Feb. 14, 2025 16:14-16:57 - CSPAN
42:47
Transcriber: nvidia/parakeet-tdt-0.6b-v2, sat-12l-sm, and large-v3-turbo
Source
| Speaker | Time | Text |
|---|---|---|
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Ukraine's Unwillingness To Negotiate
00:15:33
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unidentified
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General Kalakoso in Ukraine and this closest time. | |
| Thank you. | ||
| Thank you, Vice President, for really thank you, colleagues. | ||
| Thank you so much. | ||
| Great. | ||
| Thank you all. | ||
| Take care, guys. | ||
| Ukraine is not ready to come to the table with Putin. | ||
| If Ukraine's not ready to speak with Putin at the table, how do you move forward? | ||
| Will you still negotiate? | ||
| Well, look, I think the way that this conversation moves this forward is: first of all, you have great members of the Ukrainian delegation. | ||
|
unidentified
|
You have our incredible Secretary of State, Marko Rubio, here. | |
| We have General Kellogg. | ||
| It's important for us to get together and start to have the conversations that are going to be necessary to bring this thing to a close. | ||
| That's all I'm going to say for now because I want to preserve the optionality here from the negotiators and our respective teams to bring this thing to a responsible close. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Thank you all. | |
| Have a good day. | ||
| This is the timeline of this video. | ||
| Are you ready? | ||
| Are you ready? Are you ready? | ||
| I'm ready. I'm ready. | ||
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| Republican Senator and Armed Services Committee Chair Roger Wicker talked with Politico about global security on the sidelines of the Munich Security Conference in Germany. | ||
| He also discussed why he ran for another term and Elon Musk's efforts at the Department of Government Efficiency. | ||
| We're a long ways from the grove at Olmists. | ||
| We are, yeah. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Where we've crossed paths a few times over the years, but it's a treat to have you here on stage. | |
| Welcome to Munich. | ||
| You just flew from D.C. last night, I assume. | ||
| Yes, just got in about six this morning. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Well, we're glad that you're alert and sharp. | |
| I could tell, as was always the case. | ||
| You're wearing your Ukraine flag pin. | ||
| Thanks for noticing, yes. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Something that I was struck by, and folks in the room should know this too. | |
| I have a vivid memory of last summer's GOP convention in Milwaukee seeing Senator Wicker wearing the same lapel pin at the GOP convention. | ||
| So you are not a sunshine soldier and you aren't just wearing that here where it's fashionable in Munich. | ||
|
unidentified
|
You wear that everywhere. | |
| That's right. | ||
| And occasionally a child will stop me and compliment me on the flag and I take it off and give it to them. | ||
| So you have a store of them to replace the ones that are pretty easy in Washington to find the Ukraine flag. | ||
| But I'm making a statement, yes. | ||
| And what better place to make it than right here? | ||
|
unidentified
|
What's the statement? | |
| The statement is that there are good guys and bad guys in this war and the Russians are the bad guys. | ||
| They invaded, contrary to almost every international law, and they should be defeated. | ||
| And Ukraine is entitled to the promises that the world made to them decades ago. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Well, I want to ask you precisely. | |
| I know that sounds quaint, but that's still my view. | ||
| It's been my view for three years. | ||
| Actually, since the middle of the last decade. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Well, I want to follow up on that and just start with a big picture question that I think a lot of our friends in the room and certainly on the live stream have in mind, which is, can Europe still count on the U.S. to help guarantee its security in the years ahead? | |
| I think so. | ||
| I mean, yes. | ||
| You know, your last conversation quoted President Trump as saying something very strong to the extent that Russia should fall in line. | ||
| Two days ago, he might have said something a little confusing in that regard. | ||
| So, you know, one of the things about Donald Trump is he keeps people on their toes and keeps us guessing, yes. | ||
| But I think in the United States, we view NATO as important. | ||
| We've had seven decades or more since my dad was over here fighting for the United States and Britain, France, Germany, Luxembourg, Belgium. | ||
