at 10:00 a.m. for legislative business with work on a spending package for fiscal year 2021 that includes the state department, agriculture, interior, and environment, and military construction and veteran affairs spending. that is on c-span. at 9:30 a.m., the senate continues work on the defense programs bill. at 10:15 am on c-span3, a house education committee holds a hearing on ways to safely reopen schools. the house ways and means committee considers the impact of covid-19 on trade, manufacturing, and the national supply chain. president trump spoke about efforts to combat violent crime in u.s. cities. the president announced federal law enforcement would be sent to cities including chicago and albuquerque, new mexico. at the event, attorney general william barr, acting homeland security secretary chad wolf, christopher wray, and families

of crime victims. pres. trump: thank you very much. thank you. great honor to be with you today. being here is a real, really important moment, as far as i am concerned. my first duty as president is to protect the american people, and today, i am taking action to fulfill that sacred obligation. in recent weeks, there has been a radical movement to defund, dismantle, and dissolve our police departments.extreme , andpolice crusade relentlessly vilified our law enforcement heroes. anyook at it from

standpoint, the effort to shut down policing in their own communities has led to a shocking explosion of shootings, killings, murders, and heinous crimes of violence. nd.s bloodshed must e of lawnouncing a surge enforcement into communities plagued by crime. we will work every day to restore public safety, protect our nation's, and bring violent perpetrators to justice. we have been doing it. you have been seeing what's happening all around the country. we just started this process, and frankly, we have no choice but to get involved. with us today is attorney general bill barr. thank you very much. acting dhs secretary chad wolf, thank you. wray,rector christopher thank you very much.

joinedalso pleased to be by americans who have tragically lost their loved ones to recent violence. to each of you, please know that america grieves with you, that we pledged to honor the memory of your cherished loved ones by fighting to bring safety into every single community. we will bring that safety. you will see. for decades, politicians running many of our nations major cities have put the interests of criminals above the rights of law abiding citizens. the same politicians have now embraced the far-left movement to break up our police departments, causing violent crime and their cities to spiral, -- in their cities to spiral seriously out of control. in new york city, over 300 people were shot in the last month alone. a 277 at least percent increase over the same period of a year

ago. murders this year have spiked 27% in philadelphia, 94% in minneapolis, compared to the same period in 2019. perhaps no citizens have suffered more from the menace of violent crime than the wonderful people of chicago, a city i know very well. at least 414 people have been murdered in the city this year. a roughly 50% increase over last year. more than 1900 people have been shot. these are numbers that are not even to be believed. yesterday alone, 23 people were shot in chicago, including 15 who were shot in a merciless onslaught of gunfire outside of a funeral home. 63 people were shot in the city this past weekend and at least 12 people were killed. over the fourth of july weekend, nearly 80 people were shot and

17 were killed. over father's day weekend, 104 people were shot and 15 were killed, including five young children. and last weekend in may saw the city's deadliest day on record. 18 murders in 24 hours. behind each of these horrifying , a family, a victim and loved one, a life cruelly shattered, it is so sad to see and so sad to look and so sad to see how these lives have been just torn apart. an african-american father of three was killed while walking into a store to pay his cell phone bill. a 13-year-old girl was killed when a stray bullet came through the window of her home and hit her in the neck in the presence of her family. on independence day, a 14-year-old was playing

basketball with friends in a chicago park when he was senselessly killed in a massacre that left eight people dead or wounded. his mother, cheryl, is here with us today, and cheryl, please know that all americans mourn by your side. we will carry your son's memory. he will not be forgotten, cheryl. cheryl. thank you very much. thank you for being here, cheryl. thank you very much. it was a great honor to meet you before. this rampage of violence shocks the conscience of our nation, and we will not stand by and watch it happen. cannot do that. the citizens of chicago are citizens of america and they have the same right as every other american to live in safety, dignity, and peace. no mother should ever have to cradle her dead child in her arms simply because politicians refuse to do what is necessary to secure their neighborhood and to secure their city.

