00:00All right, we are live right now at Whiteman Air Force Base, just about 90 minutes to the
00:07south and to the east of Kansas City. And the reason I am here this morning is because the
00:12whole world is talking about Operation Midnight Hammer. When seven stealth bombers, and I am
00:20looking at the entire arsenal of stealth bombers, they're just over there in the restricted area
00:26here at Whiteman, when they took off from Whiteman, flew to Iran, dropped their payloads, and came
00:32back home. This area is so filled with pride for what the men and women of the 509 do, and nobody
00:40is more proud than Congressman Mark Alford. He represents this congressional district. He's a
00:45Republican, and it's great to be here. And as I said, everybody's so proud of what happens here.
00:52Steve, I'm extremely proud of the men and women here, not just the pilots, but the maintainers,
00:58the men and women who refueled these jets. Imagine being in a jet for 36 hours to go over to strike
01:04Iran, come back. It was all done with precision under the direction of President Donald J. Trump,
01:10and I'm extremely excited that we have decapitated the nuclear capabilities of Iran.
01:15And this is the Air Force, the control tower, where they do all the controlling. It's pretty cool to
01:22have the entire world collection of B-2s right here. And you were telling me a story. Back in
01:29the day, you heard Ronald Reagan talk about some magic airplane. That's right. I used to be a
01:34television reporter and anchor. My first job in Waco, Texas. Ronald Reagan came there in 1988 and
01:39talked about this plane that we were building that no one could see. I thought, what in the crazy
01:43thing are you talking about? And here I am, the fourth congressional district representative
01:47who gets to represent this great base, not just the B-2, but also the programs out here, the A-10
01:54that's, we're losing actually that platform. We're trying to find a replacement mission,
01:58the MQ-9 Reaper, Black Hawk helicopters. This base is a jewel of the Department of Defense,
02:05and I get to represent. I'm very honored. Yeah. And this particular airplane is so specific. It's
02:12a, you know, the way they used it, they had two 15-ton bombs in it. And they flew it the entire way
02:19over, pushed the button, dropped the bombs, and came back home. What they do is, it's almost superhuman,
02:25but they figured out how to do it. And they practice these drills all the time. And the B-2
02:31was built to carry nuclear weapons as well as conventional. This, of course, was a conventional
02:36weapon. The nuclear weapon that they carry is actually built not too far from here in South
02:41Kansas City, the non-nuclear components. It's married together with the nuclear components and
02:46then brought back here to put on the B-2. We are getting a new platform, and that's what I'm excited
02:51about. Until that happens, we are making sure that we have the funding to keep the B-2 lethal,
02:57capable, and ready. But we're getting the B-21 Raider that's being made in Palmdale, California.
03:02You know, originally the B-2, we were supposed to build 132 of them. Because the end of the Cold
03:07War, we only ended up building 21. Can you imagine what this world would be like if we had 100 of
03:13these stationed around the world? Sure. And, you know, the 509 bomb wing, which is what we're talking
03:19about right here, based here at Whiteman, so historic. Because these are the guys who dropped
03:25the original bomb on Hiroshima from the Enola Gay. They've got a facsimile as you drive into the base
03:33this morning. They know what they're doing, and they've been doing it for decades. They moved
03:37operations here. And talk a little bit about how the area embraces what goes on here.
03:44We are all invested in what they do here at Whiteman. I'm honored to represent actually two
03:50Department of Defense bases down in Pulaski County, not too far from us, is Fort Leonard Wood. We
03:55train more than 80,000 personnel. We're getting five new companies there. But this Whiteman Air Force
04:01Base is really a jewel. I talked about the B-21 platform. We are getting the second wave of those.
04:10We're going to build 100 initially, and we will get the second wave of those. Ellsworth Air Force
04:16Base gets the fourth wave, we the second, and then down at Dias in Texas. But this will be the center
04:21of excellence for that program under the leadership of Colonel Whitla, who just took over a couple of
04:26days ago. Colonel Keith Butler retired and went on to do some other things. But I'm excited to be a part
04:33of this and helped fund the security that we need to keep bad actors like Xi Jinping, Vladimir Putin at
04:40bay, and of course the mullahs. Because ultimately, Congressman, when the going gets tough,
04:45the president goes to Whiteman. And that's why he came here, because he ordered a couple of days ago,
04:50Operation Midnight Hammer. It was hammer time. It was hammer time. And God bless America. God bless
04:57Donald J. Trump for trying to negotiate originally. The mullahs wouldn't have it. And he showed them
05:03what we're made of. Indeed. Congressman, thank you very much. Take care. So, Lawrence, it is all
05:08happening here at Whiteman Air Force Base, and we are so lucky to be on the base today. And they really
05:13rolled out the red carpet for us today. Super proud to be American today. Thanks, Steve. We'll check in
05:18with you later.
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