Deadly shooting right now. The ups driver was identified as 27yearold frank or ton ord of. His family said police were trigger happy. The two suspects, 41yearold lamar alexander, and robbie jerome hill, are accused of trying to rob a Jewelry Store in coral gables late thursday afternoon. They opened fire inside the store, injuring an employee there, then ran off and carjacked the ups truck with the driver inside the vehicle. Police say he was held hostage by the robbers while they led police on a live televised chase that ended in a shootout at a busy intersection in miramar, florida. As many as 18 officers from four different agencies exchanged gunfire with the suspects and both suspects, the ups driver, and an innocent bystander sitting in his car at the stoplight were killed. Police say they are not to blame for the civilian death. The officers were victimized as well by being shot at and not once did they pause or did they back up because if they would have done that and these individuals continued to carjack other people or enter a business nearby with the vehicle stopped, therare plenty of commercial establishments nearby, this could have gone worse. Reporter the family describes Frank Ordonez as a loving father who leaves behind two daughters this holiday season. His brother blames Law Enforcement for the deadly outcome. Hits unclear if the family plans to take legal action. One brother is raising money for the lawyer and to cover funeral expenses. Its a bad dream i hope to wake up from and see him here. This is a wild, wild west shootout that should have never happened. Reporter both suspects have criminal histories. Its early in the investigative process and an fbi special agent in charge said thursday theres a lot of Unanswered Questions here. Arthel so very dragic. Christina, thank you. Eric at this hour, theres new information on the you saudi national, a Second Lieutenant in the Saudi Air Force who opened fire at a naval base in pensacola florida. Well have more on that in a moment. Lets go to secretary of defense, mark esper, who is talking with our bret baier as we watch. Dr. Mark esper. [ applause ] thanks, michael, for that kind introduction. And i guess im going to have to double up on my Christmas Gift to tom greko for his kind words. I also want to thank the Reagan Institute for inviting me here today. Its a true privilege and honor. Theres a lot of friends of mine out there in the audience. I attended this forum every year since its inception in 2012 and i found this to be an incredibly important venue to discuss the state of our National Defense. Its quite fitting to have this discussion here at the Ronald Reagan president al library of to pay tribute to a leader who did so much to enhance our military strength and our nations security during a time of profound consequence and change. Just like today. And on a personal note, i always enjoyed walking through the halls and looking at the photos, as some of my closer friends know, my mothers side of the family are reagans from county cork and over the years my mom has claimed we have a relationship with president reagan. Ive often pressed her for evidence. None has been forthcoming. So my only other request of the library is this. As you go through your files, if you find that relationship, call me. If you dont, ill give you her cell phone number. Dont want to make mom mad when president reagan took office he faced a large task, building a military capability of defeating the soviet union. He got to work, highlighted the dangers of insufficient spending. He secured substantial budget increases from congress and advocated reform that delivered savings back to the department. He spoke fiercely about peace through strength and launched a major effort to modernize our nuclear arsenal. He held innovation and rd funding as the key to american advantage over our adversaries. He articulated this vision of american strength and Global Engagement in our nations First Ever National security strategy. Most importantly, he inspired us. He gave u you us confidence. He brought a commitment to American Values, such as freedom, human rights and the rule of law. He embodied these ideas as he rallied against the threat of communism. He stood for peace during Nuclear Weapons negotiations with the soviet and he called on gore bagorbachev to tear down ts wall. To say the world has changed since then would be an judge understatement but his strategy to secure peace for america and for the world remain as relevant today as they were in his time. And this new era of great power, competition, our war fighting advantages over strategic competitors are being call challenged. The interrules based order is increasingly under attack. China and russia, todays revisionist powers, are modernizing their militaries while seeking power over the economic and security decisions of other nations. Chinas economic rise allowed it to triple its annual military spending since 2002 with estimates reaching close to 250 billion last year. Beijing continues to violate the sovereignity of indoug indopacic nations and expand its influence abroad. It is pursuing competitive advantages, often in illicit ways in emerging technologies like Artificial Intelligence and 5g while exploiting intellectual property for its own gain. Russia is intent on upending international normals, through intimidation and cyber operations. It violated the borders of its neighbors in the pursuit of dominance. Elsewhere, we face ongoing threats from rogue regime including north koreas Nuclear Weapons program and irans continued efforts to destabilize the middle east. Around the world, terrorist organizations suchs isis continue to pose a threat to the United States and our allies. This environment presents us with a host of challenges we must overcome to compete, deter and if necessary to fight and win tomorrows wars. Winning future battles requires us to contend with our competitors growing capabilities and emerging technologies. We must develop and deploy new war fighting doctrine including multidemand operations and command and control, to be