| And we've had relative stability. | ||
| There is one guy who is sentimental about the USSR, and he's running Russia right now. | ||
| And he covets not only Ukraine, but Moldova. | ||
| Everyone knows that. | ||
| And he's got his eyes on Romania and Armenia. | ||
| And if I were Azerbaijan, I wouldn't feel too comfortable about this little flirtation that they've had with Putin recently. | ||
| And of course, Georgia is part of Georgia now being occupied. | ||
| This is a guy who's a war criminal. | ||
| He's a brutal dictator. | ||
| And the G8 was correct to kick him out. | ||
| And Europe is correct to treat him like the war criminal he is. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Should he come back into the G8? | |
| Absolutely not. | ||
| Absolutely not. | ||
| I don't hear anybody in Europe saying that. | ||
|
unidentified
|
We heard somebody yesterday in Washington say it. | |
| I did hear that. | ||
| Right. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Have you tried talking to President Trump about what Putin's actually about? | |
| No. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Why not? | |
| Okay. | ||
| I don't get that much time. | ||
| I'm not down at Mar-a-Lago a lot, but my goal... | ||
|
unidentified
|
Improve your golf game, Senator. | |
| My golf game ended about 50 years ago. | ||
| That's the problem. | ||
| I made the high school team. | ||
| It got me out of class one afternoon. | ||
| But in all seriousness. | ||
| Here's what I talk Donald Trump about. | ||
| And this is why I ran for re-election. | ||
| This is why I'm delighted to be chairman of the Armed Services Committee and why I'm glad we've got a trifecta with Republicans in charge of the administration, the House, and the Senate. | ||
| The United States is not where it needs to be in terms of military strength. | ||
| We are where we were at the beginning of the Reagan administration, and we have a chance under this parliamentary procedure called reconciliation, where you don't have to get a super majority in the Senate. | ||
| We have a chance to do as Reagan did and leave the next generation with a stronger America, America, that can once again be assured of peace through strength. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Is this Roger Witch? | |
| And that's why I've got two plans. | ||
| One that I introduced last year. | ||
| We didn't know who was going to be winning the election. | ||
| And then one basically to say we can become more modern. | ||
| We can embrace innovation like the private sector has, like small business. | ||
|
unidentified
|
I want to ask you about more money on defense and about your project. | |
| Well, that's why I'm in office. | ||
| That's why I'm here today. | ||
|
unidentified
|
So, sure. | |
| I want to ask you about that. | ||
| Is this Roger Wicker's personal politics and sense of, look, my focus on doing six more years in the U.S. Senate is trying to get us back to a Reaganite place on defense spending and a defense posture. | ||
|
unidentified
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And that means picking my battles. | |
| And that means that if I want to get that done, then I can't go to President Trump and say Putin's a bad guy and here's why. | ||
|
unidentified
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Or can you do both? | |
| Well, I hope so. | ||
| But yes, I can't be in every skirmish. | ||
| Yes. | ||
| I guess you've noticed that, yeah. | ||
| So I've got a goal. | ||
| It's a worthy goal. | ||
| It will be all-consuming. | ||
| And it's not going to be easy. | ||
| We only have a two-vote margin in the House and three-vote margin in the Senate. | ||
| And time and chance happens to everybody. | ||
| So we need to move. | ||
|
unidentified
|
But this is a skirmish that I think you do have some interest in. | |
| Yesterday in the Capitol, you said, quote, I'd prefer we didn't give away negotiating positions before we actually get started talking about the end of the Russia-Ukraine war. | ||
| I was one of about 30 people that said that to reporters. | ||
| So it wasn't anything that could be done. | ||
| Well, you do feel strongly about Thomas Jefferson. | ||
| But you do feel strongly about having a firm posture with the Russians and not saying preemptively, Ukraine's never going to be in NATO. | ||
|
unidentified
|
We're never going back to the 2014 line. | |
| Well, and you know, the Secretary walked that part back, the NATO part. | ||
|
unidentified
|
You're encouraged by that? | |
| I was heartened by that. | ||
| Yes, indeed. | ||
|
unidentified
|
You spent a lot of capital getting him confirmed. | |
