Eric Lach November 18, 2010, 1:09 PM

Texas Gov. Rick Perry (R) has long criticized the federal government on border security. He’s firmly in the camp that argues that the border needs to be “secured” before any kind of immigration reform can be legislated. On MSNBC this morning, Perry blamed “the federal government’s abject failure” to provide troops and equipment to “defeat this drug cartel threat” for the recent deaths of American citizens near the border. When host Chuck Todd then asked Perry if the U.S. military should cross the border to help Mexico combat drug cartels, Perry said “we have to have use every aspect of law enforcement that we have, including the military.”

“Obviously, Mexico has to approve any type of assistance that we can give them,” Perry said. “But the fact of the matter is these are people who are highly motivated, with money, they are vicious, they are armed to the teeth. And I want to see them defeated. And any means we can to run these people off our border and to save Americans’ lives, we need to be engaged in.”

(h/t Dallas Morning News)

Watch (Todd asks the question at the 3:30 mark):

Mexico, Rick Perry