Joint interview of Obama and Romney on Univision: on Drugs

Barack Obama: We share cross-border drug problem with Mexico

A: What I will be saying to the new President of Mexico when he takes office is that we want to continue cooperation, and we recognize this is a threat on both sides of the border. We obviously generate a lot of demand for drugs in this country, and guns and cash flow south at the same time as drugs flow north.

Q: How many more people have to die?

A: Well, what we need to do is to weaken the grip of these drug cartels, and there are a couple of things we can do. The US can focus on drug treatment and prevention, and helping people deal with addiction, making sure that young people are not getting hooked on drugs. If we can reduce demand, that means less cash flowing into these drug cartels. The other thing that we try to do is to work much more aggressively in preventing the flow of guns and cash down into Mexico. And so interdiction has to work both ways.

Barack Obama: Fast & Furious was completely wrongheaded; we've stopped it

A: The Fast and Furious program was a field-initiated program begun under the previous administration. When Eric Holder found out about it, he discontinued it. We assigned an inspector general to do a thorough report that was just issued, confirming that, in fact, Eric Holder did not know about this, that he took prompt action and the people who did initiate this were held accountable. And the strategy that was pursued, obviously, was completely wrongheaded. Those folks who were responsible have been held accountable.

Q: But if you have nothing to hide then why are you not releasing papers to this?

A: We've released thousands of papers...

Q: But not all of them.

A: The ones that we don't release typically relate to internal communications that were not related to the actual Fast and Furious operation.

Mitt Romney: We share cross-border drug problem with Mexico

A: I'd tell him that this is a problem that we share, that this is not Mexico's problem. We have a responsibility in this country to reduce drug usage. The fact that there is a drug world, narco-crime and terrorism, and that these cartels are terrorizing the people of Mexico, and some of that violence spills over our border. That's due to the demand here in this country. And so the US must make a priority of helping reduce demand in this country, and communicating to our young people, and older people, that when they use these illegal drugs, they are contributing to the deaths of people around the world. So I'm going to make that a priority. That's #1. And #2, I'm going to let him know that we want to help, as we did in Colombia with intelligence work and surveillance work.