elsewhere who are hard at work already and i want to express my personal appreciation to the department of defense because this partnership is what's going to make this truly a historic endeavor. >> thank you for your leadership of this historic initiative. department of defense is very excited and committed to working closely with our partners at hhs, across the government and in the private sector to accomplish the mission we've been given. winning matters and week wealth delivered by the end of this year, a vaccine at scale to treat the american people in our partners abroad. the department of defense has been in this since day one. back to january. we stayed ahead of the curve and today across the nation, over 60000 service members from all branches of the service are still up there whether doctors and nurses in hospitals or national guard on the streets of america or corps of engineers build capacity in america's hospitals. we are there and we will be there. we look forward to this next greatest phase of this fight. we are all in then and now we will be all in in the future. we will deliver o

work already and i really want to express my personal appreciation secretary asked for the department of defense 's partnership is what's going to make this truly an historic and never read thank you mister presidentfor your leadership of this bold and historic initiative . the department of defense is very excited and committed to working closely with our partners at hhs cross the government and in the private sector to accomplish the mission we have been given. winning matters and we will deliver by the end of this year a vaccine at scale to treat the american people and our partners abroad. the department of defense has been in this life since day one , going back to january we stayed ahead of the curve every step of the way and stay on america's street across the nation over 60,000 servicemembers all branches of the service are out there with doctors and nurses and hospitals, whether it's national guard on the streets of america or the corps of engineers continue to build capacity in america's hospitals we are there and we will be there mister president and we look forward to this next great

i want to express my personal appreciation to secretary esper and the department of defense because this partnership is what's going to make this truly a historic endeavor. thank you. [applause] >> well, thank you, mr. president for your leadership of this bold and historic initiative. the department of defense is very excited and committed to work with our partners in h.h.s. and the private sector. winning matters and we will deliver by tend of this year, a vaccine at scale to treat the american people and our partners abroad. you know, the department of defense has been in this fight since day one. going back to jan. we stayed ahead of the curve every step of the way. today on america's streets across the nation over 607,000 service members from all branches of the service are still out there whether it's doctors and nurses and hospitals, whether it's national guard on the streets of america or the core of engineers continue to build our capacities in america's hospital. we are there and we will be there, mr. president. and we look forward to this next phase against fight against the c

you are at the department of defense -- it does not look like your living room. i know there are some people at cia, dia, a lot of people in deployed locations -- do you have a mindset in mind for the people handling paperwork, but also classified that a certain amount cannot really be done by telework? is there a concept for how that process plays out and gradually morphs back into something that but preservesl, enough of what we used to do that you can be effective and unclassified documents in that sort of advanced planning? sec. esper: absolutely. we have been pleasantly surprised with how much we have been able to do when it comes to telework. in some cases we have seen an increase in productivity when it comes to telework. our chief development officer has unveiled plans to reopen the pentagon and other buildings in the washington, d.c., area. it was based on the president's plan and guidelines by public health experts. we can easily phase -- we can phase office building so we can get back to a normal and protect our people. the remains job number one. i've

it is great to be here with you today to talk about the impact of covid-19 on the department of defense and the way ahead for the pentagon and for the force. i am proud of what the dod has accomplished in the few months since late january, when i first issued my guidance, and then on february first, when we activated the global pandemic plan, we have remained ahead of the curve at every turn. i am proud of what we have done, and as we start to see some light at the end of the tunnel, we have many people deployed, and 40 5000 national guardsmen are active in every single state performing a wide range of tasks. we have thousands of medical professionals and others who are out on the front lines. our army corps of engineers with nearly 2000 people deployed have been out in the streets of america, working with governors in every single state. i am proud of what the team has done. as you know, we have deployed the comfort back to virginia after performing a mission in new york city. the same timet reached out to our friends and i've spoken to many of our partners about what we could share an

the department of defense and the va have been using it for 65 years. on any given day the va uses 42,000 doses of this drug. jesse: the whole va deal the media keeps touting. it wasn't a drug trial. and a couple of the guys who did the study are drug company consultants who have a financial interest in discrediting the generic version of the drug. christmas cuomo says trump's drug comments are about politics. >> why did he bring up this hydroxychloroquine. it's all a beautiful distraction. it's a winning argument for him. i don't know that it will help with his health. but it helps cover up his weaknesses. jesse: chris cuomo of all people lecturing the people. cuomo got infected with the virus and wasn't safe about it. he said taking hydroxychloroquine isn't safe? here is what the white house press secretary noticed. >> it turns out chris cuomo took a less safe version called "quinine that the fda removed from the market? 2006 because of its serious side effects including death. jesse: why does cnn think trump taking this drug is a distraction? cnn get

