Speaker 1: Bloomberg Audio Studios, podcasts, radio News.
Speaker 2: Joining us now on Balance of Power live from the
Speaker 2: Munich Security Conference is Democratic Senator Mark Kelly of Arizona. Senator,
Speaker 2: thank you very much for your time in Munich. Last year,
Speaker 2: Vice President JD. Vance sent a very clear message to Europe.
Speaker 2: I would imagine the message you are bringing to those
Speaker 2: gathered there is a bit of a different one. But
Speaker 2: what can you really tell them and what assurance can
Speaker 2: that provide them? When you are currently in the minority
Speaker 2: power in Washington? Are you effectively just telling them hold
Speaker 2: out three more years?
Speaker 3: Well?
Speaker 4: Kaylee, Yeah, I mean I just got here today. I've
Speaker 4: had multiple meetings with you know, prime ministers, foreign ministers,
Speaker 4: defense ministers.
Speaker 3: You know, many of our allied countries.
Speaker 4: What I'm hearing from them is, you know, they're they're
Speaker 4: really concerned about some of the actions at this White
Speaker 4: House has taken over the last year and some of
Speaker 4: the plans that they've had. I was just meeting with,
Speaker 4: you know, somebody from Denmark and the discussion, as you
Speaker 4: might imagine, goes to Greenland and you know, how is
Speaker 4: it that the United States of America made, you know,
Speaker 4: was starting to go down the path of making a
Speaker 4: decision to use force against one of our NATO allies.
Speaker 3: This is unprecedented. So I'm here.
Speaker 4: Because these are issues discussed here that I really care about.
Speaker 4: I'm on the Armed Services and the Intelligence Committee, and
Speaker 4: I think it's important to send the message that, you know,
Speaker 4: what this President and White House might believe is not
Speaker 4: what all Americans believe. And if you go just like
Speaker 4: one level down in the government or maybe two, there
Speaker 4: is a there's a huge difference of opinion on you know,
Speaker 4: the way we should be treating our allies and that
Speaker 4: we have common adversaries, and that if we continue to
Speaker 4: as we've had since you know, the nineteen forties, continue
Speaker 4: to work together, that benefits all of us.
Speaker 1: Senator, you're arriving in Munich as the Pentagon redeploys the
Speaker 1: USS jerry Ford Carrier Strike Group once again, heading back
Speaker 1: toward Iran to join the USS Lincoln. From your perch
Speaker 1: on the Armed Services Committee and as a naval aviator,
Speaker 1: do you believe that we will strike Iran when that
Speaker 1: carrier strike group gets there.
Speaker 4: Well, I can't predict what this administration is going to do.
Speaker 4: I mean, we're at a moment of time with Iran,
Speaker 4: you know right now where they are potentially at a
Speaker 4: tipping point, and we could see a regime, the suppressive
Speaker 4: regime that has been in place since the late nineteen
Speaker 4: seventy we could see it finally go away and the
Speaker 4: Iranians could build a government that they deserve, and that
Speaker 4: would be a huge win for the entire reason.
Speaker 3: I mean, just think for a second.
Speaker 4: You know what happens to the Huthis and hesbalah Hamas
Speaker 4: without the support of the Iranians, the militias in Iraq.
Speaker 4: So this is a moment in time we got, as
Speaker 4: you say, we got the Ford battlegroup going over there.
Speaker 4: I also think it's a really hard decision to make,
Speaker 4: to be especially if we're going to use kinetic action
Speaker 4: against the Iranian regime a second time to try to
Speaker 4: push this in a direction.
Speaker 3: It could backfire.
Speaker 4: And my biggest concern here with this president is I
Speaker 4: don't see a guy who brings the right people together
Speaker 4: to get the right information to make informed decisions about anything.
Speaker 1: Does this mean that we did not totally a blitter
Speaker 1: rate Iran's nuclear program as the President told.
Speaker 4: Us, that is correct, I mean there was significant damage
Speaker 4: done to the Iranian nuclear program, But what the President
Speaker 4: said was far from true.
Speaker 3: We did not obliterate it.
Speaker 4: They have the ability to rebuild it, to start enriching uranium.
Speaker 3: And we're going to track this rather closely.
Speaker 4: And you know, having said that, it was an incredibly
Speaker 4: successful operation. When I was brief by the members of
Speaker 4: the military who actually fly in the planes, you know,
Speaker 4: the ones that led elements of that strike, they did
Speaker 4: a remarkable job. It almost could not have gone better,
Speaker 4: you know. But once those bombs, you know, hit the targets,
Speaker 4: it's not up to the pilots for what happens after that.
Speaker 4: And we're gonna have to see what the Iranians decide
Speaker 4: to do here in reconstituting that capability. Are they going
Speaker 4: to rush at some point to get a nuclear weapon
Speaker 4: or not? Until we know the final outcome, I think
Speaker 4: it's hard to say whether this was a good decision
Speaker 4: or not. But I will give the US military a
Speaker 4: tremendous amount of credit.
Speaker 3: It went exceedingly well.
Speaker 2: Well. Senator. The man who helps lead the US military,
Speaker 2: Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, of course, has made an effort
Speaker 2: to demote you and cut your retirement benefits over the
Speaker 2: illegal orders video, You and five of your Democratic colleagues
Speaker 2: participated in a federal judge just yesterday ruled in your favor,
Speaker 2: saying that that likely violates your First Amendment rights. But
Speaker 2: the Defense Secretary has said he will appeal this. He says,
Speaker 2: to quote him, sedition is sedition?
Speaker 3: Captain?
Speaker 2: How far are you anticipating this will go? And how
Speaker 2: did this become per personal enough that you believe that
Speaker 2: even if courts continue to rule in your favor on
Speaker 2: this specific issue, they will come after you in other ways.
