Political Quotes

“Mr. President, it has been just over a week since we learned that our top national security officials were discussing operational details before a strike on the Houthis, in Yemen on an unsecured platform. The White House has said the case is closed, but the American people still haven't gotten the transparency and accountability about the national security breach that they deserve. So I wanted to stress a few things. Now, let's start with how dangerous and irresponsible this was. This wasn't just a policy violation; it was a reckless breach of our operational security. The information shared on this unsecured platform is some of the most sensitive information that our military has. We are talking about time on target, the weapons systems used, and other details about the strike over hostile territory. This is exactly the kind of information you do not want in the hands of an adversary or an enemy, especially one that has a significant surface-to-air missile capability that can shoot our airplanes down. They were discussing this information hours before these pilots took off of the deck of an aircraft carrier, and that is a big deal. It could have resulted in these pilots being captured or killed. No one, especially the Secretary of Defense, should be discussing these things on an unsecured platform. This is personal for me. I flew combat missions off of the USS Midway in the first Gulf war. We treated this kind of information like lives depended on it because they did.…”