you know, the department of defense has been in this fight since day one, going back to january. we stayed out of the curve every step of the way, and today on america's streets across the nation over 60,000 service members from all branches of the service are still out there. whether it's doctors and nurses in hospitals, whether it's national guard on the streets of america, or the corps of engineers, continuing to build our capacity and america's hospitals. we are there and we will be there, mr. president. we look forward to this next greatest phase of this fight against the coronavirus. we are all in then, we are all in now, and will be all in in the future. we will deliver on time, bringing the full weight, to bear the full weight of the department of defense. all of our first class, world-class researchers and scientists, our ability to manage logistics at scale, and our great distributional capabilities. we will deliver, we will win this fight, and mr. president, thank you again for all they've done. we will get the job done. >> president trump: i know you will. [applause] i

. >> department of defense to be secretary of the navy. have some asparagus with no action or debate let it confirmed be continued and made in late on the table and the president be immediately of the senates action. >> without objection. >> the question is on the nomination. all in favor, say i opposed no eyes cleared habit they do have it. the nomination is confirm. >> askrg unanimous consent the environment and public works committee discharge from further consideration of pn number 16 oh eight and 1333 in the senate proceed to the consideration of the involved.s >> is there objection? >> without objection the senate will concede the consideration of nomination on block. quick report. >> regulatory commission with it be a member david a ray of south carolina should be a member. >> i consent the vote on nomination with no intervening action or debate and if confirm the motion to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table. and the president be immediately notified of the senates outcome. >> without objection. question of the no

away how would you characterize the typical sex offender well if i look at our data from the department of defense and young people that are ages 18 to 2425 when you say that most of them are serial rapists. i don't have data one way or the other to determine that what percentage of the rapes you think are caused by serial predator. i don't i don't have any numbers i don't know how to i don't think we collect that type of data there's been studies done people who enter the military are twice as likely to have committed rape as their equivalent population in the civilian world not aware of that study my area of expertise focuses primarily on prevention and victim care but when prevention includes focusing on the perpetrators. i notice that dr kay whitley is not in her chair is it under your direction that she has not shown her testimony this morning yes or you have an executive privilege to do a search no sir you've instructed her not to come what is your reason for doing that if you find the department's response in provisions efforts fall short of your expectations responsibility for that shortfa

we need to think about that act fema and the department of defense are the executive offices for. where weeate scenarios end up with too much stuff we won't need with that response, but not doing it creates the dynamics we don't, we can't catch up. we have also talked about transparency and oversight. i believe in situations like this. we didn't plan covid-19, but we sort of expect the american people to deal with it, be strict -- smart and strategic and to do -- save as many lives as we can. having been there during the administration of playing such a major and important role, how important is transparency, number one, how important is coordinated communication not just among the administration but also with the american people? mr. fugate: some of the challenges we faced was lack of information. we were going to have shortfalls. we needed to be talking with the governors and telling them what we had, what we did not know. they may not always agree with our decisions, but they should know why we were making decisions and the challenges we faced. i found in those scenarios where

on the other hand we know a silver lining of economic downturns is the department of defense sometimes has an easier time recruiting and retaining people and you need out of that 2 million-person force, 1.3 million active or so reservists, how do those numbers look so far? sec. esper: well we do not have hard data with regard to recruiting. for a period of weeks, each of the services went to virtual recruiting and they told me the pace has maintained. they like what they are doing or the economic downturn is showing people that there are greater job opportunities in the military. he had to see how that pans out. one thing we are conscious about is we know that may, june and july are big graduation months. we want to make sure that they menready to absorb those and women coming in after they graduate high school. michael: on the issue of training, i know that this is very complicated. or two. anecdote can -- a pilot and a backseat or, associated mechanics. you can treat them like small families. you can quarantine. my sense is that a lot of that training continues. i have an interest as

but it would incorporate all of the assets of homeland security and fema and the department of defense. and other elements in other agencies. including now as we are seeing more and more usda playing a role in food supply security. you want experts leading the response but don't want them doing it by themselves. you bring the whole team together. again, one of the things i was recognizing in the obama administration, we had crafted executive orders. it may be worthwhile looking at this tendency to think of fema as only dealing with earthquakes and fires, homeland security act has given fema the responsibility to plan and coordinate any major crisis at the direction of the president. and because this is fema's court mission it might be worthwhile this,ook at how to codify so we are not just wedded to a stafford act declaration but bringing the tools fema can so hopefully next time they are brought in earlier, not after things are not working. it isn't to put fema in charge, but to have fema coordinate support for federal agency and then use tools, interagency relationships in all of the

