Former Secretary of Defense Mark Esper said former President Donald Trump&#8217;s retention of classified national defense information could seriously impact America&#8217;s ability to respond to potential global political scenarios.
Esper, who was nominated by Trump, <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2023/06/18/politics/trump-national-secrets-mark-esper-cnntv/index.html">told</a> CNN&#8217;s Jake Tapper on &#8220;State of the Union&#8221; that the charges in the federal indictment against the former president were &#8220;very troubling&#8221; and &#8220;disturbing.&#8221;
&#8220;If the allegations are true that it contained information about our nation&#8217;s security, about our vulnerabilities, about other items, it could be quite harmful to the nation,&#8221; he said. &#8220;And, look, no one is above the law. And so I think this process needs to play out and people held to account, the president held to account.&#8221;
Esper said that if a foreign state were to gain access to material recovered from Mar-a-Lago, it could potentially discover &#8220;America&#8217;s vulnerabilities or the weaknesses of the United States military.&#8221;
&#8220;Think about how that could be exploited, how that could be used against us in a conflict, how an enemy could develop countermeasures, things like that,&#8221; he said. &#8220;Or in the case of the most significant piece that was raised in the allegation about U.S. plans to attack Iran, think about how that affects our readiness, our ability to prosecute an attack, if indeed we know that Iran eventually develops a nuclear weapon and we need to act on it.&#8221;
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&#8220;I mean, those things affect our ability to effectively execute policy and could also affect, again, the lives of our military members who are sent forward to do such type of operations,&#8221; he added. &#8220;So, I&#8217;m quite concerned about this. These are very serious allegations and need to be taken seriously by everybody involved.&#8221;

Senate Holds Confirmation Hearing For Mark Esper For Secretary Of Defense

Trump’s Defense Secretary Explains How His Retention Of Classified Docs Could Harm U.S. National Security

Trump's Defense Secretary Explains How His Retention Of Classified Docs Could Harm U.S. National Security

classified documents

Courts

Donald Trump

Mark Esper

Politics

Then-President Donald Trump reportedly asked then-Secretary of Defense Mark Esper in 2020 about launching missiles into Mexico to destroy drug cartel labs, according to a new book.
Esper claims in &#8220;A Sacred Oath,&#8221; which is expected to be released next week, that the idea from Trump came out of his frustration about the constant flow of drugs across the southern border.
Trump reportedly asked Esper at least twice if the U.S. military could &#8220;shoot missiles into Mexico to destroy the drug labs,&#8221; noting that the Mexican government did not &#8220;have control of their own country.&#8221;
&#8220;When Mr. Esper raised various objections, Mr. Trump said that &#8216;we could just shoot some Patriot missiles and take out the labs, quietly,&#8217; adding that &#8216;no one would know it was us,’” The New York Times <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2022/05/05/us/politics/mark-esper-book-trump.html">reported</a>. &#8220;Mr. Trump said he would just say that the United States had not conducted the strike, Mr. Esper recounts, writing that he would have thought it was a joke had he not been staring Mr. Trump in the face.&#8221;
Trump had also pushed to <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-mexico-cartels-ebrard/mexico-thanks-trump-for-holding-off-on-terrorist-designation-for-drug-cartels-idUSKBN1YB01M">designate</a> Mexican drug cartels as terrorists in 2019 before ultimately holding off on doing so at the request of Mexican President Lopez Obrador.
Mexican drug cartels, officially referred to as Mexican Transnational Criminal Organizations (TCOs), are the greatest drug trafficking threat that the U.S. faces, according to the DEA, which <a href="https://www.dea.gov/sites/default/files/2021-02/DIR-008-21%202020%20National%20Drug%20Threat%20Assessment_WEB.pdf">notes</a> that they &#8220;control most of the U.S. drug market and have established varied transportation routes, have advanced communications capabilities, and hold strong affiliations with criminal groups and gangs in the United States.&#8221;
U.S. officials say that the Mexican cartels have established clandestine laboratories in Mexico for the synthesis of fentanyl and other drugs.
The Mexican drug cartels remain the primary source for illicit drugs ranging from fentanyl to methamphetamines in the U.S., and they produce the drugs in &#8220;industrial scale laboratories&#8221; with precursor chemicals that come from China.
&#8220;Chemical shipments are mislabeled at the origin, shipped to legitimate companies, and then diverted by the TCO and smuggled to the clandestine laboratories,&#8221; the DEA notes.
The DEA adds that the Mexican drug cartels &#8220;control most of the U.S. drug market and have established varied transportation routes, have advanced communications capabilities, and hold strong affiliations with criminal groups and gangs in the United States.&#8221;
&#8220;Mexican TCOs export significant wholesale quantities of fentanyl, heroin, methamphetamine, cocaine, and marijuana into the United States annually,&#8221; the report added. &#8220;DEA considers the following nine Mexican TCOs as having the greatest drug trafficking impact on the United States: Sinaloa Cartel, CJNG, BeltranLeyva Organization, Cartel del Noreste and Los Zetas, Guerreros Unidos, Gulf Cartel, Juarez Cartel and La Linea, La Familia Michoacána, and Los Rojos.&#8221;

