not talking about <the> numbers

[Ostap]

Responding to Tucker Carlson:
Wait, what? White supremacists aren't a threat because they can only fill a college football stadium? My man, those stadiums hold 100,000 people. We shouldn't have enough white supremacists to fill a golf cart. That's how many we should have. We're not talking about the numbers here. "Oh, how many? How many of them are there?" White supremacists are like babies on a plane. Even one is enough to ruin your day.
link with timecode The Daily Show with Trevor Noah

Hello everybody. Why did he use the artice with "numbers"? He means numbers in general, as opposed to the presence/existence of any (single) white supremacist, doesn't he?

 

[probus]

The article is natural and common there, but purely optional.

"The numbers" means the number of people under discussion. But the meaning would be identical if the definite article had been omitted.