i want to express my personal appreciation to secretary esper and department of defense. this partnership is wast goihatg to make this truly and historic endeav endeavor. >> thank you. thank you mr. president for your leadership of this bold and historic initiative. the department of defense is excited and committed to working closely with our partners at hhs, across the government and the private sector to establish the mission we have been given. winning matters and we'll deliver by the end of this year a vaccine at scale to treat the american people and our partners abroad. the department of defense has been in this fight since day one, going back to january. we stayed ahead of the curve and step o today, all branches of the service are still out there whether it is doctors and nurses or hospitals or national guards on the streets of america or corp of engineers, we are there and we'll be there. we look forward to the next greatest phase of the fight against the coronavirus. we are all in then and we'll all in now and we'll all in in the future and we'll deliver on time

of americans now and think about china. they have a pervasive presence in our k-12 education and colleges and universities especially through confucius institutes indirectly financing departments and centers. the national defense authorization act for fiscal year 2019, i offered bipartisan legislation prohibiting the department of defense from funding universities when the money could go to confucius institutes. as a result over a dozen confucius institutes have closed. we need to stand up and deal directly with the threat china poses. china bears direct responsibility, direct culpability for the over 300,000 people who have died worldwide, the trillions in economic livelihoods that have been destroyed. today i introduced three pieces of legislation to address chinese censorship and their responsibility for this pandemic. we as a body, a bipartisan body need to stand strong, protecting us national security, protecting the lives of americans and ensuring accountability the chinese communist party have accountability for their censorship, their hiding of the facts of this pandemic in the lives that have been lost as a result of their cover-up. >> mister president, we have seen things in the pandemic crisis that

risen to the occasion and continues to provide secretary of defense top-quality advice and support our privilege to be a part of the team the department of defense issued the national defense strategy january 2018 it is our northstar the document clearly outlines priorities to ensure the nation's competitive advantage with exacting demands of long-term strategic competition. if confirmed i will help implement the strategy in an cost-effective and timely manner those in the department deserve no less from their leaders i look forward to your questions. >> now we will start off where we ended senator reid and i feel since we will limit questions to five minutes we will have a second round if that's okay with witnesses. so to start off with ambassador braithwaite is been controversial very briefly when you think about the fact the budget was submitted to support 300 ship navy most agree it needs to be bigger than that so very briefly what size should we have? >> minimally 355 ships hopefully we build be on that so that's a good brief answer i appreciate that. [laughter] >> i agree with you or i would ask why. general brown you brought th

speed which you and i have talked about is a combination of health and human services and the department of defenses involved in this. the dod is already involved in this. normally we use the cdc for distribution of vaccines but now that the department of defense is involved, and i'm not sure that we will see that occur within a year. i've never seen in my public-health lifetime this kind of full-court press. >> bill: two more things on that. where do you think we stand as a nation today on that? >> we are not where we need to be but i want to point out a downside about testing which nobody is talking about, and i will go over that quickly. and that's about 70% accurate. there is something out there now called an antigen test, more faster and rapid testing. the key here, bill, is to test areas where there is a lot of virus. if i test you and you are in an area where i already know that your pretest probability is high and you are likely to have it than the results are more accurate. the more likely they accurate the tests are. i think that's a real game changer because as we figure out which antibo

you know, the department of defense has been in this fight since day one, going back to january. we stayed ahead of the curve every step of the way. today, on america's streets, across the nation, over of 60,000 service members from all branches of the service are still out there, whether it is doctors and nurses in hospitals, whether it is national guard on the streets of america, or the core of engineers continuing to build out capacity at america's hospitals, we are there and we will be there, mr. president. and we look forward to this next greatest phase of this fight against the coronavirus. we are all in then, we are all in now and we will be all in in the future and we will deliver on time, bringing the full weight to -- to bear the full weight of the department of defense, all of our first class, world class, researchers and scientists, our ability to manage logistics at scale, and our great distributional capabilities. we will deliver, we will win this fight, and mr. president, thank you again for all that you've done. we will get the job done. >> thank you. i know you wi