US-POLITICS-TRUMP

Trump Wanted To Fire Missiles Into Mexico To Destroy Drug Cartel Labs: Report

Communist China

Drug Cartels

Fentanyl

Mexico

President Donald Trump will reportedly move to &#8220;immediately fire&#8221; three top U.S. officials if he wins re-election next month and has additional planned replacements after those three are gone.
The three officials who Trump wants to immediately remove include FBI Director Christopher Wray, CIA Director Gina Haspel, and Defense Secretary Mark Esper, according to Axios. Wray and Haspel are reportedly &#8220;despised and distrusted&#8221; by the administration, and the president would have already fired both — starting with Wray — if not for politically damaging headlines in the run-up to next month&#8217;s elections.
&#8220;The view of Haspel in the West Wing is that she still sees her job as manipulating people and outcomes, the way she must have when she was working assets in the field,&#8221; a source told Axios. &#8220;It&#8217;s bred a lot of suspicion of her motives.&#8221;
Fox News host Tucker Carlson reported last month that Haspel was blocking the release of documents critical to understanding the origins of the FBI&#8217;s counterintelligence investigation into the Trump campaign in 2016. Multiple sources have told The Daily Wire the same thing.
The news comes as Trump signed a new executive order last week that will make it significantly easier for the administration to remove individuals in the federal service who are “constraining him from enacting desired policies or going after perceived enemies,” Axios added.
&#8220;Separating employees who cannot or will not meet required performance standards is important, and it is particularly important with regard to employees in confidential, policy-determining, policy-making, or policy-advocating positions,&#8221; the executive order said. &#8220;High performance by such employees can meaningfully enhance agency operations, while poor performance can significantly hinder them. Senior agency officials report that poor performance by career employees in policy-relevant positions has resulted in long delays and substandard-quality work for important agency projects, such as drafting and issuing regulations.&#8221;
CBS News Senior Investigative Correspondent Catherine Herridge <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/top-reporter-reveals-new-details-on-why-durham-report-wont-be-released-before-election?%3Futm_source=twitter&amp;utm_medium=social&amp;utm_campaign=dwtwitter">reported</a> last month that in addition to the COVID-19 pandemic being a contributing factor in slowing things down, the investigation “expanded in recent weeks” and it now “goes well beyond [the] origins of FBI Russia probe.”
Trump allegedly wants to get rid of Haspel for her opposition to declassifying documents related to the origins of the FBI&#8217;s counterintelligence investigation into the Trump campaign in 2016. The president allegedly wants to get rid of Wray for a multitude of issues, ranging from his disagreement with things the administration has said, to him not removing more FBI officials tied to the FBI&#8217;s counterintelligence investigation into the Trump campaign. Trump reportedly soured on Esper after Esper pushed back on the idea of deploying the military to stop the far-left riots over the summer.
The report also noted President Donald Trump&#8217;s frustrations with Attorney General William Barr after recent reports indicated that U.S. Attorney John Durham was not going to have a report ready before the election from his criminal investigation into the origins of the FBI&#8217;s counterintelligence investigation into the Trump campaign in 2016.
This report has been updated to include additional information.

President Trump Holds Two Campaign Rallies In Florida

Trump To ‘Immediately Fire’ Three Top U.S. Officials If He Wins Re-Election: Report

Christopher Wray

General Mark Milley, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, issued a stern warning to anyone who is thinking about exploiting the coronavirus pandemic: &#8220;That would be a terrible and tragic mistake if they thought that.&#8221;
Milley and Secretary of Defense Mark Esper made the warnings on Thursday during a Department of Defense virtual town hall.
Milley was asked about the U.S. Military&#8217;s readiness to fight during the coronavirus pandemic, which originated in China, and about America&#8217;s ability to win right now.
&#8220;I mean, I think our military, as I stated before and I wouldn&#8217;t want any mixed messages going out there to any adversaries that think they can take advantage of an opportunity, if you will, at a time of crisis,&#8221; Milley said. &#8220;That would be a terrible and tragic mistake if they thought that.&#8221;
&#8220;The U.S. military is very, very capable to conduct whatever operations are necessary to defend the American people,&#8221; Milley continued. &#8220;And we are ready today, we&#8217;ll be ready tomorrow. And we will adapt ourselves to be able to operate within a COVID-19 environment. We&#8217;re already doing that.&#8221;
&#8220;So I&#8217;m very confident in the U.S. military&#8217;s ability to respond if necessary,&#8221; Milley concluded. &#8220;Hopefully, it won&#8217;t be necessary, but we can and will, if necessary.&#8221;
Esper echoed Milley&#8217;s remarks, noting that the numerous actions taken across the military to handle the coronavirus have proved to be effective.
&#8220;At this point in time we have fewer than 2,000 of our service members infected by the virus, and most of them are mild to moderate,&#8221; Esper said. &#8220;We have a far, far, far smaller number of hospitalizations. But when you look at that number, it&#8217;s less than 2,000, it&#8217;s much lower in terms of a rate of infection than you see in our civilian counterparts.&#8221;
&#8220;I attribute that to the measures we took very early on going all the way back to, I think, 3 February, when we issued our first guidance to the field with regard to health protection,&#8221; Esper continued. &#8220;And we gave our commanders, our four-star commanders, our service secretaries, our service chiefs, I gave them the authority to implement that broad guidance as they saw best fit, depending on the types of units they have, the locations, the people, the readiness levels and all that, and they&#8217;ve done a very good job for the most part in terms of protecting our force and ensuring that mission readiness is there, and at the same time, helping protect our fellow Americans.&#8221;
Milley also had strong words for America&#8217;s enemies at the start of the month when the Trump administration announced that it was ramping up the war on drug cartels.
“There’s thousands of sailors, coast guardsmen, soldiers, airman, Marines, involved in this operation,&#8221; Milley <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/general-milley-drops-hammer-on-mexican-cartels-we-will-defend-our-country-regardless-of-the-cost">said</a>. &#8220;We came across some intelligence some time ago that the drug cartels as a result of covid-19 were going to try to take advantage of the situation and try to infiltrate additional drugs into our country.”
“We are at war with terrorists and we are at war with the drug cartels as well,” Milley continued. “This is the United States Military. You will not penetrate this country. You will not get past jump street. You’re not going to come in here and kill additional Americans. And we will marshal whatever assets are required to prevent your entry into this country to kill Americans.”