prepared to fight not just in the air, on land and at sea, but also in space, and cyberspace. This requires a robust Defense Budget and continued investments in our readiness and our modernization. It requires us to make tough choices to ensure our resources go to the right priorities. It requires an emphasis on innovation, and cutting edge techs followings and it requires us to leverage our growing network of allies and partners. The National Defense strategy remains our guiding beacon to meet these needs. Our focus is on three major lines of effort. Enhancing our militarys readiness, strengthening our alliances and attracting new partners, and reforming a department that makes sure our arthel we need to interrupt secretary hes per momentarily to bring you remarks made by President Trump moments ago. Listen to the president. We have the strongest economy in the world, 266,000 jobs, you can add another 40 to that, about 300,000 jobs. Very importantly, 50 or 55 you 0 manufacturing jobs. Our economy is the envy of the world. Were going to keep it that way. Thats very important. I spoke with the king of you saudsaudiarabia. Theyre devastated in saudi arabia, finding out what took place, whether its one person or a number of people, and the king will be involved in taking care of families and loved ones. He feels very strongly, hes very, very devastated by what happened, what took place. Likewise, the crown prince, they are devastated by what took place in pensacola. I think theyre going to help out the families very greatly. But right now, they send their cotonco condolences. As you know, i sent my condolences, very shocking thing. Well find out. Well get to the bottom of it. This has been done for many decades. I guess we have to look into the whole thing immediately. And other than that, does anybody have any questions . Mr. President [ indiscernible ] i just know he came back from someplace and hes going to make a report, i think the attorney general and the congress, hes going to give us a lot of good information. I havent spoken to him about that information. But rudy as you know has been one of the great crime fighters in the last 50 years and he did get back from europe just recently and he has not told me what hes found but i think he wants to go before congress and say and also the attorney general and the department of justice. I hear hes found plenty, yeah. How do you plan on reengaging [ indiscernible ] well see about north korea. Id be surprised if north korea acted hostiley. I have a very Good Relationship with kim jong un. I think we both want to keep it that way. He knows i have an election coming up. I dont think he wants to interfere with that. Well have to see. Hes somebody that ive gotten along with very well for three years and hes gotten along with me very well. So well see how it goes. But i really dont think he wants to interfere. I think he would like to see something happen. The relationship is very good but there is certain hostility, theres no question about it. I dont know that his relationship with south korea is very good but were going to find out. Mr. President [ indiscernible ] yeah, were very a happy. We have our hostage back, the Princeton University community is very thrilled and we are very i think it was a great thing for iran. I think it was great to show we can do something, it shows what can be done. We have our hostage back. Weve been trying to get him back. He was taken during the obama administration. We got him back during the Trump Administration so were very happy. Are you willing to meet with iran with no preconditions . I dont know. I know this. That the impeachment thing is a total hoax. The numbers are totally going our way. They dont want to see impeachment, especially in the swing states. They swung a way ive never seen them swing like this. People realize its a total hoax. We had a perfect conversation. It was only a conversation. Nothing came out of the conversation except Good Relationships with ukraine and people see that its just a continuation of this threeyear witch hunt. And im looking forward to seeing the ig report. I hear theyre announcing it on monday. And i look forward very much to seeing what happens with the durham report, maybe even more importantly. Because its a horrible thing that took place and it should never happen to another president. Ill be going to florida rigt now. We have a very, very big and successful meeting with republicans and were also meeting with committees and i believe were going to be ill see you in a little while. How many articles do you expect to be impeached on . Arthel President Trump is off to hollywood, florida where hell be speaking at an israeli american summit. Just a couple notes from the president s remarks. He mentioned he spoke to saudi arabias king who he said is devastated upon finding out what took place at the Naval Air Station in pensacola, florida, saying we will get to the bottom of this, meaning the king of saudi arabia said they will help the u. S. Get to the bottom of it. A saudi aviation student opened fire on friday. We have these topics that the president touched on. We have reporters on all of these topics. Theyll expand on everything. The president just said he seems to be pleased with the hostage swap with ra iran and he has a d relationship with kim jong un and that he does not think that kim jong un wants to interfere with the elections. So that will be interesting to watch. What we want to do now is go back to secretary of defense mark esper who is at at the Reagan Defense forum. Lets listen in and well be back after that. In fact, we continue to lose nearly 5 billion in buying power for every quarter we remain in a cr. This must end. That is why i continue to call on congress to pass an appropriations bill that provides our Service Members the support they deserve and allows the department to fully implement the National Defense strategy. [ applause ] let me repeat. Our soldiers, sailors, airmen and marines and civilians need a defense appropriations bill now. Lets get it done. In addition, we need congress to grant us