Transcripts For CSPAN2 Gen. John Hyten Confirmation Hearing 20240714

Joint chiefs of staff. We thank you for being here today and we welcome your family here and friends, doctor hyten, they can be introduced at the time youre recognized for your Opening Statement. We have our boring questions you have to respond to first. Have you adhered to the laws and regulations governing the conflict of interest. Do you agree if confirmed to testify before this committee . Guesser. Do you agree to provide a documenting for the electronic forms of communication in a timely manner when requested by the duly constituted committee or to consult with the Committee Regarding the basis of any goodfaith denial or delay in such documents . Yes, sir. Do you agree to give your personal views even if they are different from the administration in power . Will you ensure that your staff complies with deadlines for requesting the communications including questions for the record in the hearings . We will. Will you cooperate in providinproviding successes ands in response to the congression congressional . Yes, sir. Will those witnesses be protected from the prize over their testimony . Yes, sir. Have you assumed any duties were undertaken actions to prepare to resume the outcome of the confirmation process . I have not, sir. The world is more dangerous now than its been in my lifetime. I honestly believed that ive talked to you about that. And after years of sustained Armed Conflict unde conflict und budget uncertainties in our military has fallen behind competitors and readiness in the key capabilities. Without adequate sustained and predictable funding, all of the work we do on this committee to implement the National Defense strategy would be for nothing and thats why i think President Trump and the congressional leaders for reaching a bipartisan budget agreement. Its critical to separate the military and veterans and their families. While i would have liked to see more funding for the defense at the end of the day, the budget agreement provides minimal growth to give the military what it needs and will allow the department of defense to plan strategically in the future. I need to tell you where i stand on the allegations against general hyten, allegations that have been bandied about in the press with little regard to the truth. This committee has held five executive sessions, studied over a thousand pages of investigative records and reviewed statements of more than 50 witnesses. The members have countless hours reviewing general hyten service and nomination to a thorough and methodical process. And the other material listed in the testimony conduct analysis and expressed their opinions. Todays hearing is the next logical step in the deliberation disciplined and detailed process. This committee uses to determine the suitability of the nominating candidates. Addressing these allegations is critical not just for you, but for every nominee Going Forward. It is unacceptable that the committee will not act on unproven allegations that do not withstand close scrutiny of the committees process. General, you have been leading with discipline and integrity for the last two and a half years and you serve honorably in the top leadership positions in air force Space Command and the four years before that. I commend the willingness of you and your family to continue your Outstanding Service to our military and to our country. As we form a new United States space force, we need your strategic insight and guidance to move the Key Initiative forward including how to improve space acquisition. British Army Field Marshal bernard said, quote, if we lose the war, we lose it quickly and we say the same thing about space. When i say its the most dangerous position has been in my lifetime, one of the areas im talking about is the proliferation of Ballistic Missiles and cruise missiles capabilities. Russia, china, iran, north korea use them as the leverage and we needed the imagination and strong leadership to counter this. As the secretary of defense said, we need urgent change and significant skill to implement the National Defense strategy, and i couldnt agree more. Senator reid. Thank you very much, mr. Chairman. Let me join you in welcoming the chairman and his kids to this mornings hearings. The purpose of the hearing is to focus on the duties of the vice chairman of the chiefs of staff and to closely scrutinize whether general hyten has Previous Service and experience to serve as the vicechairman. General hyten over the past few weeks in a private Media Outlets including the times and Washington Post have reported allegations that he sexually assaulted as the commander of the u. S. Strategic command. These are serious allegations and therefore consistent with the committees longstanding practices and we have held five executive sessions related to the nomination totaling 1 15 hos and testimony in the deliberations. During the sessions, members received sworn testimony on the extremely sensitive matters and we are able to ask questions and review documents. Members have been afforded the opportunity to request Additional Information in the department which we have done. The executive sessions with appropriate forms to consider this information which enabled the committee a longstanding procedures that served in the senate well for decades. Sessions allowed each two year the viewpoint of our colleagues even if the perspective was different from our own. The dialogue helped inform our committee and i appreciate the thoughtful consideration of every member during the process. Finally i went to think fishermen for ensuring the committee has the sufficient time to conduct the review of these matters. Anand in office and extremely cooperative in this regard, and i appreciate it. Nevertheless, we must recognize the public nature of the allegations will raise questions today that are appropriate to an open session of the committee. Last week the Senate Confirmed general barkley to be chairman of the joint chiefs of staff and as he testified, the International Order established the new National Defense strategy which the perso the pue implementing wilperson isimplemr them to compete with a china or russia iran