President Donald J. Trump

America’s Top Military Officer Issues Warning For Nations Thinking Of Exploiting Pandemic

COVID

Military

Secretary of Defense Mark Esper told PBS NewsHour on Thursday that the Department of Defense was taking serious action to assist the government&#8217;s response to the outbreak of the coronavirus.
&#8220;As you noted, we&#8217;re providing to the states manpower, we&#8217;re providing medical equipment and supplies. We are going to dispatch our hospital ships, one on the East Coast, one on the West Coast,&#8221; Esper told PBS&#8217;s Judy Woodruff. &#8220;We are contributing to the effort through our military research labs, where we are working mightily on both a vaccine and therapeutics.&#8221;
&#8220;The purpose of these ships, of course, are for wartime use. So they are geared to handle trauma patients. So think of people with head injuries, lacerations, broken bones, those types of things,&#8221; Esper continued. &#8220;Based on how the ships are configured, they&#8217;re not built to handle patients with infectious disease. So what we can do is, we can pull a ship into a harbor, we can dock, and we can help either pick up trauma patients from a local hospital, thus freeing up bed space for patients with COVID-19, or we could help with the overflow of trauma patients in recovery, who would come out of the hospital, again, once again, freeing up bed space for localities to put infectious, infected patients into those rooms.&#8221;
Esper then took a shot at communist China, where the virus originated, and noted that if they had not covered up the outbreak that the world would be a much different place today.
&#8220;I think we all could have benefited by having earlier notice from China that this was developing. They had known for some period of time, weeks, if not months, that this was brewing in Wuhan, and we didn&#8217;t have that type of notice, at least not that I&#8217;m aware of,&#8221; Esper said. &#8220;That would have helped a great deal in terms of containing that spread within China and then preventing, of course, the spread globally.&#8221;
WATCH:
<iframe loading="lazy" title="Defense Sec. Mark Esper on mobilizing the U.S. military to fight COVID-19" width="500" height="281" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/dHr3x3nAbl4?feature=oembed" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen></iframe>
TRANSCRIPT:
<blockquote>Judy Woodruff:
And now we turn to the U.S. military and defense community&#8217;s role in the fight against COVID-19.
Late this afternoon, I spoke with Secretary of Defense Mark Esper, who was at the Pentagon.
Secretary Mark Esper, thank you very much for joining us.
Let&#8217;s start with COVID-19. We are told the military gearing up in a big way, sending a hospital ship, one to each coast, providing hospital beds on land, providing masks and other material.
It&#8217;s a lot. Is it going to be enough?
Secretary Mark Esper:
I think so, Judy. We&#8217;re putting all of our efforts into this.
As you noted, we&#8217;re providing to the states manpower, we&#8217;re providing medical equipment and supplies. We are going to dispatch our hospital ships, one on the East Coast, one on the West Coast. We are contributing to the effort through our military research labs, where we are working mightily on both a vaccine and therapeutics.
So we&#8217;re doing everything we can to help with this effort and to help protect the American people.
Judy Woodruff:
Mr. Secretary, on the military ships, our understanding is they would be used to handle the overflow of seriously ill patients from hospitals, so that on-land hospitals would work with the COVID-19 patients. Is that right?
Secretary Mark Esper:
Slightly right.
So, the purpose of these ships, of course, are for wartime use. So they are geared to handle trauma patients. So think of people with head injuries, lacerations, broken bones, those types of things.
Based on how the ships are configured, they&#8217;re not built to handle patients with infectious disease. So what we can do is, we can pull a ship into a harbor, we can dock, and we can help either pick up trauma patients from a local hospital, thus freeing up bed space for patients with COVID-1, or we could help with the overflow of trauma patients in recovery, who would come out of the hospital, again, once again, freeing up bed space for localities to put infectious, infected patients into those rooms.
Judy Woodruff:
Reserve forces, Mr. Secretary, you said you have tried to avoid calling them up to the extent it would hurt any vital role they&#8217;re playing in their community.
So, how you thinking about that in terms of using active-duty forces vs. the Reserves and making the tough decision whether to pull them out?
Secretary Mark Esper:
Well, it&#8217;s first important to note that 29 of the states now have activated the National Guard.
The National Guard is a very capable force. I served in the National Guard for many years, so I know what they can do. And what I have said with regard to the Reservists is this. As we look at activating, whether it&#8217;s the hospital ships or our field-deployable hospitals, one of the challenges we face is that many of the medical professionals that would staff those hospitals would — could come from the Reserves.
So we have to be very conscious as we do this to make sure we&#8217;re not pulling required medical personal, professionals out of a civilian role that is needed and putting them into a military role and deploying them somewhere else.
Judy Woodruff:
And, as you think of the National Guard, we are told that the head of the Guard is saying they shouldn&#8217;t be nationalized quickly.
But could the situation become so serious that that has to happen?
Secretary Mark Esper:
Well, they&#8217;re — we don&#8217;t see a need to federalize the National Guard either.
What that means is, we&#8217;d end up pulling them into a national basis. I think the best use of the Guard right now is doing what they are doing. And that is working in what we call a Title 32 status for the governors of their states and then dealing with the challenges that the governor needs them to deal with at the state and local level.
As need be, we can always supplement them with Federal Reserve troops or active-component troops. But, again, that&#8217;s not on the drawing board at this point in time.
Judy Woodruff:
And what is the main role right now for active-duty troops in the U.S.?
Secretary Mark Esper:
Well, I like to say and I like to remind the American people, if not reassure them, that the United States military remains ready and capable to protect the country and defend our interests abroad.
And right now, that is our primary mission. We also have all these other capabilities that I mentioned up front that we&#8217;re providing to the COVID-19 effort. That includes, again, everything from military research on vaccines, on therapeutics, to providing military, medical equipment out of our strategic stockpiles, to making available medical professionals, and to helping out any way a state needs help.
Judy Woodruff:
Is there a conflict, Mr. Secretary, between having these service members do their jobs, protecting the country, and keeping them safe from COVID-19?
How are you doing that, number one? And we know that, what, 81 Defense Department employees are now infected, several dozen service members. How do you look upon keeping them safe, at the same time they&#8217;re doing their job?
