Waltz on New Orleans Terror Attack: 'Close the Damn Border'

Incoming national security adviser Mike Waltz (R-FL) discussed the National Security Council's role in combatting terrorism in a recent appearance on Fox News's Life, Liberty, and Levin, saying part of it was to "close the damn border."

Host Mark Levin touched upon the horrific New Year's Eve attack in New Orleans, Louisiana, as an example of how malign foreign actors have sought to influence Americans. Shamsud Din Jabbar, the perpetrator of the attack, was a Texas-born Army veteran with an Islamic State (ISIS) flag in the truck with which he drove into a crowd of partygoers, killing 15 and injuring 35.

Levin asked Waltz what he and the National Security Council would do upon President-elect Donald Trump's return to office, to which Waltz answered, "First, let's just take a step back. The terrorists, ISIS, Al Qaeda, Hamas, all of them, they did not get the memo that the Biden Administration decided the War on Terror was over, and so they have absolutely infiltrated our borders. They are in the United States."

To make matters worse, the former Florida Congressman noted that the full extent of potential terrorist sleeper cells in America remains unknown, "but we do know that ISIS did get the memo that the southern border is wide open," referencing the capture of eight Tajikistani men in June with ties to ISIS that entered the country as illegal aliens and were likely part of a larger group.

Levin then asked what Trump and Waltz would do upon returning to office. Waltz replied, "I bet you that you will see, day one, executed by [Homeland Security adviser] Stephen Miller, my good friend, close the damn border. Shut it down, close it off, and then we begin kicking out the people we can find, arresting others, and starting to clean this mess up. So this is absolutely under the umbrella of the National Security Council, and Stephen Miller is Homeland Security adviser; we will have a leading role."