and nort north korea remain dangerous and different post by th the organizations ist diminishing. Furthermore the Department Must continue to recruit the individuals play restoring readiness and new highend capabilities of the force. On the Critical National Security Issues and the challenge is a reference to earlier the committee looks forward to hearing on the effectiveness of the current interagency process. Finally the vicechairman assigned to specific responses to the Department First vicechairman alway always see e requirements and the Oversight Council this is a critical aspect in the process. Second, the Senior Member of the council the vicechairman plays a central role in ensuring the safety of our Nuclear Arsenal and finally getting the recent service as the commander of the Strategic Command is confirmed i would expect to play an integral role in how it would address the threat posed by the adversaries in space. In how you prioritize these duties if you are confirmed as the vicechairman. Thank you mr. Chairman. Thank you, senator reid and doctor wilson for being here. Your service to the country has been exemplary. We hope you enjoy your next chapter. You are recognized now for an introduction. Thank you mr. Chair. Im here to introduce general john hyten the nominee to be the next vicechairman of the joint chiefs of staff. I graduated from the air force academy in the thir and the thio include women and served for seven years as a junior officer. As a former member of the Defense Advisory Committee on women in the services in the 1990s and is a former member of the House Armed Services committee, i know well Sexual Harassment and Sexual Assault have been in the military. They are investigated and punished and while ive now left the defense department, i was the secretary of the air force and directed the investigation of allegations made against general hyten by the former subordinates. That investigation was overseen by the Inspector General it was to conduct an investigation and to find the truth. During my time, i come before you with Great Success stories and ive been here when the air force is. Its taken seriously and was handled appropriately. 18 of 53 investigators interviewed 63 people in three countries and 14 saves. They reviewed over 196,000 emails and 4,000 pages of documents. They reviewed 152 travel records and portions of phone records dating back to 2015. They interviewed members of the general staff and Strategic Command as well as members and staff when he was the Space Command. He was one of the closely regarded officers and military because he commands the nuclear deterrence. The Inspector General also interviewed his personal security team. The result is a final report with over 1400 pages. The military does not automatically suspend to disk clearances or remove them from command when theres an allegation of impropriety. If the initial facts gathered justify it, we can, and i have done so in other cases. This Committee Also has handled this matter with respect for the accuser and for general hyten with discretion and sensitivity. After all of this, i believe the senate will come to the same conclusion i did. General hyten was falsely accused in this matter should be satisfied as you consider the nomination. I accept that it is entirely possible that his accuser is a wounded soldier who believes what shes saying is true. The possibility makes this a situation very sad. With these facts maintaining the credibility. And deeply rooted justice. I hope you will agree with me general john hyten is worth all of the time that you have taken to consider this nomination. He is the right leader to be the next vicechairman of the joint chiefs of staff. John has the credibility and experience of a Combatant Commander yet begins his career and acquisition. The experience setting the requirements for complex Weapons Systems this is a process he will lead us to vicechairman. As the commander, he has diverted the development of the requirements for the Nuclear Command and control and has been a driving force behind the need to modernize the Nuclear Deterrent. Hes an exceptionally good complement to the skills as the chairman. More than his expertise, john hyten has a wellearned reputation for speaking truth to power. He gives frank military advice felt much as sugarcoating. I know that from personal experience. Like it or not, he will tell you what he thinks and what you need to know, not what you want here. He is passionate about the security of the country, and i encourage you to support his confirmation. Thank you, mr. Chairman. Thank you for the excellent introduction. With that, we will recognize you for an Opening Statement. Chairman, Ranking Member, distinguished Committee Members, is a privilege to be good for bu today as the nominee to become the 11th of vicechairman of the joint chiefs of staff. I want to recognize that the jury will send as you did for the long devoted service to index everything she has come all this way to speak on her behalf. I think her for that introduction. To begin, i would like to introduce my wife to the committee so thank you for that opportunity. We met when i was stationed in los angeles, and we have been married now for almost 32 years. We met by longterm aspirations did not include a lifetime of service to the United States air force. Over and over again, opportunities to continue to come alon on to do what i love d she would always encourage me. Today shes an advocate in the committee and works to empower and care for the military families. Shes an amazing woman. The best person i know. Shes ready to fight for the country alongside with me when our time. Together we also have the joy of raising two incredible children, katie and chris, both successful in their own right each with putting this here. Here with us chris couldnt make it all the way from colorado on such short notice. Sitting next to them as my is my brother scott representing my mom, dad, sister in alabama and ive been lucky to have him by my side every step of the way. This last christmas, i was asked to talk with my family whether i would consider serving in another position if it were offered. I wasnt sure what i would say this was a family