So I want to bring in Senator Roger Wicker right now, who's got his hands full. It's a very consequential week on Capitol Hill. Senator, welcome to Brian Kilmeet Show. Hey, Brian, thanks for having me on. It's good to hear you.
Yeah, same here. I appreciate it. And so there's a lot of interplay. Yesterday, Marco Rubio and the day before, first in front of the Senate, then in front of the House, had to deal with a lot of antics and a lot of hostility towards the Iran war. Senator, where do you stand about this conflict?
Now we're in the eighth week of a two-week pause. Where does Senator Roger Wicker stand?
Well, I supported the President when he bombed the nuclear facilities months ago, and I very much appreciated and supported publicly when he went in and decided finally we needed to take kinetic action. I think the President has been very, very patient. Really, he's had the patience of Job in terms of dealing with people who are Highly unreliable. Who have lied every day for really 47 years. And I don't think anybody that's just really looking at it fairly could blame the President for giving up on the negotiations and returning to the kinetic action based on everything that we've seen.
So I've been supportive of the President, and he's been great to talk to us. Uh but um I I do think that that possibly he's uh he's entertaining in his mind whether we should uh just g go back and finish the job and and uh totally obliterate their uh military forces there in Iran.
So um on armed services, you can only tell me so much, but for the audience. Senator Wicker, how are we doing with armaments? How are we doing with munitions? And is that part of the reason the President's holding off?
Well, it's something that we We have to be careful about, but we are in good shape with munition and armaments. Clearly, every time we decide to take an action, that has to be factored in. And I think the President is doing that, and the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs. But we are fully capable of doing what the President decides he needs to do if he finally concludes that these talks are going nowhere. I mean, if you think about it, we are supposedly in a ceasefire, and yet even day before yesterday, Iran is sending ballistic missiles to target American forces in Kuwait.
The Iran-backed Hezbollah is intent on killing Israelis.
So it doesn't look like it's not the kind of ceasefire that I think historians would have said is a ceasefire historically. There is a lot of attempted death and destruction going on right now.
Well, we're watching in real time. They say the University of War is happening in Ukraine. and the use of drones. In real time, the FAD missile system, which is awesome, and the Patriot missile system, which is great, they say it's being overwhelmed by cheap drones. And even though you can only stop a missile with that, Are we watching a changing warfare and do you think the needs of the Pentagon has changed in real time, Center, over the last 18 months?
Well, I think maybe the last 18 months has accelerated that. But we realized that we need to change the way we do business and the way we acquire weapons and missiles and defensive armaments. And that's why we put so much of my forged act in last year's National Defense Authorization Act, the NDAA, as we call it in shorthand.
So we are absolutely five, six, seven new startup defense companies who are agile, who can do it quickly, and who are learning from our allies in Ukraine how to do things quickly and less expensively. And that's going to be a major part of the face of warfare from now on. And also, I just have to commend the patriotic people of Ukraine for fighting for their own country. We all thought Russia would overwhelm them in a day or two or a week or so and and um Actually, Ukraine has now become the most powerful army in Europe because they've had to, and they've had the resolve to do it.
So this is a study in warfare that they'll be talking about not just for decades but for centuries. The way Ukraine has rallied together and gotten their industrial base together. And of course, we've learned a lot from them. We have. And they're asking for patriots.
Do we have them to give them? we yes, we could do that to a certain extent, but and that's a calculation the President has to make. But there are so many other things that could be used also. Our delivery of Patriots. It's not the end-all and the be-all.
There are a number of ways we can help them. And of course, you know, we've been helping them with funds.
So that that uh they could purchase firemans from From their neighboring NATO friends.
So help is getting through, and I hope some more will.
So I think it's very important what you brought up that we're no longer depending on the big four companies: Andrew, Zone 5, Lidos, Co-Aspire. We watch. Uh Joe Lonsdale's group. We're Palantir, of course.
So you've immediately interact, you basically broadened it out.
So we have other companies we could go to to maybe have these companies compete with each other. I know, I guess, historically, Bill Clinton decided, told everyone to. To coalesce and come together and make it easier. And what it did is it wiped out competition and a sense of deadline. And that hurt us, didn't it?
