00:01First, let me apologize to Ms. McDonald, who I said was Ms. McDougall.
00:08You're Irish, right?
00:11My husband is, yes, sir.
00:12Well, that's good enough. Thank you.
00:15You were scotched for a few minutes.
00:17But I apologize, ma'am.
00:20And, Mr. Secretary, you have fired a number of general and flag officers,
00:26and you clearly have the authority to do that,
00:28but there was no cause given.
00:31And it's also deeply concerning it's taking a long time to appoint successors.
00:37I understand that today you announced that the nominee for CNO will be Admiral Darrell Cordell.
00:44Is that right?
00:46Yes, sir.
00:48Well, we still have many of these positions open,
00:52including the U.S. Cyber Command, which is absolutely critical.
00:55Do you believe that these lack of nominated leaders are affecting our warfighting abilities?
01:07Sir, I believe we all serve at the pleasure of the president,
01:09and in every single position, we're looking for the right man or woman to fill that role
01:15to execute on behalf of the missions of this department,
01:17and we're doing it expeditiously in every case.
01:20Again, do you have any anticipation of when we'll receive the nominee for Cyber Command?
01:30Sir, as I mentioned before, we have a first, a very capable deputy at Cyber Command who has taken the helm.
01:38So it's not as if it's without leadership, very much so.
01:40But we are, as recently as yesterday, had a high-level discussion of exactly what that will be.
01:45Mr. Secretary, in your opening statement, you stated,
01:49at the Department of Defense, we are sweeping away distractions to focus on our core mission of warfighting.
01:56However, since your confirmation, your office has been consumed by high turnover and disarray.
02:02At least three senior aides were fired and subsequently investigated for leaks, alleged leaks to the press.
02:09Your first chief of staff has since left his position, and to the best of my knowledge, that position is vacant.
02:16The inspector general is reviewing your use of signal app to send sensitive information pertaining to military operations in Yemen,
02:24not only to senior government officials, but to your wife, your brother, and your personal lawyer.
02:29Finally, according to press reports, you have threatened polygraph tests against senior members of the military.
02:37As I said in my opening statement, this is a dangerous world.
02:41You know that.
02:43And this turmoil in your own office is not contributing, I think, to the clarity and thoughtfulness and decisiveness necessary.
02:57Sir, I would just say the media loves sensational headlines that are not connected at all to reality.
03:02If you look at the execution of our office and what we've done on the president's priorities,
03:06I'm very proud of what we've been able to do in 140 days.
03:09And when you move fast to reestablish deterrence and restore a warrior ethos and rebuild the military, it's going to come with some changes.
03:17But when you look at the leadership structure, both in uniform and on the civilian side of the Defense Department,
03:22it's as strong and capable as it's ever been.
03:25And I would contrast it with the chaos of the world under the previous administration,
03:30the debacle in Afghanistan, war unleashed in Ukraine, what happened on October 7th.
03:34That was a view of weakness and chaos unleashed by the Biden administration under the previous Defense Secretary.
03:41So if a few changes have to be made in the first portion of my term in order to get it right,
03:46I think that's pretty acceptable to establish deterrence and rebuild our military and restore the warrior ethos.
03:51Well, Mr. Secretary, you can cite those examples.
03:58History, I might have a different perspective.
04:03As I understand it, the direction to leave Afghanistan was an agreement with President Trump in Doha,
04:14which left our sources in a very precarious position since they were there for a year
04:20and they had to come out.
04:23And the Taliban knew that and they were going after them.
04:28But let me move on to another issue, which is...
04:3030 seconds.
04:3135.
04:35We have had detainees in Guantanamo.
04:39And we have used military flights to get them there.
04:47The problem, I think, is that some of these military flights have not contained DHS agents on it.
04:55And so, in effect, the military becomes not just the custodial agents,
05:01they're also the control agents.
05:04And that would seem to be a violation of military procedures.
05:10Is that practice continuing?
05:12Senator, every aspect of that mission is in coordination with DHS and with DHS officials.
05:18So there are no flights with airmen only on board?
05:23Not that I'm aware of, sir.
05:25Thank you, Senator Reid.
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