we have been advising anyone who would listen that if you are a government agency, the department of defenseanybody who works for the department of defense, anybody that has personnel records, any political party, congress, russia, china, north korea, iran, every single day they are trying to get in and break into these official records. so, you know, i don't think it's rocket science to think that several countries could be breaking into government agencies at all hours of the day. and so i think it is concerning that the democrats did not allow the fbi to go in and get their server. so we will never know the truth. >> laura: kim, kamala harris, perhaps joe biden's running mate if she has her preference, she spoke out about what he did. watch. >> when you have an attorney general in bar who allows michael flynn to withdraw his plea, that's not justice. this man doesn't understand what it means to do justice. at he should resign. >> laura: he should resign. that's the refrain you are hearing from all these long time democrat doj officials as well. what does that tell you about the state of p

i know the department of defense is reviewing the process of trying to make sure we get it right.e do conducting training program so young american kids don't have to fly all the airplanes all across the world to keep america safe. we want american armaments we want to train foreign military actors to operate that equipment so that we don't have to put young american lives at risk. i know that is why the training programs exist. we have to execute them in a way they do not present the risk you are talking about laura. >> laura: the fact that we didn't pick up the chatter that he was involved with on planning a special operation? >> i don't know the details, but clearly, it unfolded as the fbi has done its work. they concluded he was a member of al qaeda. we did not identify that in a timely fashion. >> laura: secretary pompeo thank you for joining us tonight. we look forward to seeing the president's remarks i believe on the next move with china. thank you so much, sir. >> thank you good evening. >> laura: i will show you how the medical and media establishment are invoking scienc

you saw yesterday that the department of defense made an announcement about rare earth minimal's -- mineralsweek so that we would not be dependent on a nation that has demonstrated its unreliability. all the things that, frankly, for decades, and this is not remotely positive -- partisan. democrat presidents, republican presidents, turn the other way. this hope that engagement would lead to a change in the behavior of the chinese communist party. it did not happen. trump's been serious about making sure we did the right things for the american people. a know he will. >> mr. secretary, gladys knight a countryght abrogated all agreements with the united states and israel. do you have any comment on the annexation prior to the announcement by mr. netanyahu? we note the boss.cement by the in negotiation with our teams there. we hope our work on the ground will continue to keep palestinians safe. i am not sure what to make of his statement, but i am regretful that he has decided to abrogate those agreements. we ask the israelis and the palestinians to agreed that that would be the basis for negot

some is coming from the department of defense.ight now, you're right, it is vulnerable >> you said you were looking to shed as much as 10% of the portfolio. is that still the plan are there currently buyers in the market right now >> good question we are about 10 minutes into the merger integration is going very well cost synergies are tracking well we are accelerating. it helped to offset some of what we are seeing in commercial aerospace. we have been looking the last 18 months we want to be in businesses where technology differentiates. we earn good returns we can grow. we can win we just closed on a transportation yesterday for a billion dollars selling airport securi security so one-third away from getting to 10% there's going to be some friction some will move to the right a little bit longer term, taking a hard look at our portfolio is the right thing to do even in this environment. >> you mentioned airport security and automation business sold officially last night even though you have exited that business, i'm curious wha

it's not always inside the department of defense. it's how we work with academia, how we work with industry. i just think we need to do more of it and take advantage of the capability we have in our nation. >> i want to ask you a little bit, as well, about the space rapid capabilities office, which as you know, is charged with developing low-cost, rapid reaction payloads to maintain the united states critical advantage in space. last march before this committee, general gold fina agreed, emphatically, space our seo is something that's working and should continue to act as an independent agency, just as it was designed to do when congress established that in 2018. do you agree that space rco should remain an independent agency? >> i kind of deferred to general raymond since it's under the space force. the good part about the rapid capabilities office, it's somewhat separated from the bureaucracy of the bigger machine and can move a bit faster. >> quite a bit faster, actually. and that's the point is that innovation is largely in part d

you saw yesterday that the department of defense made an announcement about rare earth minerals. so that, again, we would not be dependent on a nation that has demonstrated its unreliability. -- its willingness to steal our intellectual property. all the things that, frankly, for decades, and this is not remotely partisan. democrat presidents, republican presidents, turn the other way. the 1.5 billion people in this opportunity for markets. this hope that engagement would lead to a change in the behavior of the chinese communist party. it did not happen. trump's been serious about making sure we did the right things for the american people. a know he will. -- i know he will continue to do it and we continue to work on this to develop an appropriate way to think about how to get the chinese communist party and china to behave in a way that is consistent with the way we ask every nation to be. night, the palestinian authority abdicated all agreements with the united states. to have any agreement on that? and can you comment on the ?rocess of annexation prior to the announcement by