| I surely did, yes. | ||
|
unidentified
|
And then for him to come out and say what he did a couple days ago couldn't have made you very happy. | |
| Well, it was a surprise. | ||
| And I'm guessing like there was in the Reagan administration when Reagan kept putting the evil empire into his speeches. | ||
|
unidentified
|
They take it out. | |
| The State Department kept taking it out, and he kept putting Mr. Gorbachev tear down this wall, and it kept coming out, and finally he said, well, I guess I'm the one who got elected president, and so I'm going to say, tear down this wall, and the wall came down. | ||
| But also, we've had stable borders, really, since the Soviet Union fell, and we have felt like we had gotten beyond that. | ||
| Right. | ||
| And if you want to invade your neighbor, you can always think of a reason. | ||
| And Vladimir Putin is just as just as clever as Hitler was. | ||
| You know, Hitler didn't want to invade anybody, he said. | ||
| He just was so concerned about those German speakers over in the Sudetenland. | ||
| And I mean, it is absolutely out of Hitler's playbook, and anybody that reads history should know that. | ||
|
unidentified
|
So they should not be in the G8? | |
| Should Ukraine have a chance to be a NATO someday? | ||
| I wouldn't rule it out, but in the meantime, though, it may not happen in five years or this year or five years or 10 years, but in the meantime, can't peace-loving, strong allies of the United States in Europe join together somehow and say, yes, we will defend, | ||
| after this treaty is written and agreed to, we will defend someone who's a victim of aggression. | ||
| We ought to be able to say that it doesn't have to be NATO. | ||
| It could be President Trump said yesterday that a country in Russia's position could not allow Ukraine to join NATO. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Should Russia have a veto on who is and is not in Ukraine? | |
| Of course not. | ||
| So Roger Wicker does not want Russia back in the GA. | ||
| He does not want to have Russia holding a veto over who is or is not in NATO. | ||
| I assume Roger Wicker would not want to have a state visit of Vladimir Putin to the U.S. either. | ||
| I wouldn't feel good about that. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Don't bring him to the state. | |
| I wouldn't feel good about that. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Yeah, okay. | |
| All right. | ||
| What is your perspective on process and substance? | ||
| Let me make this point, though, Nate. | ||
| NATO is not an aggressive force against Russia. | ||
| That is totally Soviet-style propaganda. | ||
| And for anyone to believe that, anyone on talk shows or anyone on European media to say that is absolutely just out of touch. | ||
|
unidentified
|
I have to say that. | |
| I have to say it. | ||
| President Trump said this week that Russia invaded Ukraine because of NATO enlargement. | ||
| Well, I think the President was perhaps saying that that's one of the pretexts that Putin used. | ||
| Putin, listen, Putin isn't just sort of somebody going off the rail. | ||
| Putin is a war criminal. | ||
| He needs to be in prison for the rest of his life. | ||
| And there's no sense in treating him like he's eligible to sit in the councils of Europe along with elected people who are subject to a vote of constituents every now and then. | ||
| He is a war criminal. | ||
| And read the Wall Street Journal front page article from two or three days ago. | ||
| He has made it clear to the people running his prisons that prisoners of war from Ukraine should be tortured. | ||
| They should be made miserable. | ||
|
unidentified
|
You alluded to that document in a blistering floor speech on Tuesday in the Senate. | |
| You know, all I did, basically, all I did was read from the quotes of these Russian prison guards who said, I can't do this. | ||
| I've got to find a way to defect to the West. | ||
| I was basically reading their words. | ||
|
unidentified
|
It was a shocking. | |
| He deserves to be blistered. | ||
|
unidentified
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It was a shocking report. | |
| I thought your remarks were very powerful. | ||
| You said, quote, this is the regime that some people are hoping we can somehow negotiate with in good faith and depend on to keep up their end of the bargain. | ||
|
Ronald Reagan's Legacy
00:15:53
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||
| You sound pretty darn skeptical there that Russia is going to abide by any agreement. | ||
| Well, certainly they didn't. | ||