the authorities required to maintain an edge over our adversaries in every war fighting domain to include space. Its essential that they fully authorize the creation of a space force as the sixth branch of the armed forces. I want to thank congress for doing that and specifically thank chairman smith and congressman thornberry as well as your counterparts in the t senate for doing that plots. Withi. [ applause ] we are freeing up time, money and man power to put into the highest priorities. We launched a review to begin reforming the fourth estate. In four months we saved over 5 billion. By decreasing overhead and reducing lower Priority Programs we were able to invest more in the war fighting requirements of the services. We cant do that without the backing of congress. When our budget comes to the hill next year, i ask you to support our proposals and enact the legislative changes needed to get these reforms across the finish line. And to be clear, this is just the beginning. I expect every leader and each military service and osd and the joint staff and in the combat and commands to review their budgets and reprioritize to support the nds. We will continue the process early next year from a clean sheet as we start looking at the 2021 budget to ensure we make the most of every taxpayer dollar. The security of the United States of america and in fact the world depends on our willingness to prepare for an uncertain future. As i meet my counterparts throughout my travels im reminded how much other nations desire americas presence and our leadership. They look to us to deter aggression, to help build their military capacity, and to promote American Values like freedom and respect for the rule of law. The United States plays a unique role in the world as a beacon of those principles. President reagan recounted a story about an american sailor on the carrier midway in the south china sea. As the crew saved a boat full of refugees ex scaping communist control, one refugee called out to an american sailor, hello, american sailor, hello, freedom man. And the president said a small amount with a big meaning, a moment the sailor who wrote it in a letter couldnt get it out of his mind and when i saw it, neither could i. Because thats what it was to be an american in the 1980s. We stood again for freedom. America was synonymous for freedom then. And it still is today. Our Service Members were seen across the world as sentinels of that freedom, then as they are today and reagan understood that American Military power was the key to security and prosperity then, just as it is today. The United States military will continue to demonstrate leadership across the globe. We will continue to uphold americas l values and as president reagan championed we will continue to promote peace through strength. Thank you all and i look forward to our discussion. [ applause ] thank you, mr. Secretary. Wonderful remarks. We now i mentioned earlier, we have a number of friends in the media. Thank you, mr. Secretary. There you go. So good afternoon. Ive done this for the past two years. I did it interviewed hr mcmaster, and a few weeks later he resigned. I interviewed secretary mattis and a few weeks later he resigned. Everything okay . [ laughter ] i guess ill have an easy christmas. Okay. Just checking. Thanks for the time. First, i want to talk about this horrible story out of pensacola. You definitively say its terrorism today . First of all, its a very tragic incident, three lives lost, eight injuries and of course we extend our condolences to all the families affected by it and touched by it and our military community down there. No, i cant say its terrorism at this time. I think we need to let the investigators, the fbi do its work and a get us the facts and well move from there. Its reported that he posted a will on twitter, praising osama bin laden. There have been multiple arrests. Any other light you can shed on this investigation . Not at this time. Like i said, my view is let the investigators do their work. In the meantime, we have taken precautions, yesterday i directed that we look at our security precautions across the services in all of our installations and bases and facilities to make sure weve got the appropriate degree of security to protect our Service Members and their families and our communities and thats underway and at the same time i also directed that we look at our vetting procedures within dod for all the many Foreign National thats come, for good reason to our country to train. As you may or may not know, anybody that comes to the United States is vetted by the department of state, the dealt of Homeland Security and ultimately us. We need to relook at a all that. Again, i think what we need to do is make sure we understand the whats and whys and hows of this and not jump to any conclusions before that happens. Is there any doubt or concern in your mind deploying troops to saudi arabia in the wake of all of this . No. Not at all. I think saudi arabias a longstanding partner of ours in the region. We share mutual security interests primarily with regard to iran and the importance of there is reassuring our neighbors and allies throughout the region that were there to assist them, were there to defend the rule International Rs based ordernd a we need to deter iran from its maligned behavior. There are multiple reports about Additional Forces heading to the middle east to counter iran. Is that happening . No. Those are false reports. I dont know where they came from. Weve deployed 14,000 troops since may of this year but right now im not looking at any new years day major deployments coming up in the region. That said, on a daytoday basis we monitor whats happening in the middle east, on the korean peninsula, the european theater all over the world and we make adjustments based on what the needs of the commander are and that happens routinely. Is the president open to that . Yes, uh huh. Why has the 14,000 been effective in. Well, the 14,000 since may, not this 34eu mysterious other 14,000. Yes, i think if you go back in time to june or july