decision. Thats when katie made it quite simple asking me if you love this country and use of the people you work with, and you still feel you can make a difference, then why stop, period. Simple. Thats why im here. I still love what i do and if as confirmed i look forward to continuing my advocacy for the soldiers, sailors, airmen, marines and the department of defense when the nation provides them the right tools theyve proven time and time again they are our greatest advantage over any other adversary. As i sit here today, as it has been discussed and aware of the allegations made against me and one of the most Serious Problems we have come a Sexual Assault. Its been a painful time for me and my family if i want to state to you and the American People that these allegations are false. There was a very extensive and thorough investigation that was described which revealed the truth, nothing happened, ever. Im also thankful to the committee for all the time you took individually and together in the executive session to study the facts. I think the integrity of the investigation and the nomination process are critical not only for everybody involved that the nations citizens as well. So i stand by the truth, and i think the committee for its unwavering commitment and support the National Defense ass one of the men and women who serve. If confirmed, i look forward to working across the department of defense with our friends and allies and agents of congress to address the ever widening spectrum confronting the nation. Do we have not yet seen our advantage here facing challenges particularly in areas like space and cyberspace in the position we must address resurgent peers who have longterm strategies to supplant the global influence of the United States and allies. We cannot lose focus on this asymmetric challenge after challenge they represent. In order to address the challenges that mus it must cone to field the best in the force we must be prepared to meet the threats directly head on in order to deter and dissuade them if necessary, fight and win the nations conflicts. To do this, we must maintain our lethal force and we cannot break the bank doing it. If confirmed by connect to you i will work to find Effective Solutions to the challenges leveraging the best of the American Ingenuity and knowhow. Ranking member read the members of the committee, thank you for the opportunity to appear before you today. For your confidence in me i also wish the chairman and vice chairman godspeed in their pending retirements. They will be missed and if confirmed i will work hard everyday to carry oeveryday to d maintain the highest standards of the joint staff. Thank you and i will look forward to your questions. We are going to begin with a fiveminute questions and i want to do something about it differently. In my cas case there is one amos has spent more time than anyone else looking into allegations against you, general hyten, and im going to use a small part of my time and then yield the rest of my time to that individual im sure that you have read this over many times and this is something that we have used in the blueprint for the actions. And i would like to get from you, number one, your coming to you agree with me in terms of the significance of the document and secondly, wouldnt you agree that you would use this also as the basis of the blueprint from the activities . Strategy is an important document. And i think that they did a great job working for exactly what the challenges are. The reemergence of russia and china we have to be prepared for that. It goes through all the things coming emerging technologies and the challenges we have. Its a very good document and i think you used the word blueprint. Its something we need to continue to follow. For all of whom are experts in the field in the second, i dont really need an answer for this but i do need to make sure that we get an answer for the record and that is its a little different but we are doing now. We have china and russia and a situation where they have some things better than us. We have a gap that is out there. A credibility gap against the two countries. And for the record. I do deny all these allegations and did so unde have done so un. Is that correct . There is regardless the outcome of the proceedings the issues that are surrounding you now that were not surrounding your months ago. And if you are confirmed and assume the responsibilities of the vice chairman, how will you deal with these issues correctly or incorrectly they will be there. Senator, i thought about that a lot. I thought about that a lot with my family. My wife and i talked about that the last couple of months. She says this is the ice age of america. The truth is to matter and we believe that the truth will come out and the truth will tell the story and will be able to then continue to serve and do the things we need to continue to defend the country. So, senator, its been a difficult time but we fundamentally told the truth. One of the aspects of this case has been problems within your headquarters frankly. Some were described as toxic etc. And this was in your immediate headquarters which raises the question fo of whiche leader must address why wouldnt they add idea co. Identify it sooner, correct it more i guess expeditiously and also left disruptively might be the way to describe it. And do you think that you did the appropriate action and responsibility for what happened in your headquarters . As the commander, i assume responsibly for everything that happens in my command. Thats the nature of the comma command. We had a toxic leadership problem in the command, and i didnt recognize it for a significant period of time. The army has had a problem for a while and published a regulation in 2017 to help train the leadership to help identify. The problem of toxi with toxic s as they look absolutely brilliant to the leadership, but its not that way. It took me a long time to understand that. What i did identify i acted quickly, decisively. Investigations were thorough and we did the right thing through the entire process. As both my Opening Statement and the secretarys comments indicated as the chairman of the joint requirements committee, you