Mike Rogers actually said...

"we may be self-deterred from responding in kind because we would have to go too high up the escalatory ladder"

"This subcommittee has spent a lot of time focused on the need for a responsive U.S. nuclear infrastructure."

"Please describe what response you would recommend if Russia carries out, in a regional confrontation with the U.S. in, say, the Baltics, their 'escalate-to-deescalate' doctrine and used a single, low-..."

"we want to deter the Russian Federation from believing it can get anything useful out of a first-nuclear-use threat"