| They haven't kept their end of the bargain when The Soviet Union fell apart, and we were trying, the international community was trying to talk the leadership of Ukraine at that time to give up a nuclear weapon, which they did based on a solemn promise by the United States of America. | ||
| The famous, speaking of that period, the famous Ronald Reagan dictum was trust but verify. | ||
| If Donald Trump was sitting here right now, what would be the version of trust but verify that you would convey to him when it comes to what I tell Donald Trump is he can be the Ronald Reagan of our age. | ||
| During the eight years of Ronald Reagan and for H.W. Bush, we had relative peace. | ||
| We went from well under 300 ships in our Navy to 599 because the leader of the free world and the commander-in-chief of the United States military was determined to do it and he got much of it done through a bipartisan Congress. | ||
| And honestly, I'm on a couple of planes full of Republicans and Democrats who've come over here. | ||
| And we have strong support for the kind of strength that can persuade a Xi Jinping and whoever ends up being the next Ayatollah in Iran and North Korea. | ||
| And let him rip. | ||
| Putin, the brutal dictator, to stand down and realize that the consequences for them and for their people of any aggression towards us and NATO and our allies and the free people of this world would be unthinkable. | ||
| That is what Ronald Reagan and H.W. Bush accomplished. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Take us into that conversation last night on the plane because you're flying over here at obviously a very, very fraught time. | |
| The continent is deeply concerned about being cut out of any negotiations to end the war. | ||
| Is there going to be a bipartisan consensus that comes out of Munich here, do you think, from the U.S. delegation about how to end this war, both in terms of process and substance? | ||
| Well, we're here to listen and to have an exchange of views. | ||
| I don't know that we come out of the Munich Security Council meetings annually with a bipartisan agreement. | ||
| But we come out with a better understanding and people all over the world are able to hear what leaders of the National Security and Foreign Affairs Committees, both houses and both parties, feel. | ||
| Let me ask you directly: what's your perspective on how this war should end, both in terms of the process and the substance of how it should have ended, how it should have ended. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Well, no, now, how it should have ended. | |
| Two and a half years ago, the West, including the United States and Canada, should have given Ukraine everything they asked for and let them win. | ||
| And I will tell you, Russia is taking 40,000 casualties a month. | ||
| I don't know how long they can stand that. | ||
| So this idea that somehow Ukraine is barely hanging on against the superpower is not exactly correct. | ||
|
unidentified
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So we shouldn't rush toward any kind of negotiated peace, you don't think. | |
| I think it would be wonderful if the killing and the fighting would stop. | ||
| It would have been wonderful if the killing and fighting in World War II could have stopped two or three years earlier. | ||
| Regrettably, it didn't. | ||
| But the Allies at that point were more interested in victory and making sure that this kind of totalitarianism didn't take over Europe. | ||
| I've been frustrated. | ||
| I was frustrated with the Biden administration. | ||
|
unidentified
|
No, you were. | |
| You are now. | ||
| I went to the White House any number of times. | ||
| I was on the phone with Jake Sullivan on a bipartisan basis. | ||
| I sat in the SCIF, our secure room, with Chuck Schumer and Democrats and Republicans begging Jake Sullivan to give the attackums to Zelensky and his troops. | ||
| They were doing well, but don't make them go into battle or don't keep them in battle with one hand tied behind their back. | ||
| They are the victims of an unprecedented aggression that is going to continue. | ||
| And I guarantee you, if Ukraine should, if they do happen to fall, this fledgling post-Soviet Georgia is next, unless maybe it's Moldova that's next. | ||
| This doesn't stop. | ||
| And this is why Finland and Sweden joined NATO. | ||
| So you'd prefer to keep supplying Ukraine with military aid rather than move to a negotiation. | ||
| Thank you for letting me clarify that. | ||
| I'm absolutely comfortable with talks being held. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Okay. | |
| But not just any deal, not just any deal to stop the fight. | ||
| And I'll tell you, I wouldn't make any permanent decision on national boundaries. | ||