theiramerican, no matter income, race, zip code, should be able to walk the city streets. free from violence and free from fear. for this reason today, i am announcing that the department of justice will immediately surge federal law enforcement to the city of chicago. dea, u.s. marshals service, and homeland security will together be sending hundreds of skilled law enforcement officers to chicago to help drive down violent crime. and murderers and violent criminals are breaking a wide range of federal laws. we have that. it is as wide as it can be. we will find them, arrest them, and prosecute them. they will be in jail for many years to, and we will work with local police to identify violations of state and local laws to help ensure that offenders are caught and jailed for their crimes.

thewe must remember that job of policing a neighborhood falls on the shoulders of local elected leadership. never forget that. when they abdicate their duty, the results are catastrophic. americans must hold their city leaders accountable. they must insist that community officials fully support, fully back, and fully fund their local police departments. there is simply no substitute for a police department that has the strong backing of city leaders. usehe meantime, we will federal law enforcement to vigorously charge federal crimes and support these besieged communities to the greatest extent possible. this will be hard, painstaking work. it will take time. the tide will not recede overnight, but we will marshal all of the strength and focus and determination that we can possibly do. this is a critical effort.

we will continue to call on state and local leaders to do their job and protect their citizens. the operation in chicago will be done as part of operation legend , which was recently launched in kansas city, missouri, and very successfully, i might add. it is named after a four-year-old boy who was shot. think of this. who was shot and killed last month while he lay asleep in his home. legends mother grieves. andhearts, and pains, souls. thank you very much for being here. thank you very much. appreciate it. we are profoundly grateful to be joined --will you please stand? please. father,, legend's raphael, and his grandparents, alfred and pauline. yes? you look so great, so great.

thank you very much. i appreciated your nice statements before, too. thank you. legend is looking down. he is very proud of you right now. thank you very much. family, we cannot even begin to imagine your anguish and sorrow but we solemnly promise to honor legend and we will be fighting every day to save the lives of america's children. under operation legend, we will also soon send federal law enforcement to other cities that need help. other cities need help. they need it badly. they should call. they should want it. they are too proud or political to do it. one of them is albuquerque, new mexico, where a 55-year-old, jackie, was murdered as she was getting into her car to go to the gym. we are joined today by her husband, sam, and her sons, raul and kevin, both new mexican state police officers.

would you please stand? thank you very much. i appreciate it. thank you. great looking family. thank you very much. we are rival, and kevin, moved beyond words by your presence here today. it is a great honor to meet you. this afternoon, i am announcing the department of justice will provide more than $61 million in grants to hire hundreds of new police officers in cities that are the focus of operation legend. we will never defund the police. we will hire more great police. law enforcement stronger, not weaker. what cities are doing is absolute insanity. many of the same politicians who law to slash resources for enforcement have also declared their cities are sanctuaries for criminal, illegal aliens. after arresting illegal aliens for crimes, the police are

ordered to release those criminals back onto the streets to continue their crime. messier, chicago politicians forced the release of illegal aliens charged with crimes such as assault, armed robbery, strangulation, and attempted murder. my administration will be working to remove dangerous offenders from -- let loose by these deadly policies and by these deadly politicians. a sanctuary for law-abiding citizens, not criminal aliens. my vision for american cities could not be more different from the lawlessness being pushed by the extreme radical left. defund,hers want to defame, and abolish the police, i want to support an honor our great -- and honor our great police paid while they want to eliminate school choice, i want to expand school choice and

every family in america should have that option. while others want to destroy opportunities, shutdown businesses, and send our jobs overseas, we are hiring americans, and we are buying american product. we want to build factories in baltimore, not beijing. we want to make our products in chicago, not shanghai. we want the american dream for american children, and i will fight to deliver that dream every ounce, every single ounce of my strength, i will be fighting. but opportunity cannot thrive violence,e is prosperity, whether there's bloodshed, and security cannot exist where there are violent criminals who are able to maim and murder with impunity. that is what operation legend is all about. that is why we are here today to answer the please of those of those crying for justice and help. for those people in chicago and

other cities where we will be, help is on its way. i would now like to ask attorney general william barr -- she is doing a fantastic job -- to explain operation legend in greater detail followed by weing secretary wolf, and will hear from loved ones of fallen americans. i will ask sam and jerome powell to the podium and we would love to hear them say a few words in honor of their loved one. please, bill. thank you, mr. president. especiallye to thank the families of the victims who have come here today. they have allowed us to how great this effort in the name of their loved ones. all ourlike to thank law enforcement colleagues from around the country, state, local, and federal.

