Out war to defeat the virus, this horrible virus. You see how terrible it is, especially when you look at the numbers from yesterday. We explained why we are extending nationwide guidelines to slow the spread for 30 days. We have the power to save countless lives. We are attacking the virus on every front with social distancing, economic support for workers, rapid medical intervention and very serious innovation, and banning dangerous foreign travel that threatens the health of our people. And we did that earlier, far earlier than anyone would have thought, been way ahead of anyone else. In this time of need, i know every american will do their patriotic duty and help us achieve a total victory. As governments and nations focus on the coronavirus, there is a growing threat that cartels, criminals, terrorists and other malign actors will try to exploit the situation for their own gain, and we must not let that happen. We will never let that happen. Today the United States is launching enhanced counternarcotic operations in the western hemisphere to protect the American People from the deadly scourge of illegal narcotics. We must not let the drug cartels exploit the pandemic to threaten american lives. In cooperation with 22 partner nations, u. S. Southern command will increase surveillance, disruption and seizures of drug shipments that provide support for eradication efforts going on right now at a record pace. We are deploying Additional Navy destroyers, combat ships, helicopters, coast guard ships, doubling our capabilities in the region. Our forces are fully equipped with personnel and protective equipment and we have taken additional Safety Measures to ensure our troops remain healthy. Secretary mark esper, attorney general william barr, National Security advisor Robert Obrien will provide more details. I am going to have general millie say a few words, and also our chief of Naval Operations, admiral gilday, and commandant of the coast guard admiral schultz. I will ask mark to start, and we will take questions and then go on to phase two, the virus itself. Ok. Secretary esper good afternoon. I appreciate the opportunity to be here as we make a very important announcement. At a time when the nation and the department of defense are focused on protecting the American People from the fred of this the threat of the coronavirus we remain vigilant , to the many other threats our country faces. Today the department of defense, in cooperation with interagency partners, began enhanced counternarcotic operations in the eastern caribbean. Eastern Pacific Ocean and caribbean sea. This is part of the administration approach to combat the flow of drugs into the United States and protect the American People from their scourge. I want to thank our partners, the u. S. Coast guard, department of homeland security, dea, department of justice and members of the intelligence community, for tremendous support. To conduct these operations the , president has directed the deployment of additional ships, aircraft and Security Forces to the u. S. Southern command area of responsibility. Included are navy destroyers, combat ships, coast guard cutters and elements of an Army Security force assistance assistance brigade. These forces will double our capabilities in the region. Last year alone, the u. S. In addition 22 partner nations have joined us to bring operations capabilities needed to defeat these criminal organizations. Last year alone, the u. S. Southern command operations resulted in the seizure of over 280 metric tons of drugs, much of it designated for shipment to america. There is more work to be done. Criminal organizations threaten our security by smuggling cocaine, fentanyl and other narcotics across our borders. These traffickers put our communities at risk and destroy lives. Every year tens of thousands of americans die from drug overdoses, and thousands more suffer the harmful effects of addiction. Corrupt actors like the illegitimate maduro regime in venezuela rely on the profits derived from narcotics to maintain their hold on power. The venezuelan people are continue to suffer immensely due to his criminal control over the country. Drug traffickers are seizing on this lawlessness by increasing their activities. We must do more to prevent these drugs from arriving at our shores. These enhanced operations underway will further stem the desk just disrupt the flow of drugs to america, deny our adversaries the resources they rely on, and i want to thank President Trump for his support. This is an important time for this operation to begin. As nations shift focus inward to deal with the coronavirus pandemic, criminal organizations are attempting to capitalize on the crisis. The operations we are announcing today will keep the pressure on criminal groups. Mr. President , thank you for your leadership. While the men and women of the u. S. Military work hard at home to fight the coronavirus, we can continue to take action around the world to defend our great country. I want to publicly thank admiral craig fowler, commander of the u. S. Southern command of miami, for leading the operation effective today, and also admiral gilday and chief of Naval Operations schultz. Thousands of Service Members are involved in this operation. We came upon intelligence that drug cartels as a result of covid19 would try to take advantage of the situation and infiltrate additional drugs into our country. 