| We might freeze them where they are now. | ||
| I don't think we've made a permanent decision with North Korea on boundaries. | ||
| It's temporary. | ||
| It's been there for 70 years or 60 years. | ||
| But I wouldn't concede anything permanently. | ||
| But if we can stop the fighting and have a several-year period where things stay in place and maybe some procedure to let actually these 21st century human beings make the same decision that you and I get to make about who runs their life and runs their country, | ||
| that might be a start. | ||
| But look, everybody knows, and you know, and people in the administration know, you don't say before your first meeting what you will agree to and what you won't agree to. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Yeah, I was puzzled by that, too. | |
| Well, I was puzzled too, and I was disturbed. | ||
| I was disturbed by it. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Tell me, going forward, You were emphatic last fall with the Biden administration, publicly and privately, about the urgency of getting more weapons and lessening the restrictions on the weapons that the Ukrainians could use. | |
| Do you still have that same view that it's urgent that we keep supplying the Ukrainians with that kind of aid? | ||
| Yes, until there's a ceasefire. | ||
| They're the good guys that are being invaded by a bigger, stronger neighbor because they think they can. | ||
| And also, the United States is in danger of getting a reputation. | ||
| Solemnly promise the Afghans we're going to have your back. | ||
| And so there's a generation of little girls who've got to go to school. | ||
| Now there are no little girls in school anymore. | ||
|
unidentified
|
And the same thing. | |
| The same thing could happen in Ukraine too. | ||
| You worry. | ||
| Absolutely. | ||
|
unidentified
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Yes. | |
| Yes. | ||
| When we give our word, we ought to keep it. | ||
| And this is, you know, democracy is wonderful, but there's some disadvantages, and that's, you know, you have an election every four years and with our Congress every two years, and people with different viewpoints get elected. | ||
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unidentified
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Some of them, even in your own party, it turns out. | |
| Yes, indeed. | ||
| But we should have a foreign policy that is consistent enough that when the United States makes a solemn promise, along with the West, that we keep that promise. | ||
|
unidentified
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Let's talk about the reason that you ran for six more years. | |
| And by the way, is this going to be your final term, you think, Senator? | ||
| I just took the oath six weeks ago. | ||
|
unidentified
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I know you're a lot of grandkids. | |
| You get a lot of grandkids. | ||
| Look that old, goodness. | ||
|
unidentified
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All right. | |
| And by the way, you know, I didn't, I thought I was coming. | ||
|
unidentified
|
I tried to ask him, Mrs. Wicker. | |
| I tried. | ||
| You know, I thought I was coming over to meet you in a pub and have a conversation. | ||
|
unidentified
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The drinks are in the back here. | |
| It's a little early in the morning. | ||
| I started to do it about face and woke right now. | ||
|
unidentified
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You wouldn't do that to me, Senator. | |
| Who are all these people? | ||
|
unidentified
|
I know. | |
| These are the folks you're going to talk to you afterwards about keeping aid flowing to Ukraine, I'm sure. | ||
| Let's talk about your recent conversation with President Trump and the reason that you ran for six more years and what you feel so strongly about. | ||
| I had a real good conversation with President Trump about what we'll do for 21st century peace through strength. | ||
| And my proposal to make the Pentagon more modern, like Tesla is, and like SpaceX and Blue Origin and things like that. | ||
| I mean, it's just for somebody who doesn't have the shackles of the bureaucracy and the stultified rules in the Pentagon, it's just a lot easier to get something done. | ||
| We are way too slow on new things, way too many people have to bless it, and we can do better. | ||
| This is one of the things that unifies your party, all factions of the party, which is plussing up defense spending, right? | ||
|
unidentified
|
I mean, almost everybody on your side, you've got a good 90-10 on that. | |
| Yeah. | ||
