I know and I believe we will transform the Middle East into a beacon of prosperity, progress and peace.
Thank you.
Today, former Army and Navy football players join sportscaster Brad Nessler for a discussion about rivalry, sportsmanship and democracy.
Hosted by the Ronald Reagan Presidential Foundation and the Rose Bowl Institute.
Watch live coverage starting at 4 p .m. Eastern here on C -SPAN.
C -SPAN Now is a free mobile app featuring your unfiltered view of what's happening in Washington, live and on demand.
Keep up with the day's biggest events with live streams of floor proceedings and hearings from the U .S. Congress, White House events, the courts, campaigns, and more from the world of politics all at your fingertips.
You can also stay current with the latest episodes of Washington Journal and find scheduling information for C -SPAN's TV networks and C -SPAN Radio.
Welcome back.
We are joined now by Representative Carlos Jimenez, a Republican of Florida.
He's on the Armed Services and the Homeland Security Committees.
Congressman, welcome to the program.
Thank you.
It's my pleasure being here.
I want to start with drones.
You're the chairman of the Homeland Subcommittee on Transportation and Maritime Security.
You recently held a hearing on the security threats posed by drones.
And I want to ask you specifically about what's happening over the skies in New Jersey.
This is The Guardian that is talking about drone cluster sightings.
Can you tell us...
First kind of what's happening there in New Jersey and then a little bit more about the hearing that you held.
Well from my understanding is that they've seen hundreds of sightings of drones in New Jersey and the problem is nobody knows who's flying them, nobody knows where they came from, nobody knows what they're doing and nobody knows where they went.
That's a problem.
And so you know the hearing really outlined the fact that Most of America is really unprotected from this threat.
And it's a threat.
I'm not saying that there's something nefarious going on.
We don't know.
But it just doesn't seem right.
It's certainly odd.
But most of America is unprepared for if a nefarious actor wants to do some harm to us, either by surveillance or, God forbid, put some kind of payload on these drones.
We are ill -prepared to defend ourselves, and that was highlighted in that hearing.
And what's the solution, Congressman?
How do we protect ourselves from nefarious actors?
Look, the threat's just going to get worse, because as you embed artificial intelligence into these drones, they don't need to be piloted anymore.
Some of the technology that we have actually interrupts that pilot.
To a drone interface as it's being flown.
We do have some defense capabilities in some of our facilities, but once AI is input into those drones, it takes more than just interfering with the pilot and the drone itself.
It's going to take more measures.
The problem that we have, I believe, in the federal government is that we have too many agencies with too few money, too few resources.
What kind of action are you going to be taking?
You said too few resources.
Is there something coming up in the budget negotiations to address this topic specifically?
I think we need to centralize or at least we have too much decentralization.
Too many agencies have a little bit of money to deal with the issue.
We need to really focus in our federal efforts and what are we going to do as a nation to combat this threat before something happens.
I don't have a specific plan right now.
I think we need some more hearings.
I need to talk to some more people.
This week you were elected the new vice chair of the Republican Governance Group.
It's known as RG2.
It's a House GOP caucus of the center -right.
Can you tell us about that?
Well, yeah, we're really like the majority makers.
These are most of the members that we have in our group.
We sit down on Tuesdays, and we talk about policy, and we talk about different bills, etc., and then what our stance is going to be.
We are conservative, but, you know, more to the center.
And there's about 40 to 50 of us in that caucus, and so...
I'm greatly honored that I was elected as the vice chair, and my job is to make sure that the leadership understands the position of our caucus and also help our leader, our chairman, Dave Valadao.
So again, it's a great honor, but that's the group, the makeup of this group, and it's one of about four major caucuses that we have in the Republican conference.
If you'd like to join the conversation with Representative Carlos Jimenez, you can do so.
Our lines are by party, so Republicans are on 202 -748 -8001, Democrats 202 -748 -8000, and Independents 202 -748 -8002.
You serve on both Armed Services and Homeland Security committees, so I wanted to ask you about the nominees.
I mean, she's got some controversial statements that she made in the past.
And I'm sure that those are going to be brought up.
Again, the Senate has to do their job in confirming these nominations.
The President has the right to choose the people that he wants, but the Senate also has the job of confirming them and vetting these candidates.