have absolutely Critical Role particularly as we find ourselves with programs that grow of course remarkably so and schedule slowdown. Can you give us just a small inclination of what youd like to do to accelerate the schedule and decrease cost . Thats 38 years of experien experience. I would just say i thought a lot because i watched for a long time and i think that the general has moved the ball forward. This committee and the congress as a whole has moved the ball forward in terms of acquisition reform and get the right things to do. I think what we have to do on the Retirement Fund is make sure we are always focused on the requirements capability, not the solution. In the past, theyve gone into very specific systemlevel requirements. They worked to pull that up, the department worked to pull that up if confirmed i will continue to drive that forward and make sure the capabilities we have to have and make sure that they are achievable, rational, but not specifying a solution. Thank you mr. Chairman. Thank you, senator reid. Mr. Chairman, i would yield back my time to senator mcsally, and i understand i may be recognized for five minutes in her place later on in the hearing. You will be recognized for five minutes in her place. You are recognized for your five minutes plus my four minutes. Thank you mr. Chairman and senator wicker. When i explained that i also was a survivor of military Sexual Assault, i never saw i softened its position. As a 26 year veteran and Member Committee charged with oversight of the military and confirmation of nominees for senior military positions, i did not take the allegation against general hyten lately. I taken extremely seriously and treated them as such. Over the past three weeks i focused nearly solely on this issue in an effort to speak the truth. Im grateful the chairman of the ranking are and the committee took a methodical objective approach and conducted a thorough review. As a result of the exhaustive process and extreme due diligence, i have full confidence in general hytens ability to be the next vice chairman of the joint chiefs of staff. He is the right leader at the right time for this important decision, and im confident he will continue to serve in uniform with honor, humility and integrity. I look forward to working on National Security issues and i will also value the partnership along with other military leaders as efforts to prevent and improve the response including support to survivors and due process for the accused. I have and always will separate the issues being worked out through the due process and thought in a court of public opinion. Where all the information, evidence and testimony are not fully known. I am confident in the outcome. To be clear, this wasnt just a jump ball, not a he said she said, not a situation where we just couldnt prove what allegedly happened. I also believe the truth Still Matters in this country. And the full truth was revealed in this process. The truth is general hyten is innocent of these charges. Sexual assault happens in the military. It just didnt happen in this case. I pray the accuser gets the help she needs and find the piece she is searching for a. That it cannot be by destroying him with these false allegatio allegations. I didnt take coming to this conclusion likely. I kne knew the message of good e of Sexual Assault survivors who havent seen all the information on the case but i have. Then, im honored to continue to be a voice to you. Dont pick the wrong message for how this is being played out publicly. The process i just witnessed was strong investigators turned over every rock and they will continue to fight to assure the best possible outcomes in fight for real victim. All allegations should be treated seriously and investigated fully. Ill accused the assumed innocent and afforded due process. All of that occurred in this case. False allegations like these are not without collateral damage. Male military leaders may avoid choosing females for key positions ultimately hurting servicewomen opportunities for career enhancing jobs. Commanders may think twice about disciplining female subordinates for fear of Sexual Assault allegations and retributions. This could act like a cancer on our good order and discipline. Male senior military leaders may choose to retire instead of accepting higher positions. And finally, general hyten at his family were unfairly put through this terrible ordeal. General hyten, i am sorry that you, laura and your family had to end the murder trial, but im grateful you didnt back down. You continue to carry your self with integrity, humility, and respect through this process creates something many of us would struggle to do. Its become common for people to try to destroy each other for their own political benefit but no regard for the truth or the lives damaged in the process. This committee has traditionally tried to stay above the fray focusing on the National Guard and our collective duty. And we each have a choice now. That will determine whether we further encourag encourage and incentivize politics of destruction or whether we make a clear stance for the principles of justice, decency and truth. I implore each of my colleagues about the pressure of the moment to do the right thing for the country, our military, Sexual Assault survivors, this institution, our values and general hyten and his family. If it were you or a loved one falsely accused of these crimes, you would hope that those of us called to serve would find the strength and courage to do what is right and what is just. The decisions that we make here hopefully this week will reverberate for a long time to come. General hyten, i look forward to supporting you and workin unit h u. S. But vice chairman of the joint chiefs of staff and encourage my colleagues to join me. Thank you and i will yield back. Senator reid outlined their responsibilities as the vice chairman of the joint chiefs of staff. If confirmed would be the secondhighest individual in the military. There will be those in the public and those in the military those that are concerned about the Sexual Assault in the military that you are committed to addressing this issue and will do everything you can if you