would strike me if the head of the cia, department of defense, secretary of defense were to say to the president we really need to have this one person, we need to restructure this in the following way, that's going to happen. but if the white house is dragging its heels on this, it's not going to happen. so, is there -- i mean, can we get support from the leaders of the, if you will, the agencies that deal with this topic to get behind this principle? >> so, one of the advantages that we had on this commission, senator, was that unlike any other commission i've been involved with, and i've been associated with many, we have people from the executive branch sitting on the commission. and they attended every meeting, all of our nearly 30 meetings over time, and while they were not in a position to sign onto the final report, given the separation of powers issues, et cetera, i think there's a strong understanding of the need to coordinate and to have coordination at a senior level for cyber security efforts. and the intelligence community is absolutely essential part of that effort. so i

a little bit more in the future about the presidency with amazon and the contract with the department of defenseits face, and the president going after this institution, after a vendetta of the free press's reporting on him that is just such a shocking abuse of power on its face and the more you learn, the worst it gets, david, thank you so much. >>> that is "all in" for this evening. the rachel maddow show starts right now. good evening, rachel. >> good evening, chris. thanks, my friend. much appreciated. thanks to you at home for joining us this hour. happy to have you here. >>> i want to give you an update on a story we brought you last night that was a weird story, unexplained as i described it last night but obviously pretty inexplicable under any telling. it was a story out of the state of arizona, with the story last night, it has had a very big payoff today. let me explain. arizona continues to see a steady rise in coronavirus cases. they are nearing 10,000 confirmed cases as of today. the state has had 450

a little bit more in the future about the presidency with amazon and the contract with the department of defensebut on its face, and the president going after this institution, after a vendetta of the free press's reporting on him that is just such a shocking abuse of power on its face and the more you learn, the worst it gets, david, thank you so much. >>> that is "all in" for this evening. the "the 11th hour" starts now. >>> well, good evening on this day 1,204 of the trump administration. as all presidents know, the white house ushers and the u.s. navy stewards who serve the president often perform the most private functions behind the scenes at the white house. they are often the first person a president sees in the morning and the last person at night. they serve diet coke and coffee and water in the oval office and upstairs the men who serve as valets may lay out clothing for the president for the day while handling laundry and meals and packing for trips.

secretaryxi is intent on building out his military capabilities our department of defense is doing everything it can to make sure it understands this threat and i am confident that under president trump, our department of defense, our military, our national security establishment will keep us in a position where we can protect the american people and indeed we can be good partners with our allies from india, australia, south korea, brazil, from europe all around the world we can be good partners alongside them and ensure the next century remains a western one modeled on the freedoms that we have here in the united states. maria: there are more than 60 bills in congress right now, holding china accountable. everything from sanctions on individuals to moving the supply chain, from china, to america, and elsewhere, to also what they're doing in terms of steal ing intellectual property with students. what do you believe will be signed into law? do you think that we are going to be limiting the visas for chinese students who want to study things like ai, quantum computing, and military? >> maria i

the department of defense has been removed. and now the state department. what do you make of this? >> if he's draining the swamp, he's replacing it with falsehoods. he's draining the people that actually spend their careers getting to and exposing the truth, the waste, fraud and abuse. if you look quickly around the four inspector generals that have now been removed, you have to wonder what is it in each of their agencies that is going to be suppressed because of their removal between now and the election. if you look at the most recent one, at state department we have just heard it is reported that this ig opened a case against the secretary of state and his wife for using government resources for personal benefit. but even more, what's going on at state department? we have the secretary of state saying that he has enormous evidence that china is responsible for the coronavirus and that it came out of the wuhan lab. well, what's going to be suppressed now that this ig has been removed about the so-called evidence in the wuhan lab. look at the department of defense ig who is going

government leading the response but incorporating all the aspects of homeland security, fema, the department of defense, and now we are seeing more and more. the ideas that you want the experts leading the response but you don't want them doing it by one of the things i was recognizing the obama administration that we had collected some orders. there is a tendency to think of fema as only dealing with her earthquakes, but it is actually the ability to coordinate any major crisis. because this is fema's core , it can bring the tools so that hopefully next time they are brought in earlier, not after things aren't working. and then use their tools in the inter-agency relationship and all the things we do to support that agency and crisis. >> thank you. >> thank you, representatives. fema has yet to activate most of its individual assistance aid tos, which provide directly to families such as funeral assistance. what do you make of this, and what do you think is the hold up on improving this? , fema cannotely add assistance on this, but early on, i thought that fema should have been looking at individual a