Secretary Mark Esper:
It&#8217;s a very good question.
We took very aggressive measures several weeks ago to get ahead of this and stay ahead of it. So, for example, we stopped what we call permanent change of station moves in between overseas and the United States.
We ultimately moved that to moves within the United States. We have also put quarantines on people traveling between bases, certainly those traveling home. We have asked people to self-isolate as need be.
We have instituted a wide range of procedures across the force, to include here at the Pentagon, where we&#8217;re exercising a great deal of social distancing. We&#8217;re wiping down tables and doorknobs.
In fact, I do video teleconferences with the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and my deputy. So we&#8217;re talking all kinds of measures across the force to ensure the protection of our troops and, by the way, our family members and our beneficiaries.
And, as you noted, we have a few dozen right now who have the virus. Actually, it&#8217;s 51 uniformed military. I had a chance to talk with a few of them already in the past few days. They&#8217;re doing well.
But we&#8217;re taking great care to make sure the force is well-protected. We&#8217;re blessed with a young, robust, healthy, fit force that has great medical care. So I&#8217;m confident that they will fare well.
Judy Woodruff:
You talked about preparation.
I want to ask you about a New York Times story that has come out just today that reports on exercises that were conducted inside the Trump administration, anticipating a global pandemic, laying out clearly what the risks would be, but that it all happened many layers down in the bureaucracy, that people at the highest levels of the government, it never demonstrated the sense of urgency that would normally have been expected.
So, when President Trump said the other day nobody ever thought of numbers like this, this report says that, in fact, people in the federal government did know that this was possible.
Were you aware of these exercises, Secretary?
Secretary Mark Esper:
Well, I&#8217;m not familiar with — I&#8217;m not familiar with that report. I haven&#8217;t seen it.
But I will tell you that DOD has a number of plans out there to deal with pandemics. We have exercised them in the past. We exercised them early on when this first hit. I think it was late January, early February. It&#8217;s what we do. We&#8217;re familiar with it, and I think that&#8217;s kept us in good stead.
Judy Woodruff:
Did the U.S. military medical service, which, of course, keeps an eye on outbreaks around the world, did they notify you and others in the Pentagon when this first broke in Wuhan, China?
Secretary Mark Esper:
Well, I&#8217;m not — I couldn&#8217;t go back and tell you the timing off the top of my head.
But, of course, we have a great epidemiological surveillance system out there. Our doctors are the best in the world. I was at Fort Detrick, Maryland, just a couple of days ago, where the military&#8217;s premier infectious disease researchers are located.
You may recall these are the doctors and other professionals who helped resolve Ebola and Zika and other diseases. So, we stay on top of these things. It&#8217;s a part and parcel of what we do in order to protect our force to ensure we&#8217;re mission-capable.
And they, to this day, to this moment, are still on top of this, making sure that we&#8217;re taking every action we can to both work on and develop therapeutics and a vaccine.
Judy Woodruff:
In retrospect, just quickly, though, do you think you were made aware of the serious threat this poses soon enough, that you had enough warning, because, as you know, people are asking now whether the administration could have moved more quickly and earlier?
Secretary Mark Esper:
I think the administration has moved very quickly.
I think we all could have benefited by having earlier notice from China that this was developing. They had known for some period of time, weeks, if not months, that this was brewing in Wuhan, and we didn&#8217;t have that type of notice, at least not that I&#8217;m aware of.
That would have helped a great deal in terms of containing that spread within China and then preventing, of course, the spread globally. But, again, as soon as we heard about it, we began taking actions. I&#8217;m confident the administration acted quickly. We have a great team that&#8217;s advising the president.
The president has made some really bold decisions, and acted in — with great alacrity to make sure that we stayed on top of this and are doing everything we can to protect the American people.
Judy Woodruff:
Well, there certainly has been criticism of China for covering this up in the early days, no question about it.
But now that it&#8217;s a global pandemic — and we know the president has called it the Chinese virus — but now that it is a pandemic, how do you see the need to continue to work with Chinese military leaders, for example? Are you still in touch with them on any sort of regular basis?
Secretary Mark Esper:
Well, it is a global pandemic, and so we need to work together globally to deal with it, both certainly at this point on the mitigation, and I&#8217;m sure we&#8217;re working together with many of our allies and partners on therapeutics and vaccines.
With regard to your — the second part of your question, we do. We talk often with our counterparts in China. I think I spoke to my counterpart several weeks ago. At the time, I offered our assistance to China with regard to providing doctors and others to come help them to study the disease and whatnot.
But it&#8217;s important that we maintain those open communications, not just for COVID-19, but, of course, for anywhere we are in the world where our militaries are interacting with one another.
So, it&#8217;s one of the priorities I have placed, is establishing those lines of communication. I do it at my level. The chairman of Joint Chiefs of Staff does it at his level. Throughout the organization, we try and keep close ties or open ties with China and other countries.
Judy Woodruff:
And, finally, just quickly, Mr. Secretary, has this outbreak, this crisis given you a new understanding of the role of the Pentagon, the role of the Defense Department in keeping America safe?
Secretary Mark Esper:
You know, it&#8217;s another aspect of what we do, in terms of providing support to the civilian authorities and support to the American people to help protect them.
As I said, I served 10 years on active duty, 11 years in the Guard Reserve. And during my time at least in the Virginia Guard, I got called out once or twice to help with a flood or hurricane. So this is another mission we do, whether it&#8217;s floods and hurricanes, wildfires, you name it.
Clearly, this is unprecedented in many ways, at least in my lifetime, with the scale, scope, speed at which this virus has spread around the country.
But, look, DOD is fully committed to doing everything we can to help the American people to mitigate this virus, contain it as best we can, and, at the same time, ensuring we provide for the nation&#8217;s security.
And so I&#8217;m very proud of the men and women in uniform, of our families and our DOD civilians for everything they&#8217;re doing to help out in this one-team effort.
Judy Woodruff:
Secretary of Defense Mark Esper, we thank you very much.
Secretary Mark Esper:
Thank you, Judy.</blockquote>

