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<