Well, there's no question about it. Yes, it's been a an amazing turnaround. And and also they've they've shown they could do it quickly uh and adapt quickly um at at lower cost. And um uh y yes, I mean you're you're absolutely correct. We we don't need to to be uh spending um um Yeah.
Half of million dollars to shoot something down that costs uh thirty thousand uh or or to that scale. It's it's um uh it's a new day in uh in warfare and it it uh favors those that are nimble. But also I tell you it favors a country who has a resolve. Uh I honestly think um I think the Russians against Ukraine are losing their resolve and and I think public opinion, to the extent that Putin uh pays attention to it, public opinion is is turning against him.
Now, of course the um The Ayatollahs in Iran and their heirs are not paying attention to the people because the folks there really, frankly, don't have the wherewithal to rise up and overturn this oppressive regime. If the Iranian people found a way to do so, and actually represented the mainstream of opinion there, Iran could be one of the more modern countries in that section of the world, but they don't have the weapons and the guns just yet. Senator Roger Wicker, our guest.
So, Senator, what have we done to help the Gulf states defend themselves should we go back to warfare? Evidently, obviously. Iran thinks the best strategy is to hurt our allies and try to break them away from us. And Kuwait having 65 hurt two days ago is not going to help. And Saudi Arabia pushing us.
And we're going to have to do ballistic missile attacks toward Kuwait. We're doing our best to intercept them. It seems to me, Brian, that our Gulf allies were more supportive later on. And as the talks wear on and we don't seem to be making any progress, I think our Gulf allies are beginning to think that they just need to get the best deal possible because we're not going to be able to actually end Iran's capability. My view, on the other hand, would be get back to full scale Attack on taking down the military capability of this outlaw regime.
And then I think it's a lot more inviting to have a Saudi Arabia lead the region in joining full-fledged the Abraham Accord and moving into the 21st century 26 years too late. But that's what we need to do, and Saudi needs to take the lead there. But to me, the length of time that we bent over backwards with these fruitless negotiations, I would just understand fully if the president decided enough is enough. Good. And you have a lot of power, Senator.
Long enough. And Senator, for Roger Wicker to come out and say that, I think that would mean a lot because it's hard for people to say. Say, well, he just does whatever Trump wants. No one thinks that about you. You've been there before, and we'll be there afterwards.
Thank you for saying that. We've been working shoulder to shoulder with President Trump. and Secretary Hegseth um and and um Yes, as a team, and I appreciate that.
So there's discussions on both sides of the issue, pros and cons, are very much a part of it.
So, Senator, I just want to get you. Yesterday it was announced that Bill Pultey is going to be the acting DNI, and a lot of people are upset by that because he seems to have absolutely no experience. Are you somebody that would have trouble? With that, and would hope the President rethinks it or whatever. Position and it it will not come before the Senate for confirmation.
I don't know the individual. And so my default position is at first blush to trust the judgment of the President. But I really don't have that much information. And I'm working on trying to. Mm-hmm.
get our NDAA bill before the committee. This coming Tuesday and getting it passed, I'm concentrating on that. And I really have not done very much background checking on Mr. Pulled. And that being the case, I'm withholding my comments as someone who just needs more information.
So, Senator, what could you tell us about getting the DHS funded? Is there any way to do that while financing the security portion of the ballroom? Or is it true that that's been gutted, that's been taken out?
Well, we are in the middle of our very first vote of probably we'll take a couple of dozen today, and I do not know where that will end up. But the thing is, we actually very much need to get the Department of Homeland Security open. It's a shame that we have to do it in this unusual reconciliation way, which the American people have a hard time understanding because it's frankly so complicated for us. Um so I hope we can get it open. I do not believe that these other expenditures have to be linked, but we'll see where the votes are.
But the main thing is, we need to get a very important department of the government open and running as it should have been, frankly, last October the 1st. You would think, especially with the World Cup here and the Olympics a year away. Senator Roger Wicker, always great to have you on. We should have it on. We should have this happen more.
I know you're busy this week. Thanks so much for the time. Take a surprise.