WATCH: Defense Sec. Mark Esper On Mobilizing U.S. Military To Fight Coronavirus

China

Secretary of Defense Mark Esper told Fox News on Tuesday night that the U.S. military was ready to jump in and help manage the coronavirus outbreak in the U.S. if the situation continues to deteriorate.
Esper made the remarks during &#8220;Special Report&#8221; with Fox News anchor Bret Baier as confirmed cases in the U.S. soared past 6,000 cases and 100 deaths.
&#8220;We are making available our field hospitals and our hospital ships as they become available,&#8221; Esper said. &#8220;We, of course, can &#8212; we have the National Guard that has already been activated in 18 states. Nearly 2,000 Guardsmen are available. And, also, we&#8217;re doing considerable work in terms of our vaccines and therapeutics.&#8221;
&#8220;I had the chance today to go to Fort Detrick in Maryland,&#8221; Esper continued. &#8220;It is a world-class facility. The U.S. Army there has been on the cutting edge of a number of infectious diseases. As you may recall, they helped with the solution to both Ebola and Zika. And they are working pretty aggressively to come up with a vaccine for the coronavirus.&#8221;
WATCH:
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TRANSCRIPT:
<blockquote>BRET BAIER, FOX NEWS ANCHOR: The Pentagon is heavily involved in the coronavirus response and the search for a vaccine, in fact.
Here to talk about all of that is Defense Secretary Mark Esper. He joins us from the Pentagon.
Mr. Secretary, thanks for being here.
MARK ESPER, U.S. DEFENSE SECRETARY: Thanks, Bret. Thank you for having me.
BAIER: I understand you just got off the phone with the governor of New York, Andrew Cuomo.
Can you tell us about that conversation? The governor had been wanting to deploy Army Corps of Engineers. Will you?
ESPER: Sure.
Let me say one thing, first of all. I want to assure all of your viewers that the United States military remains ready and capable of defending the American people, protecting the nation and safeguarding our interests abroad.
And, in that context, our second focus has been on supporting the President and the whole-of-government approach to the coronavirus.
Now, in that context, I have had a call with a number of governors this &#8212; today, this morning. Later today, I had a call with Governor Cuomo. We had a very good conversation.
He is very interested in getting the Corps of Engineers engaged, because what he sees is a deficit, if you will, in hospital beds in New York state as he looks ahead to what may be coming.
I gave him my full commitment that we would get the Corps of Engineers up there soonest to assess the problem and see how we can help out.
BAIER: So, today, you announced you would be giving 5 million respirator masks and 2,000 ventilators to HHS to slow the outbreak.
You also said that that&#8217;s just a drop in the bucket. What else could the U.S. military do, potentially?
ESPER: Sure, Bret.
We&#8217;re leaning in, in a number of ways. So we&#8217;re offering up the ventilators, protective gear, as &#8212; some of which you mentioned. We are making available our field hospitals and our hospital ships as they become available.
We, of course, can &#8212; we have the National Guard that has already been activated in 18 states. Nearly 2,000 Guardsmen are available. And, also, we&#8217;re doing considerable work in terms of our vaccines and therapeutics.
I had the chance today to go to Fort Detrick in Maryland. It is a world-class facility. The U.S. Army there has been on the cutting edge of a number of infectious diseases. As you may recall, they helped with the solution to both Ebola and Zika.
And they are working pretty aggressively to come up with a vaccine for the coronavirus.
BAIER: Well, what are the estimates there? Tell me about that Fort Detrick visit. What are they saying? Is it along the same lines of a year to 18 months? Or are they hoping to get something quicker?
ESPER: They&#8217;re still looking at a 12-to-18-month period, although there are outside companies that think they can cut that time down a little bit, in which case, again, the U.S. military would be standing by ready to support and accelerate any type of production efforts. But I think the 12-to-18-month timeline is what we&#8217;re looking at.
Now, in the meantime, they&#8217;re also working on therapeutics, ways to address symptoms, et cetera. And that work is under way as well. And then the third part of this &#8212; and we&#8217;re working very closely, I should say, with HHS &#8212; is accelerating the development of new testing mechanisms, so we can do testing for Americans in volume.