Speaker 4: Well, I mean I said something the President didn't like.
Speaker 4: I said something what was lawful that's in the Uniform
Speaker 4: Code of Military Justice. And Donald Trump said I should
Speaker 4: be hanged, executed, prosecuted. And then he sicked Pete hegg Seth,
Speaker 4: the Secretary of Defense, on me, to demote me, take
Speaker 4: away some of my retirement pay. And sure you, the
Speaker 4: grand jury didn't indict me a couple days ago.
Speaker 3: But I don't put anything past these guys.
Speaker 4: You know, the president often doubles down on bad ideas.
Speaker 3: I mean, he has a habit of doing.
Speaker 4: This, so I expect him to continue with this effort.
Speaker 4: But here's the thing. This is much more important than me.
Speaker 4: This is about the free speech rights of two million
Speaker 4: retired service members and millions of other Americans who have
Speaker 4: a right to say what they believe and speak out
Speaker 4: against the government. And it might sound like a couple
Speaker 4: days ago when they failed to indict me, that was
Speaker 4: a good thing, But think about this for a second.
Speaker 4: The President just tried to throw myself and another US
Speaker 4: Senator and members of the House in prison.
Speaker 3: He's trying to imprison.
Speaker 4: Us because he doesn't like what we're saying. So this
Speaker 4: is we're getting close here to what we're certainly in
Speaker 4: an uncharted territory already. But I'm going to continue to
Speaker 4: fight this because this is about the constitution. Something I
Speaker 4: served in the United States Navy for for twenty five years.
Speaker 3: I went to War four.
Speaker 4: I fought our enemies for our country and our constitution,
Speaker 4: and I'm not going to back down from this president
Speaker 4: or anybody else.
Speaker 2: Well, Senator you referenced that failed grand jury indictment. One
Speaker 2: of your colleagues who appeared in that video alongside you,
Speaker 2: Senator Lissa Slotkin, has asked the DOJ to confirm whether
Speaker 2: or not the investigation into the six of you has
Speaker 2: indeed concluded, have you heard from her? As to web
Speaker 2: There has been a response to that. Have you yourself heard
Speaker 2: from the DJ in that regard?
Speaker 4: We hear very little from the DJ I think as
Speaker 4: my office, the last thing we may have heard was
Speaker 4: that we were not under investigation, and the next thing
Speaker 4: we find out from the press is the attempted to
Speaker 4: indict us. I mean, this is not how these processes
Speaker 4: are supposed to work. You know, these folks seem to.
Speaker 3: Not know how to do their jobs.
Speaker 4: And the worst thing about this, though, is the message
Speaker 4: it sends to the American people that if you speak
Speaker 4: out against this government, this president, the Attorney General, US attorneys,
Speaker 4: they're going.
Speaker 3: To come after you. And that is just fundamentally un Americans.
Speaker 1: Senator Kelly, when you get back to Washington, it looks
Speaker 1: like the Department of Homeland Security will be closed. It's
Speaker 1: set to shut down tonight, of course, because of the
Speaker 1: dispute over DHS and more specifically restrictions around ICE. When
Speaker 1: you return, we're also going to be talking about the
Speaker 1: prospect of missed paychecks for folks in the TSA. We're
Speaker 1: going to be looking at the Coastguard and FEMA. How
Speaker 1: long can Democrats hold the line on this.
Speaker 4: Well, what we've seen from my sover the past months
Speaker 4: in Minneapolis and other cities is an agency that has
Speaker 4: just run amok and is violating the constitutional rights of
Speaker 4: thousands and thousands of Americans. We have two dead Americans,
Speaker 4: we have people that have been beaten up. I have
Speaker 4: a constituent that was just standing on the sidewalk and
Speaker 4: a federal agent in a vehicle just Spraser in the
Speaker 4: face with mace. I mean, is what is going on?
Speaker 4: I mean, this agency needs to be overhauled. People need
Speaker 4: to be fired. Why are they in uniforms that tactical
Speaker 4: operators in Fallujah wear?
Speaker 3: I mean, why don't they wear.
Speaker 4: Named has they seem to not follow a a reasonable
Speaker 4: use of force criteria? The agency needs to be fixed
Speaker 4: in a dramatic way. And until that happens, I mean,
Speaker 4: I am not in favor of funding them beyond what
Speaker 4: they what the President gave them, and Republicans in the
Speaker 4: House and Senate gave them in his big piece of legislation,
Speaker 4: which was seventy five billion dollars to be spent over
Speaker 4: three years.
Speaker 3: You know, they have resources.
Speaker 4: They do not need more resources that will go towards
Speaker 4: violating the rights of the American people.
Speaker 1: But of course, says we've established the TSA FEMA Coastguard
Speaker 1: get penalized by this action as well. Senator, are there
Speaker 1: talks underway in Munich about crafting a deal? Because we
Speaker 1: know that negotiations have been underway in the background.
Speaker 3: What are you hearing? You know, Hey, the Republicans know
Speaker 3: what they need to do here.
Speaker 4: You know, we sent a reasonable proposal to the White House.
Speaker 4: They sent an unreasonable and unseerious response. Yes, you know,
Speaker 4: and I think at this point many of them realize
Speaker 4: that this situation has gotten out of control and it
Speaker 4: has to be fixed. So if they would sit down
Speaker 4: with us and seriously consider what we're asking them to
Speaker 4: do with this agency.
Speaker 3: I think we could rather quickly get to a deal.
Speaker 1: Senator Mark Kelly joining us live from the Munich Security Conference. Senator,
Speaker 1: thank you for being here on Bloomberg, and thank you
Speaker 1: for your service.