| No matter the view about NATO or Ukraine, there's a sort of consensus in the GOP. | ||
|
unidentified
|
We've got to spend more on defense, right? | |
| Well, you know, there are people in the caucus who understand that defense is national preservation and security. | ||
| There are others who say, well, you know, unless we cut the debt, We'll all be bankrupt and it won't matter. | ||
| I think unless we protect our shores and our interests, the debt's going to be twice as much. | ||
|
unidentified
|
So, what's your vision? | |
| Six more. | ||
| We had a good conversation with Donald Trump about, I had a good conversation with Donald Trump. | ||
| And it was just the president and I and Susie and two staffers. | ||
|
unidentified
|
The White House? | |
| Yes, in the Oval Office, and he was very engaged. | ||
| And missile defense, which we're calling dam dumb for America. | ||
| It's not mechanically the same thing as Israel has because Israel is the size of New Jersey and we're a vast continent. | ||
| But, you know, ships, submarines. | ||
| We talked about the next generation of fighter jet, which we call NGED, hasn't even been named yet. | ||
| And how we can do that. | ||
| And I will tell you, this is super news for someone like me and like people in the administration. | ||
| Donald Trump absolutely is going to help us get, I'd say, $150 billion or down to $100 billion, somewhere in that range, in the reconciliation bill. | ||
| And he's going to go to the mat for these expenditures, just like he's gone to the mat for all these appointments that he's made. | ||
| He is going to be very engaged in that. | ||
| And I have a little group of House members and former House members, I mean, with most weeks. | ||
| Children. | ||
| And they say that the President is very engaged in getting this done. | ||
|
unidentified
|
You're a House guy yourself, even though you're a senator now. | |
| You wouldn't ever want to admit that, but I used to be in the House, right? | ||
| Yeah, I very much enjoyed being in the House. | ||
| I was actually, I was dumbfounded and distressed when Trent Locke called me one Sunday after Thanksgiving in 2007 and said he was resigning. | ||
| I didn't know what to make of that. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Because you came to the House in 94, so you're a 30-year veteran of Congress now. | |
| But there's nothing wrong with that. | ||
| Experience helps. | ||
| And your vision going forward, though, is really that it's imperative that the U.S. plus up its defense spending, especially when it comes to the nation. | ||
| Well, yeah, particularly when you see that Russia and China are working together like they never have before. | ||
| And so who's sending troops to fight in Ukraine? | ||
| North Korea. | ||
| And who's helping to send funds? | ||
| It's Iran. | ||
| And so, you know, they are an axis of aggression like they never have been before. | ||
|
unidentified
|
And therefore, imperative for the U.S. to spend more and more on our own defense, you're saying. | |
| Yes, and spend it effectively. | ||
| Let's don't say it's imperative that we spend more. | ||
| It's imperative that we buy more and produce more and manufacture more so that we can avoid a war. | ||
|
Doge And Defense Cuts
00:04:10
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||
| Xi Jinping went to his Congress, invited the international press there. | ||
| Everybody could see it. | ||
| It was a public meeting. | ||
| And he says, I want to be ready. | ||
| I want you, the Congress of the People's Republic of China, to help us be ready to retake Taiwan by the year 2027. | ||
| We're now in our second month of 2025. | ||
|
unidentified
|
To President Trump, he was on board with more spending on defense. | |
| Did this Doge come up that Elon Musk is running, which is trying to find cuts in government spending? | ||
| Well, it didn't come up, but I'll tell you, I'm delighted. | ||
| I really am. | ||
| And people ask me if I'm comfortable with Doge coming into the Pentagon. | ||
|
unidentified
|
I was about to. | |
| Yes. | ||
| And clearly we've got some confidential stuff, some very important national security secrets that have to be protected, unlike maybe the Transportation Department. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Does that give you some pause, though, the fact? | |
| Well, we have to be careful. | ||
| The President's Commander-in-Chief, and he knows that. | ||
| And surely Elon Musk does. | ||
| But to the extent that this Doge operation is uncovering wasteful spending that nobody can justify, it's helpful. | ||
| And it's popular with the people. | ||