when we had the shootdown of the drone, we had the iranians seizing or trying to disable ships in the strait. We took some actions. I eventually deployed Additional Forces a month or so later. Since that time, in terms of overt actions directed to us or our allies, following the wake of the aramco incident, we havent seen that level of activity. Thats a good thing. I need to continually assess the situation and make sure we have the right degree of forces in position to deter iranian bad behavior and if necessary, to respond and respond forcefully in a way they understand that were serious about defending our friends, reassuring oural or allies and preventing them from misbehaving. Do you expect iran to launch another attack . I dont necessarily expect them but i have to plan and prepare for it. Thats something we try and watch very carefully and adjust our readiness posture. Part of our strategy is to i mentioned it in my remarks is to multilateralize this. I had he phone conversations with allies about providing Additional Forces into the Saudi Arabian peninsula. Air defense in particular. We recognize the challenge presented by iran, whether its their direct operations or through proxy, either from the south or proxy in iraq that could threaten us or our interests. Is it your estimation that the threat from iran is increasing . I think you could make they assessment given the effectiveness of the maximum pressure campaign, given whats happening in the streets of iran these days, you see a regime under stress. Its a good thing the iranian people are also seeking the prosperity, the liberty, the freedoms that we enjoy in this country. Thats something we believe, as i talked about promoting American Values abroad, thats what we do. You see a regime under stress. We need to be prepared for any contingency. Are you seeing evidence of missiles going into iraq from iran that could threaten u. S. Troops in iraq . Im not going to comment on anything like that in terms of intelligence, but there have been reports in the public space about rockets being fired at American Forces on bases in iraq. So weve seen a little bit of an uptick there. Thats an indicator for us of iran reaching out. You look at the arabian peninsula, you see some type of approachment between yemen and saudi arabia, thats a good thing. The iranians have been trying to one way by which theyve been creating turmoil in the theater is through yemen and through its proxies in yemen. So those things are all challenging their strategy right now and we watch it carefully. The resignation of the iraqi prime minister, how do you see that . Well, you know, i was in iraq, in the middle east about four weeks ago. I met with him, i met with the defense minister. We discussed that at that time. I of course assured him that we respect iraqs sovereignity, that were there to assist iraq to help them to deter iran and to deter shite maly tak groups e country. Therthey are saying we want irat of our country. And so thats a telltale sign, and so its not good to see the destabilization in the government but theyre trying to work their way forward. What we dont want is that country to collapse. Theyve been good partners or ours and we need to continue to support them in the way we do currently. Im going to bounce around the world here. Are you concerned about this Christmas Gift north korea says it will deliver if no deal is reached . Well, look, we keep a close eye on north korea all the time. My job is twofold. One is to ensure were ready to fight and win tonight if called upon. Im confident that we are. I was in korea a few months ago, meeting with commanders and reviewing our operations. Number two my job is to enable diplomats to make sure they have support of the Defense Department as they move forward. Our position remains the same. The best path forward is with a diplomatic solution that gets us to a denuclearized peninsula. Robert obrien was on my show thursday. He did pretty well, didnt he . Did he . Okay. And he said the administration is hopeful that a deal can come together. Where is that hope coming from . Because you look at whats happehappening. You just dont see it. You prepare for the worst but you work for the best. In this case, we have a very capable a state Department Team thats out there, engaging with the North Koreans and the best path forward is through a political agreement and that is our hope. If you dont have hope, then what, you fall back into a war footing. I would tell you when i came into office in the fall of 2017 and secretary mattis was there, we were on a war footing. We were getting ready to possibly go to war against the deep prk. It was the president s intervention, his you outreach, his leadership that began the dialogue with kim jong un directly that got us off that path. In two years, we havent had Nuclear Tests and we havent had icbm launches. Those are good things. Again, what weve got to continue to do is push, talk to the North Koreans about getting back to the diplomatic table and try to find a way forward. How are you concerned about north koreas solid fuel rockets . Does it change the equation. It does provide a degree of efficiency and mobility and gives you less warning than do a liquid fuel rockets but theyve been moving in this direction for years. Again, its another thing that we watch. Because it reduces our warnings, if you will. But we have very good intelligence on north korea. We work closely with our partners, the South Koreans who are capable ally as well. These are all things its my responsibility along with the Intelligence Community to keep a close eye on. Do you think this is just a cycle that kim jong un goes through thi this saber rattlingd its kind of what happens every christmas. Ive been watching north korea since 1994 when i was a war planner in the pacific on the army staff. Ive seen these efforts, these plays, if you will, how north korea acts, whether him or his father. The important thing is to Pay Attention. You cant react to everything they say and do. Syria, what is the administrations policy when it comes to syria . Policy