She has made some controversial statements in the past, and I'm sure that she's going to have to explain that to the Senate before she gets confirmed.
And the nomination of Pete Hegseth, where do you stand on that?
Well, again, you know, it's certainly an out -of -the -box kind of nomination.
He's a very intelligent individual.
Obviously, he went to Princeton and went to Harvard.
He served in the Armed Forces.
And to be frank with you, as a member of Armed Services, The Pentagon needs to be shaken up.
We have a lot of people in there.
The bureaucracy, I think, is way too burdensome.
We have to be much more nimble as we face the pacing threat of China that China poses to the United States.
And the acquisition of weapon systems, the development of weapon systems, all of that, our industrial base, all of that needs to be upgraded.
And again, we need to be much more nimble.
And you're going to have to have somebody that's going to shake it up.
I don't know him personally.
I've never met him personally.
I know that there's some accusations of things in his past.
And again, the Senate is going to have to do their job, vet it out.
And that's who the president wants.
But again...
The Senate has, you know, they have their role to play in this.
And so I will, I'll defer to the Senate.
But, you know, I have confidence in the Senate will do the right thing.
And you mentioned China.
So I just want to ask you about the news that's just come out this morning from CBS News that Mr. Trump has invited China's Xi Jinping to the inauguration.
Your thoughts on that?
I think China is our number one threat now and will be into the future.
I think it's good to speak to our adversaries and our potential adversaries.
I know President Trump likes to engage when he's trying to deal with people, whether they be friends or foe.
Inviting Xi Jinping is a way to We're good to go.
We're good to go.
Yes, good morning.
Thank you for having me, Mimi.
Thank you, Representative Jimenez, for your time.
My question is regarding, and I'm using air quotes, the drones that are flying around New Jersey and the Northeast.
I'm saying this is a global phenomenon.
This is not just happening in the US.
There's also the same thing happening in the UK.
The same thing is happening in China.
And the media doesn't like to talk about it because it's a bipartisan issue.
Both sides want to know.
So it's not entertaining for people.
That's why we're just getting A hint of this after almost a month of this happening.
So I guess my question for you is the only way we're going to be able to attack these things over our country is probably through you guys.
You guys have to vote on how to deal with this.
Congress and everybody in the government has to vote on this.
I want to know if this keeps going on, are you guys going to vote on settling this?
Because...
I think this is tied to a bigger issue.
If we can't figure out who's above us, then we are in trouble.
The most powerful military in the world is failing us and we're still giving them a lot of money.
And I think we have to really think that we are very vulnerable right now.
All right, Stephen, let's get a response.
Go ahead, Congressman.
I think, look, like I said in the beginning that, yeah, our defenses against these drones here in the homeland are woefully inadequate.
Now, do we have some facilities that have some capability against certain types of drones?
Yeah, yeah, we do.
But as I stated, as these drones become more and more autonomous, I think their danger increases.
And so I'm concerned the fact that, and I opened it up, it says we don't know who's flying them.
We don't know where they came from.
We don't know what they're doing, and we don't know where they went.
That's a problem.
And so we need better answers from our personnel, especially the federal government.
And if they know something, we need to know what that is.
If they need some authorities that they don't have right now, we need to give it to them.
Because I do fear the threat of...
I'm with you.
We just need better answers and also we need better solutions of how it is that we're going to deal with drones that pose a threat to Americans.
They're getting cheaper.
We have so many drones right now that are owned by private citizens.
What is a threat drone and what is just a recreational drone?
Again, those are difficult questions that we need to answer, but we need to protect America and we need to find those answers.
On the Republican line in Coos Bay, Oregon, Beverly, good morning.
Good morning.
How are you?
Good.
Good.
I have a question and a comment.
Why isn't the Coast Guard looking out over the ocean to see where those drones are going?
And also, I think the government knows what these drones are.
Otherwise, they'd have fighter jets up there chasing them away like they do with everything else.
So, what about that?
I don't know why the Coast Guard doesn't know if they're flying back over the ocean.
As some people have said, they come out of the sea and then they go back to the ocean.
I don't know why.
I'm just as frustrated as you.
We should know.
Again, we need to know who's flying them, we need to know where they came from, why they're buzzing around, and where they're going.