>> what we needed from the department of defense, we needed secretary azar to make a request of the secretary of defense. i and my colleague, dr. gary disbro, raised this issue at our senior leadership meeting with dr. kadlik who chairs that meeting at asper, and it wasn't a topic that he wanted to discuss on that day, and we were rebuffed by him saying he did not really want to talk about swabs right now. both dr. disbro and i raised that concern repeatedly in that call. knowing it was critical and time sensitive and we had a critical shortage of these swabs, i placed a call to mr. navarro's office once again and asked if mr. navarro could offer some assistance in contacting the secretary of defense to get clearance for d.o.d. to put those requests in place. that happened within minutes. after that from the secretary of defense, we were able to start those flights. we came back with 25,000 swabs. >> so literally within hours, he had coordinated with d.o.d. to supply the swabs? >> yes. >> what is truly perplexing to me is why anyone would resist such an initiative. that's a rhetorical questio

task, but the combination of the two main partners, between health and human services and the department of defenser combined strengths, partnering with the other teammates, will ensure our success. one of the great advantages that we have as a military is our ability to do logistical and sustainment operations afar. we are just going to apply those capabilities to this mission. this mission is about defeating the enemy. we will defeat the enemy. why? because winning matters. i'm excited to be a part of this team, and mr. president, thank you. [applause] >> well, thank you, mr. president, for your leadership of this historic effort. your vision for operation warp speed, setting a goal of a vaccine by january 2021, will be one of the great scientific and humanitarian accomplishments in human history. today you are announcing the team that can get it done. dr. slaoui is arguably the world's most experienced and successful vaccine developer, responsible for some of the major recent breakthroughs in vaccines. general perna oversees one of the world's largest logistic and supply chain operations, the on

task, but the combination of the two main partners between health and human services and the department of defenseeir combined strengths, partnered with the other teammates, will ensure our success. one of the great advantages that we have as a military is our ability to do logistical and sustainment operations afar. we're just going to apply those capabilities to this mission. this mission is about defeating the enemy. we will defeat the enemy. why? because winning matters. and i'm excited to be a part of this team, and mr. president, thank you. >> thank you very much, appreciate it. >> well, thank you, mr. president, for your leadership of this historic effort. your vision for "operation warp speed" setting a goal of a vaccine by january 2021 will be one of the great scientific and humanitarian accomplishments in human history. today you're announcing the team that can get it done. dr. slaoui is the most experience the and most successful vaccine developer, responsible for some of the major recent breakthroughs in vaccines. general perna oversees one of the world's largest logistics and supply c

>> what we needed to enact that air bridge with the department of defense, we needed our secretary -- secretary azar to make a request of the secretary of defense. i and my colleague, dr. gary dispro, raised this issue at our senior leadership meeting with dr. cadillac. it wasn't a topic he wanted to discuss on that day. we were rebuffed by him saying he did not really want to talked about swabs right now. both dr. dispro and i raised this concern repeatedly in that call. knowing it was critical am time sensitive and we had a critical shortage with these swabs i asked mr. navarro for assistance in contacting the secretary of defense to get clearance for dod to put those airplanes in place under the contract we have. that happened in a very quick turnaround. a matter of minutes, with that permission of the secretary of defense. we were able to start the flights within two days. we've transferred back over 25 million swabs. >> you're saying you alerted white house adviser peter navarro about this issue. >> yes. >> literally within hours he coordinated with dod to start the flights to tr

senior leaders of the department of defense in positions for which we have been nominated and you continue to play hero in winning great power competition and taking care of our people. one thing i would like to say, we are real believers in the national defense strategy. it has been good and before i turn it over, this is unusual in one way. you have families and we would like to be here. i understand they will be watching so you can introduce them. >> i would like to welcome members and thank them for their service and they are asking us to serve the nation and i also want to thank your family so i know that they also serve and you would agree you would not be here without your family. you were and ambassador to the kingdom of norway since february of 2018, use or 27 years in the navy and naval reserve, you also had a successful business in the communications industry. you are currently commander of pacific air forces as a component commander of us indo pacific command and as executive director of specific combat operations, you were command pilot with 29,000 flying hours including 130 c