70,000 americans die on an average annual basis to drugs. That is unacceptable. We are at war with covid19, terrorists, and drug cartels. As the United States military. You will not penetrate this country. You are not going to kill additional americans. We will marshal whatever assets are required to prevent your entry into this country to kill americans. The navy has marshaled additional ships and they have set sail and are in the caribbean right now. The nation has 10 coast guard in addition, there are 10 coast guard cutters and special Operations Forces as well as air force Reconnaissance Air raft. The bottom line is not is that you will not get through, and now is not the time to penetrate the United States with Illegal Drugs. We will defend our country, regardless of the cost. Thank you, mr. President , for your decisive leadership as we confront this unprecedented challenge. I would like to thank you for your support for this initiative, and thank the secretary of defense and all the services for taking on this important initiative. During this crisis we are all focused above all else on covid 19. But our Law Enforcement and National Security work must go forward, protecting the American People from threats. At the department of justice, one of our priorities must remain destroying mexican cartels. Their trafficking is largely responsible for the deaths of 70,000 americans a year, costs that dont count destroyed families, destroyed lives, state budgets crushed by the burden this narcotic trafficking causes. The president has made clear that we are in this fight against the cartels to win, and are not interested in half measures, and the threat posed by the cartel is not just a Law Enforcement threat but a , National Security threat as well. And in december, building on your success with the mexican president in forging a cooperative relationship in the area of immigration, you asked me to meet with president topaz president lopez obrador, to see if we can establish a more comprehensive and coordinated effort with the mexicans and confronting the s the cartels and we currently have a range of activities and anticipate that these will bear fruit. But it quickly came clear that we can attain the most immediate results when we increase assets involved in interdiction on both the pacific and atlantic side of mexico and Central American countries. For years, the cartels have been using sea routes to take the cocaine and simply out of up from columbia and now also venezuela, and these sea roots on both coasts have become the primary means of bringing cocaine to the United States. Because of superb work done by the Defense Department and our intelligence community, we know exactly most of the time where these traffickers are at sea, but up until now we have been significantly limited in our ability to interdict, because of the numbers of assets we deployed. Prior to today, this limitation meant we could only intercept a fraction of the traffickers and various bouts detected. S detected. This will double our capacity, and we are talking about hundreds of tons of cocaine we are now in a position to seize. This will radically improve interdiction efforts and put tremendous pressure on the cartels. The effort that south com is undertaking will save lives. Last week i announced the , unsealing of charges of narco terrorism and other crimes against the former maduro regime, 16 members of the former regime and their involved in trafficking their involvement in trafficking. And also by the pressure we are a lot of it comes by sea, as i discussed. Also, because of the pressure we are applying they are trying to , establish an air route, which is why we are trying to move against the corrupt regime. This drug war has gone on for decades. In the past we have had Great Success and at times we have taken our eye off the ball. You have brought a focus to this i am grateful that you have brought focus to this fight and a determination to use whatever tools are necessary. The cartels have to be defeated, both for the people of this country and the people of mexico and venezuela. I would like to thank you for providing the wherewithal required to win this war against the cartels and others who seek to send illicit drugs into our country. I would like to introduce ambassador obrien. Todays action is another example of President Trumps commitment to protect the homeland against threats. The flow of Illegal Drugs threatens our communities, fuels poisons our communities, fuels the epidemic of addiction, and threatens the security of americans. The impressive military operation will address a range of threats as well as narco posed by narco traffickers and terrorists. It will reduce Financial Support for Drug Trafficking that provides the corrupt maduro regime in venezuela and other bad actors with the funds necessary to conduct activities. We will continue to execute our policy to counter malign activities including Drug Trafficking, and this will choke off funds that go to that corrupt regime. Maduro and drug cartels should narco terrorists, and criminals should make no mistake, we will continue to execute the counternarcotic strategy. We are working on a number of important National Security priorities. The United States will continue to combat disinformation and fake news about this virus. We will work with the Worlds LargestOil Producers to address volatility in global markets. We will protect Service Members around the world, including in iraq and afghanistan. I want the American People to know the administration is working tirelessly to protect americans and respond to the virus. Our adversaries should take note, this president has a clear focus and it would be a mistake with terrible consequences for any adversary to attempt to do us harm during this health crisis. Thank you very much. President trump do we have any questions . This group is going to go back to work. Reporter what has changed that is allowing these assets to be deployed now, whereas as the general said in