is to ensure the enduring defeat of isis and for the troops positioned in syria that is our mission right now. Were working very closely with our sdf partners to do just that. And a thats what youre trying to achieve, isis solely. Enduring defeat of sigh sis. Nothing to do with Bashar Alassad . In what regard . We have a broader effort in syria that involves a un process by which several countries are underway to find a political solution to that. The state department has a lead on that and we support them in that manner. Has the administration put turkey in a position that has disadvantaged the u. S. Military in any way . I dont think so. I think turkey has put itself in a position where its disadvantaged itself. At the time of their incursion into Northern Syria we thought it was as mistake to do so. We thought it would lead to the release of isis prisoners, lead to greater instability in the region. We saw some of that. It puts into contrast our concerns about turkeys direction that they may be spinning out of the nato orbit. I have spoken publicly about that. Turkey is a longstanding nato ally. They fought with us from korea to afghanistan and i think its in all of our interest to mick sure we pull them in closer to nato and we preserve what is now a will soon be a 30 nation alliance, a very longstanding and capable alliance. A recent pent i don pentagt says President Trumps partial withdrawal from syria allowed isis to, quote, reconstitute capabilities and resources within syria and strengthen its ability to plan attacks abroad. Do you aa agree with that . I have not seen evidence of that. I think given our operations together with the sdf, given the operations undertaken by turkey, given the very Successful Operation we conducted to kill isis leader and his number two, i think we set them back. That said, that doesnt mean that isis from africa to afghanistan and in syria isnt trying to reconstitute. Of course, they will. They have a very strong ideology. Its incumbent upon us to maintain that presence and stay on our toes so we can continue to tap those things down as they arise. Do you have enough troops in syria . I think we do. I think we have enough troops. If we dont, then thats something we would deploy additional troops. Thats one of the things i keep in close contact with the chairman of joint chiefs of staff and specifically my commander, general mckenzie, to make sure he has what he needs to accomplish his mission. Just to be clear on the first question about deployment, youre saying its not true, youre not considering it . Im not considering nor is there anything in the system that says were going to put 14,000 additional troops in the middle east before christmas. What about seven. Its flatout wrong. Were not considering 7,000 additional troops. What about five. Sure, five more soldiers, just, just five. Any day of the week we are moving forces in and out of he these regions. Its not just there. You could go to the korean peninsula. Were rotat rotating teams to ee and saudi arabia and the middle east all the time. This is the normal flow of forces. And if the commander needs additional resources, that will come up to the joint staff. We will consider it and we will provide him what he needs as appropriate. That could happen today, it could happen next week, a month or two or three from now. Right now, theres no major deployment of Additional Forces to the region. Its a false report. I wish i coffing out why people dont coulds figure out why people dont try to confirm those things with the dod before they put these things out. Youre saying its fake news . Yes. Okay. What are you telling the kurds in regards to syria who feel that theyve been yo abandond by the u. S. Decision to pull out there. What are the conversations you have . I certainly understand that feeling at the tactical level. Ive been there when youre on the ground with your friends and partners, brothers you shed blood with to defeat isis. We went into this with mutual interest, being the defeat of isis. Isis had taken a lot of ground and territory that was that the sdf, the kurds owned, they inflected great harm. We came in. It was a great marriage that led to the physical defeat of the caliphate. At no noint time di point in tiy were here to establish a kurdish state. At no time did we say we were going to defend defend you agait turkey. Where we are today, were on the ground working closely with them. We still retain that partnership. But i think we far better understand today the limits of that partnership and the scope of how far well go. During the president s trip to afghanistan, thanksgiving, he said the u. S. Military has been able to substantially reduce the number of troops there. How many u. S. Troops are there . Weve got about 13,000 or so, between 12 and 13,000. The commander feels confident we can go down to a lower level without jeopardizing our ability to ensure that afghanistan doesnt become a safe haven for terrorism. Even if a taliban deal doesnt come forward, if it doesnt get negotiated, that reduction is still going to happen . Which like to do that. I want to reallocate forces to the indopcom theater, thats my priority thee templet thats th. Thats why in my six months on the job now, my first two trips were extended trips to asia to visit our allies and partners out there. Thats my faux couples im not just looking at faux couples ifocus. Im not just looking atm looking at all these places where i can free up troops where i can either bring them home to allow them to rest, refit and retrain and real locate them to the reallocate them to the indo pacific. You say the pentagons Top Priorities are china and russia. Is there a point where the continued deployment of forces in the middle east prevents that by t vote . Well, sure. I mean, i face that. My predecessors have faced that. We have a strategy but you have to deal with the world you live in, not the one you want on paper. The world we live in right now shows iran is increasingly under stress thanks to a successful strategy by the president and as they experience more express, i need