And that seems to be very promising too.
BAIER: U.S. military members infected went from 18 to 36 today, doubling.
How worried are you? You have got obviously Navy sailors on ships. You have got some on submarines. Obviously, there&#8217;s a lot of close quarters when you talk about different elements of the U.S. military. How worried, as defense secretary, are you about the spread of this virus?
ESPER: I am concerned about our force and our families. That&#8217;s my top priority in &#8212; with regard to the coronavirus, followed by maintaining our mission capabilities.
But I will tell you, we also have a very young, robust and healthy Army, Navy, Air Force and Marines. And I think they&#8217;re sustaining this pretty well.
We&#8217;re also taking a lot of actions that have been devised by CDC into account and implementing them, such as social distancing, changing our habits, using sanitary wipes to wipe down equipment and doorknobs and things like that. We&#8217;re taking a number of precautions.
When you &#8212; when you escalate up to ships at sea, for example, when a crew goes aboard, they have 14 days at least between stops, between port calls, so that they&#8217;re not transmitting the virus ashore.
So we&#8217;re taking any number of measures to make sure that we protect the force and we sustain our ability to react and respond to any challenges or any threats.
BAIER: Mr. Secretary, I guess the question I get most &#8212; and we&#8217;re going to deal with viewers&#8217; questions in a segment or two about, how bad could this get? And how different is it from H1N1? And what is the difference?
We listen to, obviously, all the experts say about the contagious nature of it, the fact that the elderly and also the immune-deficient really get hit hard.
But you have been in these classified briefings. How bad could it get?
ESPER: Look, I think what you&#8217;re hearing publicly from the CDC is what I&#8217;m hearing privately as well in terms of the range of estimates.
I think the decisive action that President Trump took here in the last 24 hours, 48 hours to ask the American people to stand down, to stay in for the next 15 days, to avoid large groups, will go a long way towards breaking the cycle, if we can, and flattening out that curve.
And that&#8217;s all the same things I&#8217;m hearing privately from our experts. From DOD&#8217;s perspective, again, I need to maintain the force, maintain our national military mission capabilities. And we&#8217;re taking all positive actions to do such that we have plans in place. We have been implementing them now for several weeks.
And we&#8217;re also wanting to lean forward and support, again, the whole-of-government approach to assist the American people.
BAIER: Last thing.
I know where we are now with the guidelines out of the CDC. But have you been asked to look at options how the U.S. military would deal with some sort of national quarantine or factor into that at all?
ESPER: Well, what we&#8217;re looking at is not necessarily a national quarantine, but how can we help affected areas, whether it&#8217;s states or localities?
Our first line of defense right now is the National Guard. I was a Guardsman for many years, so I know their mission. They&#8217;re doing a great job. And, like I said, I talked to a few governors today about how we can improve the mission.
But we also have other capabilities, such as our hospital ships, our field hospitals, our deployable equipment and assets, and the Reserves, and the active component, if it gets to that, to assist localities.
The challenge we face, though, is so much of our gear and our capabilities are focused toward trauma. And, at the same time, those same hospitals, they often draw from the Reserves, which means the civilian work force.
So, we&#8217;re very conscious, as we deploy field hospitals, that we&#8217;re not robbing Peter to pay Paul when it comes to medical professionals. So, as we sort through the problems, as we respond to states and cities and localities, we want to make sure we&#8217;re conscious of what we&#8217;re doing, and that we&#8217;re not creating problems elsewhere in the force.
BAIER: Defensive Secretary Mark Esper, Mr. Secretary, we appreciate your time.
ESPER: Thanks, Bret.​</blockquote>

Senate Committee Hears Testimony From Defense Secretary Esper And Joint Chiefs Of Staff Chairman Milley

Defense Secretary Esper Details Ways U.S. Military Ready To Intervene In Coronavirus Crisis