as the president said, the first duty of government is to protect the safety of our citizens. there here to explain initiatives to combat rising violent crime in a number of our cities. our goal is to help save lives. the principal danger to the lives of our inner-city communities is violent crime. the leading cause of the deaths for young black males is homicide. 7500year, approximately black americans are the victims of homicide. every one of those lives matter. was992, violent crime nationwide, was double what it is today. was at that time that federal law enforcement first

turned its attention to this kind of violent crime. before that, the federal government really did not play that much of a role in it. started to attack violent crime in conjunction with state and local government. it was at that time, for example, that the fbi set up its antigang task forces throughout the united states. we started using our strong federal laws to permit us to target those who use guns to kill others and those that are involved in gang activity. our approach was to set up anti-violent crime taskforces in the cities to enforce federal andand take the shooters the chronic violent criminals off the streets. localp pay for state and officers to join these taskforces so we can leverage

our strength and this approach was extremely successful in the intervening decades and driving crime down. obama end of the administration, crime started going back up again, and for the first 2.5 years of this administration, we were succeeding in pushing it down. but less than a year ago, mr. president, you will recall that as we saw crime starting to go up in a few cities, you asked me to initiate a surge in those cities to help our state and local partners deal with it. and so, we did start this program, which we called written endless pursuit. -- relentless pursuit. we had to abort that effort. we had that terrible event in minneapolis, but then reactionis extreme that has demonized police and called for the defunding of police departments. and what we have seen is a significant increase in violent

crime in many cities, and this rise is a direct result of the attack on the police forces and the weakening of police forces, and the president has gone through the terrible statistics. that, we have to initiated this program, operation legend, to step up the activity of our taskforces, anti-crime taskforces, in hard-hit cities by committing more federal agents and supporting more state and local task force officers. it is important to stress that the operations we are talking about are the standard anti-crime fighting activities we have been carrying out around the country for decades. we will be adding federal agents

to the task forces. these are street agents, investigators who will be working to solve murders and to and down violent gangs, they will be working shoulder to shoulder with our state and local colleagues. this is a different kind of operation, obviously. werethe tactical teams used to defend against riots and mob violence, and we are going to continue to confront mob violence. at the operations we are discussing today are very different. fighting.lassic crime we have named the operation as we said, operation legend, and we started rolling it out a couple of weeks ago in kansas city. just to give you an idea of what is possible, the fbi went in very strong into kansas city and within two weeks, we have had 200 arrests. we will be adding cities in the

we arehead, and for now, including, beyond kansas city, chicago and albuquerque. the fbi is today announcing rewards for information related to the killing of legend, jackie, and renato. we are seeking justice for those victims today, and operation legend aims to immediately help our police agencies and local leadership to prevent additional victims. the fbi has established a hotline for the public to report information they may have that may help in solving these murders. 800 --line number is one 800-call-fbi. federal law enforcement agencies will be committing fbi agent, dea, atf, u.s. marshals, and the

department of homeland security, hsi teams. to date, we have sent over 200 federal agents kansas city. we are directing a comparable number of agents to augment chicago's existing taskforces and we are providing an additional 35 agents to albuquerque. forunited states attorneys chicago, albuquerque, and kansas city are here today. these u.s. attorneys and the chief federal law enforcement officials in each of these cities are ultimately responsible for coordinating the ensuringffort and prosecutions from this initiative are effective. linked to this increase in federal law enforcement agents, we are also providing additional financial assistance to the state and local enforcement agent to permit them to provide more cops, more members of our task force.