to ensure we have sufficient forces on the ground, again, to reaassure our allies, help defend them, defend the International Order and deter iranian bad behavior. What do you see from pakistan . Are they still harboring the taliban . Well, look, thats a tough border to control in the first place. But yes, you see reports of taliban moving, taking some degree of san sanctuary across t border. Thats something we dealt with. The bigger story coming out of afghanistan is this, the Afghan Security forces have really stepped up. Weve seen a marked improvement in their performance, when it comes to actions against them, the afghans are leading the way with our support. It was reported a week ago that we had a substantial impact on isis in afghanistan, devastating with regard to their actions. The bigger story is afghan, whats happening with the Afghan Security force. China announced it was cancelling port calls in hong kong for u. S. Navy war ships, a practice bray jink began six beijing began six months ago. Are relations between the u. S. And china deteriorating . I dont think so. We engage them on a number of levels across a number of areas. I made it a priority of mine to reach out to my chinese counterpart u ministe and engag. I met with him in bangkok two weeks ago to make sure we have open lines of community. We have a professional relationship. Were able to talk issues between us and to share things. But i want to make sure i have somebody to call in a crisis so theres no misunderstanding or no miscalculation. I think its important that we maintain open lines of communication. Russia, how concerned are you about russias development of hyper sonic missiles an other technology . Is the u. S. Falling behind . That front . You know, we took a pause on this technology some years ago and when we had a clear lead and what were doing now is playing catchup. So the department is investing every dollar we can, every dollar we can physically use to ensure that we have an advantage, that we gain an advantage on hyper sonics. With regard to russia, what im concerned about, this gets into other issues, their pursuit and development of variety of strategic weapons outside of the current stark treaty, things that arent accountable for, that arent being verified. Weve seen them over the years, the Previous Administration saw this, we saw it, where they were cheating on the inf treaty. Now they have a capability we dont have with regard to intermediate range weapons. So we watch very carefully what the russians do and were conscious of their behavior. When you hear criticisms about this administration and russia, how do you push back . I think from my perch where i sit, i think weve been very aggressive with regard to russia. I called them out time after time, any number of ways, just as i did today with regard to bad behavior, their invasion of georgia, their seizure of crimea. Is it different from the previous add a medicine strayings . I think we upped our game. If you look at the president s success with regard to increased burden sharing by our allies. And by 2024, the increased annual spending by our nato allies will be nearly 400 billion, all going into capabilities. We developed whats called the nato readiness initiative. As of tuesday we now have 30 battalions, 30 squad drops, 30 capital ships ready within 30 days, all identified. We now have nato focused on china. Something that hasnt happened in many years many we had a very successful nato meeting. But nato is reinvigorated by what russia is doing. We compete with them all over. We compete in syria if you will and i think were pushing back strongly against russian bad behavior. Are you considering more aid to ukraine w . We have another tranche coming up, 250 million. The dod supported it last time around. Theres always checks we have to do we alls look for we always look for how is it being used and are they addressing corruption. Is there 35 million that hasnt been deployed yet . I think its actually less than 10 million at this point. But most of the aid went out on time. Does this impeachment process affect you . Look, i stay out of politics. I want to keep dod out of politics. Theres a reason why you have your people testify. Theres a reason why the department of defense and the military held in the highest regard by the American People you because they know they can trust us, were confident and we stay out of politics. So does it affect you . No. I think were doing a pretty good job staying out of it. Im not going to let you drag me into it. [ laughter ] okay. Last summer the administration withheld here we go. The aid in order to get this investigation. Can you rule out taking similar aca shuns in th actions in t. I actually dont understand your question. Can you say it again. There was a hold on the money, right . There was not a hold by dod. Dod looked at the provision of aid to the ukraine. We assessed this. We looked at three things. Is it important to ukraine with regard to their ability to engage the russians. Have the ukrainians sufficient slsufficientlyaddressed corruptr allies also providing Security Assistance to the ukrainians. The answer was yes and we supported the provision of that aid. What keeps you up ad at nig . Nothing. I know were well defended by the best military in the world. [ applause ] i want to use this end time to talk about your three minutes, brett. Yeah, yeah. I see you looking at that clock. Im surviving so far. I may have a job through christmas. [ laughter ] i am not the black widow 06f interviewers, i promise you. I hope not. I want you to talk about capability as, readiness, where the u. S. Is today as compared to where we were when the president took office. Look, weve made significant strides with regard to readiness. The president has made funding our military a top priority. He has given me specific guidance with regard to making sure we have advanced weapons, we modernize our strategic detenter. All of our deterrent. Congress has been supportive, bipartisan support from the house and senate from the committees. I think were all focused on the right