On Sunday, responding to CNN’s Jake Tapper on &#8220;State of the Union&#8221; consistently attacking President Trump’s decision to kill Iranian general Qassem Soleimani as Tapper kept pressing about the intelligence that showed the arch-terrorist was an imminent threat, Defense Secretary Mark Esper, quietly exasperated, finally snapped, “I&#8217;d rather be here discussing this topic with you than going up to Dover Air Force Base and standing there while flag-draped coffins come home.”
The exchange that prompted Esper’s remark went like this:
Tapper: So let&#8217;s start with &#8212; President Trump said on Friday the Iranians were plotting to target four U.S. embassies, including the one in Baghdad. Other administration officials say the intelligence was not that specific. Was there specific intelligence that the Iranians were plotting to attack four U.S. embassies?
Esper: Well, let me say one thing up front first, to your viewers, to the American people. The United States is safer today than we were just a few short weeks ago. Why? Because we eliminated the world&#8217;s foremost terrorist, Qasem Soleimani, who had the blood of hundreds of American service members on his hands.
Secondly, we restored deterrence with Iran. And we did so without American casualties. And, third, we reassured our friends and allies in the region that the United States will stand up and defend our interests. And I want to thank all of our brave service members who are deployed 
for what they did, for their brilliance in executing this very important mission.
Tapper: Okay, what about the intelligence? Was there specific intelligence the Iranians were plotting to target four U.S. Embassies?
Esper: There was intelligence that they had; there was an intent to target the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad. What the president said with regard to the four embassies is what I believe as well. And he said he believed that they probably, that they could have been targeting the embassies in the region. I believe that as well, as did other national security team members. That is why I deployed thousands of additional paratroopers to the region to reinforce our embassy in Baghdad and to reinforce other locations throughout the region.
Tapper: Well, Soleimani was a horrible guy, and he killed a lot of innocent people, and he killed a lot of U.S. soldiers. There&#8217;s no question about any of that. But&#8230;
Esper: For 20-plus years.
Tapper: But the question is not whether he posed a threat in an existential way, because he did. I mean he&#8217;d been doing it for years. But was there specific intelligence that he was plotting to attack four U.S. embassies? Did you see any intelligence like that?
Esper: I&#8217;m not going to discuss intelligence matters here on the show. Let me just say&#8230;
Tapper: The president did, though.
Esper: It&#8217;s the president&#8217;s prerogative. But what the president said was, he believed. He said he could have been targeting, all those things that I believe as well, that the national security team believes as well. The important thing is this. Soleimani orchestrated, resourced, directed the attacks, escalating up to the December 1 that killed an American. He orchestrated the siege on the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad, and he was planning this much broader plot in multiple countries that would be bigger in scale, and that likely would have taken us to open hostility with Iran. In fact, a very, very senior intelligence community official said to us that the risk of inaction is greater than risk of action. To me, that is very compelling.
Tapper: The president has discussed probably that he believed — and a belief is not the same thing as there was evidence. I mean, you could believe that Soleimani would have attacked the Eiffel Tower. That&#8217;s not necessarily based in evidence. I mean, he could have been. He posed a threat.
Esper: Well, there was evidence — there was evidence that part of the attack would be against the United States Embassy.
Tapper: In Baghdad?
Esper: In Baghdad.
Tapper: But what about the four embassies?
Esper: I&#8217;m not going to discuss intelligence. What the president said was, he believed it probably could have been. He didn&#8217;t cite intelligence.
Tapper: He said it was his belief. But, I mean, I guess the important matter here is, look, no one is disputing that Soleimani posed an existential threat to innocent people. But the president came out and said that there was that he believed there was a threat to four embassies. Were those four embassies alerted that there was a threat to them?
Esper: All the embassies were alerted. That&#8217;s why I deployed additional troops to the region. And let me say this much, Jake. I&#8217;m glad we&#8217;re having this discussion today, because I&#8217;d rather be here discussing this topic with you than going up to Dover Air Force Base and standing there while flag-draped coffins come home, and I have to explain to husbands and wives, sons and daughters why their service member died, when I had information that could have prevented that from happening.
Video below:
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Defense Secretary Mark Esper And Joint Chiefs Of Staff Chairman Army Gen. Mark Milley Brief The Media At The Pentagon

WATCH: Def Sec Esper Fires At Tapper: ‘I’d Rather Be Here Discussing This Topic With You Than Going Up To Dover Air Force Base And Standing There While Flag-Draped Coffins Come Home’

