Leon Panetta: “It is a very important strategic area for the United States.”

You know, Erin, as CIA director, I had an awful lot of intelligence on Putin and his background, and his trustworthiness. And the bottom line is that it was clear that we could never trust Putin's word.

And ... we’re going to have to respond. And right now, because our missile systems and our supply of weapons being down, this is a vulnerable period for the United States.

And the problem is, we now realize that 80% of our THAADs are down, that our Patriots were down almost more than one half … and we’re down in our Stingers, we’re down with all of our critical missile systems at a time when there is a real…

I think it was Walter Mondale when he was asked about the legacy of the Carter administration, said something like, we told the truth, we followed the law and we preserve the peace.