things. What holds us up, i talked about it in my remarks and all the members of Congress Know this and appreciate it, the continuing resolutions are killers for us. Because youre not able to conduct training. First of all, were operating at 19 billion less than what we would have. Right now, we currently cannot conduct nearly 200 new start programs, nearly 100 production increases with regard to items for munitions, im missing training seats we cannot fill, intersizes we exe exercises e cannot conduct. I cant surge at the end. So continuing resolutions are devastating. Thats why we need this appropriations bill passed. Otherwise, strategically we have seen an uptick in readiness across all elements of the force. These Major Investments were making from robotics and hyper sonics to a. I. And Autonomous Systems are going to be a gamechanger. The challenge is to break old habits, to brush away bureaucracy, to give us legacy systems and low Priority Programs and move forward. The American People through the congress will give us 738 billion. Thats a lot of money. Weve got to deliver more for what were getting. When you tell the American Public about the threats ahead and you talk about russia and china and you talk about space, what is the message . The message is that the world is constantly becoming more dangerous and more complicated. You know, in my day as a young officer in the 101st i didnt worry about cyber. What was cyber. Nobody knew. Now we fight in cyber on a daily basis, offensively, defensively. Space was never a war fighting domain. It was the place by which we placed satellites to communicate with one another, by which we watched weather systems and other things. Now its become a war fighting domain we have to defend, not just does our military depend on it, our economy depends on it, our way of life depends on it. We have new threats. Theyll constantly change. Who knows what it will be 10 years from now. Its an everchanging world. I will tell the American People this much. Our most valuable resource is our people. The ability to fill our ranks, the ability to recruit young americans, men and women alike to our service academies, to bring them to rotc, to ocf, they are the critical element. Weve got to continue to remind them as president reagan reminded all of us the importance of peace through strength. How much our country depends on a strong National Defense. How vital it is that we reward our people. We forget that in his first year in office i recall, first two years, president reagan increased the pay of our Service Members by 13 . By the time he was finished in eight years it was over 38 . President reagan recognized the importance of human capital, of how critical our people are. It was president reagans vision that brought me into the service. I under i went to military academy in 1982. I remember 1979, many of us remember when desert one fell in iran. Remember that disastrous raid. Here we are, 40 years later, were able to pull off the raid, kill the leader of isis because of how far the country has come. Ensuring we have highly capable, ready forces with cutting edge technology. Thats what were about. The very last question. Whats it like working for President Trump . I have a very Good Relationship with President Trump. We have a great National Security team. You called out Robert Obrien there. My classmate, secretary pompeo and i have a Good Relationship. Its a good, strong team. The president is always open to good ideas. He lets you have your say, your word. Were constantly kicking ideas around within the team. So its good. And hes just another one of many bosses ive had, youve had in your time had that you learn to work with and i think he really whats reassuring, he believes in americas military and our service men and women. Ive been out there when he hes regretabley young men and women home from dover underneath a flag and ive been with him when hes with the troops talking to them and he just has a great love of them and really believes in our military and understands what president reagan understood and that is peace through strength. Mr. Secretary, i appreciate the time and i think youre going to be fine for the rest of the year. [ laughter ] [ applause ] i hope youre right. [ laughter ] arthel adding levity there after his wideranging interview with the defense secretary, mark esper there at the Reagan Defense forum doing a great job as always. David defori was watching as well, a former state accident official. I have many questions for you, david. First, i want to give you a chance to react to what you heard if theres anything that stood out to you. Well, it was a fascinating conversation. It was sort of a lightning round with bret baier asking lots and lots of questions, skipping around to different parts of the world. If it was a job interview, i think the secretary of defense would have passed with flying colors. He demonstrated a great command of whats happening in various countries, where the u. S. Has forces. Demonstrated information about how hes moving forces, how he thinks about protecting u. S. National security. They talked about space, they talked about iraq, they talked about iran, they talked about whether were moving more forces into the gulf or not. So it was a lot of information in a short amount of time. Arthel really brett did a great job and Secretar Esper dit job answers. Let me start with the specifics, start with iran. The secretary said we need to deter iran from bad behavior but the u. S. Is not deploying any additional troops to the region there in the middle east. However, he said that we are prepared to respond forcefully. Your reaction to that . Thats correct. What he said was that we previously deployed more troops and he suggested that that has had an impact. That irans provocations against the u. S. , its attacks on saudi arabia, its attacks on oil tankers has gone down and he credited the additional presence of u. S. Troops for making that happen. He said were not sending more troops now but were constantly monitoring the situation. The backdrop to all of this of course