worksaid, federal agents hand in glove with state and local enforce -- law enforcement every day. we supplement and provide support to local law enforcement, but violent crime is ultimately a problem that will be solved by state and local leadership. asleadership in the cities, the president said. our announcement today is a demonstration of our commitment to the men and women who serve as police officers in chicago, albuquerque, and kansas city. your efforts to protect these communities are not forgotten. andoo this announcement operation legend as a whole is also a commitment to the jackie, andlegend, renato james, that those names will not be forgotten. we will not rest until justice

is delivered for your loved ones. thank you. >> mr. president, thank you for the invitation to be here today. it is always an honor to discuss the actions to protect and defend the peace and the pretty wee value in this country. attorney general barr, protecting the homeland and bringing justice to those who threaten it remains as strong as ever so thank you for your partnership. as the nation's largest law enforcement agents, the department of homeland security stands ready and able to commit our highly skilled, highly trained agents to help restore law and order. in the wake of 9/11, dhs was founded so that the federal government could better partner directly with states and local law-enforcement. as dhs supports this critical effort led by the department of

justice, homeland security investigative agents will leverage their networks, their assets, and their expertise to energize criminal investigations. homeland security investigations mission is to investigate some of the most violent criminals, specifically those involving transnational gangs and narcotics trafficking. let me take a quick moment to clearly make a distinction as the attorney general did about what is occurring in portland versus the important action we are announcing here today. in portland, we see almost two months of coordinated violent againstby and presses the federal courthouse and officials sworn to protect it. in chicago, we see an unprecedented rise in crime against fellow citizens. the dhs mission in portland is to protect federal property and our law enforcement officers. in chicago, the mission is to protect the public from violent crime on the streets. leaders of these great cities should not stand behind the status quo. they should and with america. they should kid and -- condemn

these violent attacks and work with this administration and president to bring about law and order. i know everyone ending here today, every homeland security investigation agent assigned to operation legend, and every reasonable american, agrees with the basic premise that every four-year-old should be safe at night to sleep in their bed. the department grieves with all the families experiencing excruciating and heart-wrenching stories of loss. we as a department stand resolute, committed to working together across the federal government and with our stay in the, enforcement partners to keep that promise. again, thank you, mr. president. the department is grateful for your continued support of our law enforcement officers as we continue to ensure the safety of purity of all americans. thank you. pres. trump: thank you. do you want to say a few words, please? you are going to be a big part of it. go ahead, please. the real measure of success

of initiatives like operation legend is the ability of communities to feel safe. it is not about the number of arrests. it is about the ability of kids to be able to play outside of their homes, about families to be able to walk to and from work , and that is what this operation is designed to do, and it is going to be a significant surge of federal resources. and theve safety confidence that the american people need to have that they can live safe in their communities. thank you, mr. president. pres. trump: please. please. please. >> i want to start up by thanking you. i never imagined i would be in the same room with the most

powerful person on earth. thank you, mr. president. thank you. i would like to just very briefly make a few comments about my wife, the way she was. jackie was the type of person loved to go to the gym. that was one of her big things. outalso like to send prayers on a daily basis to people. thewould pick verses from bible, prayers she came across, and she would either email those prayers or tweak them to some of her friends in albuquerque. 19. all ended on november as i mentioned before, she was one of those people that had to go to the gym, otherwise she would not make it through the day. we would usually get up around 4:30 to 4:45. she got up, i got up, i went downstairs, i got my cup of

coffee. she came down and she says, well, you know, i will see you in about an hour. that is how long she would spend at the gym. open,d the garage door and then all of a sudden, almost immediately after that, i heard the horn on the car, so i went out there, and i thought may be, you know, maybe she forgot her gym card or something and wants me to go out there and take it back to her. door, thened the garage door was open, there was a vehicle behind hers, blocking her. did not snap. i thought maybe the guy that delivers the paper, usually around that time of day, came to back up the car. that that was not so. somebody had shot and killed her there. thew a person walk around

passenger side of the vehicle that was behind her and get on and take off like crazy. day, i cannot forget that. every time i go to bed, every time i go out into the driveway, that memory comes back, and it haunts me. and jackie, my wife, did not deserve to be killed that way. nobody does, you know. of course, in albuquerque, as you probably all know, those of you and law enforcement have a reputation for being one of the most violent cities in the country, actually. place, and, second that does not seem to be going away. it has been eight months since my wife died, and there has been no arrests at all. nobody has been arrested for the crime. there are other victims in albuquerque that are in the same boat.