| Donald Trump gets a much higher approval on that than he got in the election. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Is it still going to be popular with you if he comes over to the Pentagon and starts cutting funding willy-nilly? | |
| Well, I don't think he'll do that. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Why are you confident he won't? | |
| Well, the spending that he has advocated cutting so far has seemed wasteful. | ||
| Now, and I made this statement after the USAID, after he began taking over USAID. | ||
| I've always thought it's important for us to combat the China Belt and Road Initiative. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Which USAID was doing, right? | |
| Yes, but apparently not very effectively. | ||
| To spend one penny of your taxpayer money on transgender operas in strict Islamic countries is an absolute waste of money. | ||
| It's absurd. | ||
| But apparently there was a lot of that. | ||
|
unidentified
|
But do you have to gut the entire organization with a handful of programs? | |
| I hope that doesn't happen. | ||
|
unidentified
|
They took the name off the building. | |
| It already has, hasn't it? | ||
| Well, okay. | ||
| Well, I think if it's moved to the State Department, that will be okay. | ||
| If the Education Department is moved back under HEW, that would be okay. | ||
| I mean, nobody can argue that education, that primary and secondary education in the United States is better than it was 50 years ago or 40 years ago whenever the department was created. | ||
| Nobody could say it's better now. | ||
| It's worse. | ||
| So I wouldn't mind consolidating that. | ||
|
unidentified
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Let's wrap where we begin. | |
| I think we're fine. | ||
|
unidentified
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I know. | |
| You're finally noticing. | ||
| Turn that TV on. | ||
|
unidentified
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You're finally noticing. | |
| What's your message for Europe? | ||
| They're obviously very nervous right now about a new president in the U.S., about a sort of a negotiated end to Ukraine that they may not have a great say in. | ||
|
Heard the Concerns, Felt the Bewilderment
00:05:43
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| Well, they may be upset that someone is suggesting that. | ||
| But everyone knows that Europe and NATO and the people represented at this conference are going to have very much of a hand in what happens. | ||
|
unidentified
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You can assure them that. | |
| Yes, everyone knows that. | ||
| There's just no question that we're going to depend on one of our strongest alliances. | ||
| So, yeah, look, I was here at this conference during the first Trump administration. | ||
| And I heard the concerns and the bewilderment of some of our allies. | ||
| We've got a guy who likes to be provocative and who's getting things done sometimes in a way that's not considered genteel by Western standards. | ||
| But your message is that there's still folks in the U.S., still folks in the Republican Party who view Russia for what they are. | ||
| Yes. | ||
| And I hope that we are on the ascendancy rather than the other way around. | ||
|
unidentified
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Well, I think Roger Wicker will have a say in trying to make that a reality. | |
| Senator, good to see you. | ||
| Thanks for your time. | ||
| Thank you. | ||
|
unidentified
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Appreciate it. | |
| Thank you so much. | ||
|
unidentified
|
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| Here's a preview. | ||
| And I'd spent time in technology, obviously, time in education, and worked a lot on helping others do the same thing that I did, a lot of angel financing and mentoring of other startup companies. | ||
| And when September 11th happened, it really hit me in the chest. | ||
| I thought, this country's been good to me. | ||
| You know, what have I done to deserve it? | ||
| And I didn't have a good answer. | ||
| And I was actually moose hunting in Alaska when September 11th happened. | ||
| So I was one of the last people on the planet to find out about it. | ||
| I didn't see it on TV. | ||
| And I got stuck there because the borders were closed. | ||
| I couldn't fly over Canada. | ||
| And as soon as I could get home, I walked into a recruiter's office. | ||
| I said, hey, I've got a pilot's license. | ||
| I used to, you know, was a researcher at NYU. | ||
| What can you do with me? | ||
| And the recruiter says, how old are you? | ||
| I go, 34. | ||
| He goes, good. | ||
