Daniel P. Driscoll

And as long as we are able to continue this momentum of returning our soldiers to this idea that failure is not an option, we don't fight wars, we're winning wars, we would do what we needed to do and we would overcome the enemy in that instance.

um yeah during i'm gonna this is the first time in our two and a half hours i'll give you a weekend well i mean they might they could have been intellectually weak but not intentionally weak one of the things uh before i did my senate hearing that you learn is you basically learn to deflect answers you learn to basically say like oh that's a great question senator let me follow up or like you asked me i think the classic politician thing you know what i want to be cautious about doing here is

getting out in front of the president or secretary of war on such a current topic.

And so one of the things you also don't do is answer hypotheticals.

And so I'm going to dodge your hypothetical but flag that I'm doing it.

And instead, I will say, I think when we think about these things broadly, America, for a long time, we have been an ally that countries could rely on.

They could rely that in their moment of need,

No matter what had happened that day before or the couple of years before or how trade talks had gone, when they needed us, we show up, we show up in force, and we help them win.

And so I think there is a lot of strength to be shown knowing that America stands by and stands ready to support our allies.

And if you think and if it is very clear that the Pentagon and the president are picking and have identified China as our pacing threat as a nation,

I could absolutely envision a world where that could be over a red line that the president has drawn.

But I also want to be unequivocal in saying he has not told me that.

And so I would stand by and stand ready with the Army to do what we needed to do for the fight.

When I was visiting Hawaii and Philippines and Guam and the domino effect concept of I think when you get out to that part of the world, we are currently doing, in my opinion, a very good job of joint exercises.

talisman saber that we did in Australia firing a prison missile.

And we are pushing forward a lot of our tech innovation.

We are getting our soldiers onto the ground, into the theater to be ready to help for exactly what you're talking about.

So that most in nearly every country I have talked to,

loves it when they have soldiers on the ground, because what they know is when America puts one of our soldiers on the ground somewhere, if you fuck with that soldier, you are going to have a beast coming behind you.

And we have for a long time as a nation held that model, and I have no doubt under President Trump, if somebody harmed one of our soldiers, they would be hell to pay.