen nielsen will address the conference at about 4:30 p.m. eastern and and that will wrap things up. all of the conference will re-air tonight at eight eastern on c-span. it will also be available later today on our website, c-span.org. during this break will show you a portion of the conference from this morning focusing on effective law enforcement in combating human trafficking. >> session one this morning is a panel on effective law enforcement. we have assembled nothing less than absolute all-star panel for you today, and they are on their way out right now as i understand. ladies and gentlemen i will turn to our moderator to introduce our distinguished panel but the honor falls upon the to introduce our moderator. he is pete williams of nbc news. pete he has covered the justice department and the u.s. supreme court for nbc news since 1993. among the stories he is reported, oklahoma city bombing, the olympic bombing and the search for eric rudolph, the clinton impeachment proceedings, the legal wrangling over the 2000 florida election re

brian: mike pence took a tour of the border with kirstjen nielsen and texas senator ted cruz. important for you to come down to the bored. >> president trump made a priority of border security, building a wall, beginning process of reforming our immigration system. being here on the border, seeing the work that our border patrol does every day, it just underscores the need for the congress to come together to provide the funding for a border wall system that will enhance the security of our country and prevent the flow not only of illegal immigrants and individuals that represent danger in our communities. and the flow of illicit drugs. it is time for congress to act. i feel more convinced about that having been here today, received briefings that we receive. ainsley: what was your reaction when the senate did not pass the immigration bill? >> i think it was a great disappointment to millions of americans who see the four pillars of president trump's proposal, but also, it is a deal that permanently solves the issue of daca. you have 1.8 million people brought into this countr

you know, i spoke with president trump yesterday and kirstjen nielsen from homeland security.e going to do is we're going to have a real conversation about how we are going to stop it. ainsley: yeah. i mean, he was 19 years old. it's not like he goes to child protective services if he loses his parents or orphanage. he's considered an adult at that point. are there any ideas of how people have thrown your way. i heard you say several times you are going to look at different things to make sure this doesn't happen again. any suggestions have you heard so far? >> not today. i mean, not from last night to this morning. but i can tell you we are going to figure this out. we are going to keep our kids safe. i want parents to wake up every day and say my child can going to go to a safe school. steve: i understand the attorney general pam bondi said last night that apparently the state of florida was going to pay for the funerals. is that accurate? >> i know it's what the attorney general has been working on. she also has victim's advocates. she did the same thing after the pulse att

support, engaging the business community, and it will close out with remarks from dhs secretary kirstjen nielsen. she's scheduled to speak about 4:30 eastern. live coverage of the conference should get underway shortly. [inaudible conversations] >> ladies and gentlemen, take your seats, please. good morning, good morning, everyone. it is my high privilege to stand here and welcome you all to the united states department of justice's human trafficking summit. my name is patrick hovakenian. a federal prosecutor, serving in the office of the associate attorney general in the headquartersment i've had the privilege of working on issues that we're here to discuss today and hoping that this summit can be used to combat further human trafficking. if you'd please join me m welcoming our department of justice leaders. the attorney general of the united states, jeff sessions. [applaus [applause] >> the deputy attorney general of the united states, rod rosenstein. [applaus [applause] >> the associate attorney general of the united states, rachel brand. [applause] >> the acting assistant attorney general jo