Meet the Press - July 16, 2023

Interview

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Good morning, Chuck. It's good to be back on the show, from Alaska.

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Yeah.

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Well, I hope, I hope we get a chance to talk about the NATO summit. But --

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

-- let me address that. The president, a lot of my Democratic colleagues, are talking about this as a big national security issue. I think, I think we should be clear: The biggest national security issue from my perspective, Chuck, is the Biden administration is continuing to put forward defense budget cuts during what everybody -- and the president agrees with this, so does the security of defense -- thinks is the most dangerous time since World War II, right? The budget for next year's going to take us below 3% of GDP spending. That's the lowest level in almost 70 years. So, to me, that's the biggest national security threat and readiness threat we have facing us, and that's something the president needs to address directly. Now, to Senator Tuberville. You know, as you know, every senator has the right to place holds on nominees on an issue of policy importance. I certainly have done this myself. I'm here in Alaska right now. I had a hold a couple years ago on the secretary of the Army, the chief of staff of the Army, to get them to change a position when they were going to remove a brigade combat team, airborne brigade combat team from Alaska. I know my friend Tammy Duckworth is going to be on your show next. And, look, she's a war hero. Very few Americans have sacrificed for their country like she has. But Senator Duckworth has had the exact same hold that Tommy Tuberville does a couple years ago on generals to be promoted. Here's the bottom line, and I think you're getting at it, and I think, I think we're getting closer here: Every single one of these kind of holds, 99% of them, get resolved through compromise. And what needs to happen, the secretary of defense, secretary -- Senator Tuberville, Chuck Schumer need to sit down and have that path. The good news is, and I've encouraged this, you may have seen Secretary Austin reached out to Senator Tuberville a couple days ago. I appreciate Secretary Austin doing that. But I think we're going to be debating the NDAA in the Senate the next two weeks. To your point, I think there are going to be opportunities to get to that compromise like we have on all these kind of holds that happen regularly in the Senate.

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Oh, I think it is. And I think it was a positive summit. I think there was a lot of progress. It wasn't just the mention of China, several times, almost 20 times on my count. But, Chuck, you probably saw the leaders who were there. It was the prime minister of Japan, prime minister of Australia, the president of Korea. Our Senate delegation had the opportunity to meet with those leaders, and I think that was a really strong signal with regard to NATO. My big message to all the leaders in NATO during the summit, and it's something we talked about with the president, Jake Sullivan, when we were over there: One of the critical issues that we have to keep pushing with regard to NATO is to get the rest of our allies to step up and do their part. You know, we want this alliance, which is one of the most successful military alliances in history, to be strong, to be sustainable. But it's undermined the sustainability of NATO when only seven of 31 members of NATO currently meet their 2% of GDP obligation for defense spending. And, look, that in my view has the potential to undermine even support for Ukraine in the near term and, longer term, the support for NATO. So we need our other NATO allies to step up. Some are doing it. Sweden's joining, as you know. They're going to hit 2% right off the bat. Some are laggards. Canada is barely above 1%. It's unacceptable. And we drove that message home, by the way, in a bipartisan way, in every meeting we had.

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Yes, I do. And, look, I give President Biden credit for keeping the unity of NATO, revitalizing NATO, as your opening piece did, as setting out the framework for this war of aggression which was, "We're going to provide significant military assets and intelligence, but we're not going to commit U.S. troops." So, I give him credit for that. Where I don't give him credit, and you and I have talked about this, is in two areas. One, this slow rolling and self-deterrence that we've had, this administration's had, with getting the Ukrainians the weapons systems that they need. You know, the list is very long. Last time I was on this show, by the way, with you and Jake Sullivan, we talked about the F-16s. I predicted, "They're eventually going to do it, but it's taking too darn long." That's exactly what happened. And then the other issue, I already mentioned it --

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

-- is we're cutting defense spending and -- when it's a very dangerous world. Everybody agrees we --

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

-- should not be going below 3% of defense spending. You know, the current budget shrinks the Army, shrinks the Navy, shrinks the Marine Corps. That is the wrong signal to send to --

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

-- Vladimir Putin and Xi Jinping.

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Well, look, in terms of the Republican Party, I think there's some -- for elected officials right now -- I think there's been some very positive news. Hasn't been talked about. You know, there was this debate in the Republican conference in the Senate about cutting off aid to Ukraine. A couple members wanted to send a letter to the president. We debated it. I strongly was opposed to that. Three Republican senators signed this letter, and that's not very strong. And you just saw the NDAA that was marked up in the House. All the amendments that were calling on cutting off Ukraine aid went down strongly in a bipartisan way. So, I think elected Republican officials right now in the Senate and the House are still strongly supportive of Ukraine. We need to make sure our other allies --

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

-- step up to their 2% --

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

-- commitment. We need to make sure, and I tell the Ukrainians this all the time -- well, I think -- there's my point. I think that current elected officials can have a strong impact on whoever the next president is. When President Trump was president, I pressed him on the issue of NATO quite a lot, and so did many other members. I'll tell you one thing President Trump did quite well was press this 2% of GDP issue. By the way, President Biden has been doing that. President Obama did it as well. So I think the current elected Republican leadership in the House and Senate strongly supports --

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

-- NATO. And I think that's the most important thing to look at right now in terms of that issue.

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Very early. That's okay.

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Good to be on the show, Chuck.

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Source