the past, they were not . President trump for a long time we have had a lot of drugs into this country. It is not that it has increased, we probably got it down, but it is still a tremendous number. Families are being ruined. It is an incredible thing, especially when you are in this position. I see things that nobody would believe, i see reports nobody would believe, so i met with this group and they told me we could stop it before it gets to the shores. It is coming from all over the place. And we have incredibly talented people. But we want to see if we can stop a good percentage of the drugs. Secretary esper is a matter of prioritization. He has given us clear guidance. I began a review months ago, looking at our geographic commands and where we can free up resources to put into other endeavors. We scrutinized our inventory closely and felt there was no risk to the Fleet Operations to free up naval ships, aircraft and other assets to apply to this priority. The coast guard did the same. We feel this is important and inline with the president s direction. Reporter how long will you keep up this operational tempo . Secretary esper it depends. We will assess it and make adjustments from there, we may increase or decrease or sustain. We will do this as an Interagency Team and report back to the president and take further guidance. President trump it will also have an impact on the virus, because we have people trying to get in, not only drugs, but a new phenomena come out and hopefully that is for the next short time, and will have an impact on that. Reporter prior to covid19, you said that these cartels are taking advantage of covid19. How exactly . President trump all of a sudden areas that we had it clamped down pretty tight, the wall is up to about 160 miles, 161 miles already, and any areas where you have that wall, contiguous and felons, but we are up to 161 miles exactly. Any place where you have that wall, other than Walking Around the edges, it is stopping everybody cold. Nobody is seeing anything like it. That is how good it works. The other side new it worked that well. Everybody. Because everybody was horrified for five years ago. All of a sudden they changed. It is having a tremendous impact. But we are focused now on so many things because of what has happened, because of this horrible, i say it is a horrible phenomenon that now we have to focus on command we have to focus on drugs and the drugs come in from different methods and we have the best people anywhere in the world and we will have a tremendous impact on drugs, but one of the other things, it will also have an impact we think on the virus. Reporter did china underreport the number of cases and death toll from the coronavirus . And if that is the case, what does that mean to our relationship with china . I think the president s have a great relationship. We would like to have a great relationship with china. We are not in a position to confirm numbers out of china. There is public reporting on whether the numbers are too low. You have access to those reports out of chinese social media, and some of the few reporters left in china. We have no way of confirming those reporters. Pres. Trump however they report, we had a great call the other night. We are working on a lot of Different Things including trade and they are spending a lot, they are paying our farmers for the product, they are buying a lot, and we are going to continue that for a long time. You tweeted today that you uncovered intelligence about a sneak attack planned against american troops and American Assets in iraq . Are we talking about hezbollah again . President trump we have information they were planning something. And it is very good information. It was led by iran, not necessarily iran but groups supported by iran, but that to me is iran. And we are just saying dont do it, dont do it. It would be a very bad thing if they did it. Last, there was a response from the military. President trump the response knocked out five places and took out a lot of very and people. Bad people. And if it happens again, will it go up the food chain . President trump they hit one site and we had five big ones. Hit five big you saw what ones. Happened. I wont say how many people were killed, but bad people were killed, and a lot of them. That was a big response, but this response will be bigger if they do something. Reporter going back to your conversation with president xi, i wonder if you received an Intelligence Report that talked about the discrepancy in the numbers . Or if you address that . President trump i never received that, but their numbers seem to be a little on the light side, and i am being generous being nice relative to what we witnessed and what was reported. But we discussed that with him, not so much numbers but what they did and how they are doing, and we are in constant communication, i would say the biggest communication is myself and president xi. The relationship is very good. They will be spending, this is obviously a little hurdle, what has happened the last month, but they will be spending 250 250 billion buying our product, 50 billion to the farmers alone. 200 billion to other things. They never did that before. So we have a great trade deal, and would like to keep it, they would like to keep it, and the relationship is good. As to whether their numbers are accurate, i am not an accountant from china. Anything in terms of the trade deal . President trump no, because people dont know where it came from. We understand where it came from. We dont want to make a big deal out of it. We didnt like the fact that they said it came from our soldiers, and they havent pursued that, and that was a midlevel person that said that