the journal reported a couple of months ago that the rate of albuquerquecides in was less than 50%. you know, and that in itself tells you a big story as to where we are at, how we need desperately some help to get after the crime rates we have going on there. i really appreciate the effort that you all are putting into this, and i welcome that. and if there's anything that i can do, please let me know. thank you so much. pres. trump: thank you very much. we are going to be giving a special effort to that when we go in. we have very talented people going in. we will keep a very special effort for jackie. thank you very much. sharon, please. thank you.

>> thank you. i appreciate the efforts. good afternoon. sharonee ron powell -- powell. is not tolegend harass. it is not to harm. it is not to hurt. it is to help investigate unsolved murders. towhich one of those happen be our innocent for gold son. -- four-year-old son. we want justice for our son and others. we have to take a stand in our communities and speak up to help this operation be successful. child who fought through open-heart surgery at four months is gone due to senseless gun violence. children are supposed to be our future, and our four-year-old son did not make it to kindergarten. i stand here today as a mother standing against violence for my

son. my family and i support operation legend, and we strongly want our community and everyone else behind us. thank you so much, you guys. i appreciate all the efforts. one thing about legend, he was exciting. he loved basketball. he was a ball of joy. and i want his legacy to live on. and i want us to continue to fight against violence and also give justice for my son and others. with this operation, i want it to be successful. if every community can reach out to that high line, if you know any information about any murder, that would be great. and also to keep carrying on his legacy. thank you once again. i appreciate everything. thank you. pres. trump: legend and jackie are looking down right now i you and very proud, very proud. thank you both.

thank your families for being here. thank you. to every family, i am very proud to stand with you in this struggle. i am proud to stand with the heroes of law enforcement. they are true heroes. thank you all for being here. we appreciate it very much. i am proud to fight by your side to deliver a better future for the citizens of every race, color, religion, and creed. as soon as the cities and states called to ask for help, on a very large basis, we will be there with full forests and stop this horrible situation very quickly, but in the meantime, we are doing something that is going to have an impact. mr. attorney general, thank you very much. chad, thank you very much. do a good job. i have no doubt you will. thank you very much. thank you. see you later. thank you.

♪ publicpresident from affairs, available now on paperback and e-book. it presents biographies of every president, organized by their ranking, by noted historians, from best to worst. and features perspectives into the lives of our nation's chief executives and leadership styles. /tsit our website, c-span.org hepresidents. ,n order your copy today wherever books and e-books are sold. ♪ journal,'s washington every day, we are taking your call, on the air, on the news of the day. we will discuss policy issues

that impact you. thursday morning, we will discuss the coronavirus relief bill with two members of congress, ohio republican congressman bill johnson, a member of the house budget and energy and commerce committees and was new york democratic president adriano. watch c-span's washington journal at 7:00 eastern, thursday morning, and be sure to join the discussion with your phone calls, facebook comments, text messages, and tweets. thursday on the c-span networks, the house returns at 9:00 a.m. for general speeches, at 10:00 a.m. for legislative business with work on a spending package for fiscal year 2021. that includes the state department, agriculture, interior, and environment, and military construction and veteran affairs spending. that is on c-span. on c-span two at nine: 30, the senate continues work on the 2021 defense programs bill.

on c-span3, the house education committee holds a hearing on ways to safely reopen schools. 2:00 p.m., the house ways and means committee considers the impact of covid-19 on trade, manufacturing, and the national supply chain. trump gave an update on the federal response to the coronavirus pandemic as a several states see an increase in cases. the president announced an agreement with pfizer to produce and deliver 100 million coronavirus vaccines once one is approved. this is 20 minutes.