Happening now: @BretBaier interviews @EsperDoD at #RNDF but notes an interesting pattern:
“I interviewed HR McMaster and a few weeks later he resigned. I interviewed Sec Mattis and a few weeks later he resigned.
Everything okay?”
.@BretBaier asks about the NAS Pensacola shooter. Esper notes: “I can’t say it’s terrorism at this time.” Says we need to let investigators do their work and “not jump to any conclusions”
Does the news make you rethink deploying more troops to Saudi Arabia? Esper says no, not at all, Saudi is a longstanding partner.
The US has deployed an additional 14,000 troops to the region since the spring
On @WSJ reports that the admin is considering sending an additional 14K, Esper doubles down: these reports are false.
The forces that are already there are there to deter Iran and response if necessary.
Asked whether he expects another strike from Iran, Esper says:
“I don’t necessarily expect it but I have to plan and prepare for it.”
Notes that an attack may be more likely given the maximum pressure campaign and unrest: “You see a regime increasingly under stress.”
On North Korea, Esper says when he came into office in 2017 the US was preparing for a war on the Korean Peninsula - now that’s not the case. Gives Trump credit for preventing this - “It was the president’s intervention that got us off that path.”
On Ukraine, Esper says impeachment does not affect him because he stays “out of politics” - he strikes to keep DOD out of politics. “And I’m not going to let you drag me into it” he tells @BretBaier
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