| Thirty-five was a cutoff, so I ended up getting recruited into a—actually, it's interesting because first, yeah, I was non-prior military. | ||
| I had no idea what I was doing. | ||
| And so they sent me out to take the ASVAB, the vocational aptitude battery, and to say what you're good at. | ||
| And I come back with my test scores. | ||
| And the recruiter rolled his eyes, said, okay, well, you qualify for any job that I offer. | ||
| I said, well, I want to do something meaningful. | ||
| He says, well, have you ever thought about going into Intel? | ||
| I never thought about going into anything. | ||
| And so I just said, I want to do something meaningful. | ||
| And so I talked to him a little bit. | ||
| And I said, you know, it sounds like I'm going to be sitting in a dark room staring at a computer. | ||
| I don't think I'm going to thrive there. | ||
| And so then he has this other guy, Chief Rhodes, comes in and talks to me. | ||
| And he says, I've got this horrible job. | ||
| You know, I lose my hearing. | ||
| My back hurts, my knees are blown out, but it's the best thing I could imagine doing with my life. | ||
| So, well, what do you do? | ||
| He says, Well, we take these 22,000-pound helicopters and we fly them in formation 50 feet off the deck in the middle of the night with night vision goggles on. | ||
| We go out in the desert, we find busted-up kids, and we bring them home. | ||
| And the hair stood up on the back of my neck, and I go, That's me. | ||
| And so I got sworn into a combat search and rescue squadron. | ||
| Being a physician is inherently about trying to help people and make a positive difference in people's lives and listening. | ||
| You know, when I spend most of my day as a doctor sitting in a room alone with a patient and listening to what's on their mind, to what's bothering them, to what hurts, and then talking together to figure out a health plan to go forward. | ||
| Being a legislator is a lot like that. | ||
| You know, we door knock, we have town halls, we listen to our constituents, gather that information, and then come up with a plan, which sometimes is in the form of a bill or some kind of legislation. | ||
| So, I come from a science-based background, so I like evidence and facts, and I try to pursue policy that is evidence-based in that same way. | ||
| This began with my grandfather, also named Nick Begich. | ||
| He first ran for Congress in 1968 and was not successful in that race, ran again in 1970 and beat a gentleman named Frank Murkowski for the seat in 1970. | ||
|
Mark Begich's Election
00:02:10
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unidentified
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Served until 1972, when sadly he was on a plane flight, disappeared, was never found in 1972. | |
| It was late in the election cycle, and actually he ended up winning the race anyway. | ||
| There was a special election, of course, because the plane was not found, he was not found. | ||
| And winning that special election was Don Young, who became, as many people know, the longest-serving Republican in the U.S. House history. | ||
| So, moving forward from that, I have an uncle named Mark Begich. | ||
| Mark Begich was a United States senator from Alaska, defeated Ted Stevens in 2008 and served one term in the United States Senate. | ||
| So, I do come from a line of traditional Democrats, but I was actually raised on my mom's side of the family. | ||
| Mom's side of the family is conservative Republican, father's side of the family is Democrat, and of course, I'm a Republican. | ||
| So, I was a deputy legal advisor. | ||
| I was a lieutenant colonel assigned to the White House on a detail, deputy legal advisor on National Security Council staff, the chief ethics official on the National Security Council staff. | ||
| And so, I worked right across the hall from my twin brother, and he had the portfolio of Russia, Ukraine, Belarus, Moldova. | ||
| He listened to the phone call. | ||
| He heard the president's attempt at extortion, and he reported directly to me. | ||
| We talked about it briefly, and we knew we had a duty to report that call. | ||
| We reported up the chain, and the rest is history. | ||
|
unidentified
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Starting next week, watch C-SPAN's new Members of Congress series, where we speak with both Republicans and Democrats about their early lives, previous careers, families, and why they decided to run for office. | |
| On Monday, at 9:30 p.m. Eastern, our interviews include Democratic Congresswoman Janelle Bynum, the first African-American ever elected to Congress from Oregon. | ||
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