Jake Tapper

Secretary of Defense Mark Esper told CBS News&#8217; Margaret Brennan on Sunday about a key assessment that he received from a top level U.S. intelligence official that he said was &#8220;compelling&#8221; when decisions were apparently made about the operation to take out Qassem Soleimani.
&#8220;We are safer today than we were just a few weeks ago,&#8221; Esper told CBS News. &#8220;Why? Because we took out the world&#8217;s foremost terrorist leader, Qassem Soleimani, who had the blood of hundreds of American dead service members on his hands. Secondly, we restored deterrence with Iran without any United States casualties. And, third, we reassured our partners and allies in the region that we will stand up and defend our interests.&#8221;
When asked about Trump&#8217;s comments from a Friday interview on Fox News about the terrorist attacks that Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps-Quds Force commander Qassem Soleimani was planning on four U.S. embassies, Esper responded, &#8220;Well, what the president said was he believed that it probably and could have been attacks against additional embassies. I shared that view. I know other members of [the] National Security Team shared that view. That&#8217;s why I deployed thousands of American paratroopers to the Middle East to reinforce our embassy in Baghdad and other sites throughout the region.&#8221;
&#8220;The description had been that this was an imminent threat to U.S. personnel and facilities in the region,&#8221; Brennan stated. “Is that a more accurate description than what the president provided?”
“We had information that there was going to be [an] attack within a matter of days that would be broad in scale, in other words, more than one country, and that it would be bigger than previous attacks, likely going to take us into open hostilities with Iran,” Esper replied.
Esper then revealed a key assessment that he received from a top U.S. intelligence official when weighing the risks of taking out Soleimani.
&#8220;In fact, a very, very senior person from the intelligence community said the risk of inaction is greater than the risk of action,&#8221; Esper said. &#8220;That was compelling for me.&#8221;
&#8220;Is that threat gone?&#8221; Brennan asked.
&#8220;That threat has been disrupted,&#8221; Esper responded. &#8220;I think what we have to find out now is continue to work to make sure that that threat is completely eliminated.&#8221;
WATCH:
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
.<a href="https://twitter.com/EsperDoD?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@EsperDoD</a> says he “didn&#39;t see” specific evidence showing Iran planned to strike 4 embassies as Trump has claimed. <a href="https://t.co/q23RZg3jAm">https://t.co/q23RZg3jAm</a> <a href="https://t.co/coUekNqyD6">pic.twitter.com/coUekNqyD6</a>
&mdash; Face The Nation (@FaceTheNation) <a href="https://twitter.com/FaceTheNation/status/1216449865884061696?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 12, 2020</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
Esper later addressed the current protests in Iran over the Ukrainian passenger plane that was shot down last week.
&#8220;If you look at what&#8217;s happening on the ground today, you have just yesterday in Tehran and other cities, Iranians chanting, &#8216;Death to the Ayatollah. We don&#8217;t &#8212; we don&#8217;t think America is our enemy,'&#8221; Esper added. &#8221; You can see the &#8212; the Iranian people are standing up and asserting their rights, their aspirations for a better government, a different &#8212; a different regime. we do stand with the Iranian people. They want the same things that most people around the world want. They want prosperity. They want the ability to &#8212; to live their lives, to raise their children. And we do support those same aspirations for people wherever they are. I just think you see a very corrupt regime that the Iranian people are finally standing up and trying to hold them accountable.&#8221;

Defense Secretary Mark Esper Reveals Soleimani Assessment He Received From Top Official

Iran

On Tuesday, Defense Secretary Mark Esper issued a warning to Iran if it has any desire to promote further conflict with the United States, asserting, “The United States is not seeking a war with Iran but we are prepared to finish one.”
Speaking to reporters at the Pentagon, Esper continued, “We are seeking a diplomatic solution, but first this will require Iran to deescalate, it will require the regime to come to the table with the goal of preventing further bloodshed … We are open to having this discussion with them but we are just as prepared to deliver a forceful response to defend our interests. . . . The architects of terror should know that we will not tolerate attacks against America’s people and interests and will exercise our right to self defense should that become necessary once again,” as <a href="https://thehill.com/policy/defense/477204-trump-defense-chief-us-not-seeking-war-with-iran-but-prepared-to-finish-one">The Hill</a> reported.
Esper stated that the attack planned by Iranian general Qassem Soleimani that was the cause of the airstrike ordered by President Trump killing Soleimani was assessed at being “days away,” adding, “He was a legitimate target and his time was due.”
Esper dismissed reports that U.S. forces would withdraw from Iraq, stating, “To the best of my knowledge I haven’t seen any communication from [the Iraqi prime minister] or the Iraqi government about the legislation or about an order or a request to withdraw U.S. forces.” He also said he has been in communication with commanders in the armed forces “to ensure they have the resources they need to protect their people and prepare for any contingencies. As a result, we’ve increased our force protection postures across the region and will continue to reposition and bolster our forces as necessary.”
On Tuesday President Trump <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/watch-trump-on-soleimani-he-was-a-monster-and-hes-no-longer-a-monster-hes-dead">told reporters</a>, “I will say this: if Iran does anything they shouldn’t be doing, they will be suffering the consequences and very strongly.”
Also on Tuesday, National Security Advisor Robert O’Brien appeared on <a href="https://www.foxnews.com/media/robert-obrien-iran-national-security-united-nations">Fox &amp; Friends</a>, where he asserted, “The president believes that weakness is provocative, and I think we have seen that throughout history. It’s something that’s been a cornerstone of President Trump’s foreign policy and national security policy … Soleimani and the Iranian regime knew exactly what they were doing. And what I think they did is they underestimated the president and his restraint.”
On Monday, as <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/trump-sends-strong-message-to-iran-amid-threats-of-retaliation">The Daily Wire</a> reported, Esper stated:
<blockquote>First of all, we continue to deploy forces and reposition forces throughout the region to bolster our security, our force protection, and also to be prepared for any contingency, Number two, over the last several days I&#8217;ve had conversations with many, many of our allies and partners about the situation in – in Iraq and the region. I got to tell you it&#8217;s been uniform support for our position and for our actions and I continue to convey to them the importance we place on continuing the defeat ISIS mission for those who are involved in that operation [and] for our commitment to partnering with Iraq going forward.
And number three, to the mission that we&#8217;ve always said about deterring Iranian bad behavior and standing up to this malign behavior that has been ever present now for 40-plus years. And number three, on the diplomatic front part and parcel to this conversation has been what I&#8217;ve said to them, is that – is that we remain prepared for any contingency with regard to Iran. That our message to Iran is that the ball is in their court.</blockquote>

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