is that there are protests across iran right now, thats i impacting the politicl situation in iran and could impact the security situation. The secretary didnt really talk much about that. Thats why hes monitoring it every day. Arthel what do you think, if the secretary and military personnel from the u. S. , if theyre monitoring that, because youre right, theres a clear uprising by the people in iran and, yes, the u. S. Under President Trumps leadership has put really strengt strength sann strict sanctions on iran. Seems like the people are speaking loudly, that is making the regime listen. Thats absolutely correct. The sanctions are having an impact on the economy in iran, theres no doubt about that. And now we see also some of the European Countries are coming into line more with the sanctions and may also put more sanctions in place on iran. So thats something that the iranian leadership has to deal with. They also have to deal with the unhappiness of their population which isnt just about sanctions. Its about corruption, its about failure of lea leadership, its about thinking that irans leadership is distracted and focused on foreign endeavors in syria and iraq instead of focused on the well diss being of their own people. Lets talk about kim jong un, that was brought up as well. He said we need to keep an eye on north korea all the time and that his job is to enable his the u. S. Diplomats and he believes the best way forward is city blow ma ky pelosi, pointin diplomacy, pointing out that before President Trump took office the u. S. Was about to go to war the north korea and President Trump got them to the diplomatic table and adding that you Pay Attention to north korea, you dont discount everything, you cant react to everything. Take it away. Thats right. The secretary of defense has been working on north korea for a long time, as a young soldier, it was part of his responsibility and he was monitoring kim jong uns father, so he knows north korea very well. He dismissed the idea that were under greater threat because of recent events. Im not sure about that because there is an uptick in criticisms from trump to kim jong un. The big problem is that theres been three summits between trump and kim jong un and there was a warming in relations between them but that hasnt resulted in an advancement of diplomacy and more importantly, that hasnt shown concrete results on the ground in north korea towards canadian. Denuclearization. After the first summit, 24 agreed to denuclearize the peninsula. That hasnt happened. There was a reference from bret baier to the fact that kim jong un has promised some sort of gift for christmas to the u. S. It was sort of a threat from kim jong un, kim jong un is maniacal. The secretary of defense didnt want to respond to that, dismissed that as just an exaggeration from kim jong un and it doesnt seem to be worried about that. Arthel i think President Trump is trying to keep things keep a cool head. Kim jong uns cool head if you could by saying i have a great relationship with him. I think theyre trying to keep that from blowing getting out of control. Lets talk about syria in my last minute or so with you. That was brought up by brett and he asked if has the administration put turkey in a position that has disadvantaged the u. S. In any way and the secretary esper said no, turkey put turkey in a position thats bad for them, in spinning themselves out of the nato orbit. What do you think about that . I thought that was a fascinating comment from the secretary of defense. It was very insightful. I think hes right about that, to put the onus on turkey. Turkey engaged in this action in northeastern syria. Its been a accused of engaging in human rights violations. Its attacking kurds. Its attacking the kurdish partners in syria that we worked with to defeat isis. He expressed some concern about that although he said he thinks that were in a position to continue to combat isis but the most important and interesting comment was that turkey is spinning itself out of nato. And that means a lot if the secretary of defense is saying that about a nato partner, turkey. David, thank you for playing 24that round robin with me there and analyzing bret baiers pass nateing interview fascinating interview with the defense secretary. Eric well have a lot more from the defense secretary when he sits down with chris wall a has owallaceon fox news sunday,t 2 00 p. M. Eastern on fox news. What thats it for us for now. Were going to be back in one hour for 5 00 p. M. Eastern. Get the time right. Arthel im not going to comment on the time. Im confused myself. Were back in one hour, youre right, 5 00 p. M. Eastern. We hope you can join us then. Stay tuned for the journal editorial report. Thats up next. at chevy, were all about bringing families together. This time of year, thats really important. So were making it easier than ever to become part of our family. Man thats why our chevy employee discount is now available to everyone. The chevy price you pay is what we pay. Not a cent more. Family is important to us. And wed like you to be part of ours. So happy holidays. And welcome to the family. The chevy family get the chevy employee discount for everyone today. Our mission is to provide complete, balanced nutrition. For strength and energy whoohoo greattasting ensure. With nine grams of protein and twentyseven vitamins and minerals. Ensure, for strength and energy. The facts are uncontested. The president abused his power for his own personal political benefit at the expense of our National Security by withholding military aid and crucial Oval Office Meeting in exchange for an announcement of an investigation into his political rival. Paul welcome to the journal editorial report. Im paul gigot. Its full impeachment ahead as House Speaker nancy pelosi asks Committee Chairs to begin drafting articles of impeachment against President Trump, saying that democrats have, quote, no choice but to act. Pelosis announcement came two days after the House Intelligence Committee released a report concluding that President Trump abused the power