are confirmed to address this issue. Weve been trying to do after that ever since and we havent done a good job. It hasnt gone the right direction. I did read this last week the 17 initiatives that are in the authorization act. The so that Everybody Knows that we have, we are watching that closely and doing what we can. Given that it has been a consistent response from the leadership of the military now for several decades and we still see the numbers going in the wrong direction, should we be thinking about taking this issue outside the chain of command in the military and dealing with it in a different way . I dont believe the chain of command can be removed from any problem in the military and folded and there are other things that can be brought to bear for fixing the problems when i came into the military, i came in from alabama come into alabama and racism was a huge problem in the military. Over racism. Its still a systemic problem in our society that i watch commander after command or take charge on that and any time they eliminated it from the formation, when it happens, huge improvements have been. The chain of command has to be involved for the problem to get fixed. Every commander has to embrace it. If they do with support from the congress and th of the law and l of those pieces, we could get after this, but we have to do it together. We need to do a better job of Holding People accountable. I want to switch topics to afghanistan because recent reports have indicated that the taliban and ended the u. S. Have agreed to a road map for peace and the statement calls for the end to civilian casualties and protections of womens rights within the islamic framework. So, what do you think we should be doing to ensure any peace in afghanistan continues to provide the human rights that all afghans were guaranteed under the constitution was adopted after the fall of the taliban . Scenic i havent been in afghanistan since i was deployed in 2006, so why not ask her and as i will be if im confirmed as vice chairman but ive watched that issue and ive read all the things youve talked about. The one thing i know, the military right now is in an important position of establishing the conditions for the diplomatic solution between tablet and the government in afghanistan. That has to be the solution, and i think we have to continue to support the process and understand and make sure that it doesnt raise its head again where. We are clearly now supporting the diplomatic process and trying to encourage a proper solution that will take care of all of the rights that you discussed. Thank you, senator. Senator fisher. Thank you mr. Chairman, good morning general, good to see you. Welcome to your wife, your daughter and your family with us here today. I think that you are especially well qualified for this role and your experience as the commander for the last three years will be particularly valuable since vice chair of the joint chief sits on the Nuclear Weapons council and usually function as the joint staff senior subject Matter Experts on nuclear deterrence. You and i have spoken a lot about the low yield submarine launch warhead on several occasions. And as we prepare for a conference with the house, i think its important that we revisit this issue did you believe deploying the warhead or any of the potential employment scenarios would put our submarines at greater risk . I strongly believe the capabilities needed can you give a sense of the importance that you attached to this program . You have to look at what they say and what they do and watch them very closely. You dont want them t him to ben enemy. Right now we have low yield weapons i made a recommendation, and the recommendation was discussed broadly to the Security Committee and agreed that we should have a very small number of the low yield Nuclear Weapons on the submarines its also important to note that we will deploy that under the new s. T. A. R. T. Treaty. The in m its been my understang that due to the scale and complexity of the project would need to do everything we can to reach that production and we need to do it right now in order to meet at 2030 deadline. So, if we decide to defer action on any additional capacity until we have achieved that 30 per year production level i understand the challenges we facthatwe face there and i thine department put together the best plans we have to get 35 of los alamos and 852030 across the entire enterprise. If we cant do that, theres no chance thathere is nochance tha, and the requirement is 80 by 2030. We have seen renewed discussions on whether we have the need to have the Production Capacity at all, and its my understanding that this longstanding goal has been repeatedly validated and it was certainly in the possessionf the Obama Administration as well as that of the current administration. Can you speak to that . If you think of what god can do their 50, 60, 70yearsold. We watched that closely, i look at it every year and i have to certify it. When we look at those numbers i dont want to get to the point where accounting of 100yearold as the backbone thats why weve gone through the Detailed Analysis that we have to get to 30 by 2026 and 80 by 2030. The quick input into the security as a nation. Senator corona. Thank you mr. Chairman. As part of my responsibility as a member of the committee and to ensure the fitness of the nominees, i ask all nominees to follow the initial questions. Have you ever faced discipline or enter into a settlement related to this kind of conduct . We have discussed the issue that i faced in the last four months today. General hyten, although your answers to my standard questions you have been accused of serious Sexual Misconduct and youve given your reactions already this morning for me this has been as for so many of us the values against you are serious and why we havent been presented with any corroborative evidence, the last of it doesnt necessarily mean that the accusations were not true. Women are a fault at all the time and dont tell anyone. Men o of old women all the time and dont leave behind any evidence. You have allegations between the military and the committee it appears the investigation has been done and women sometimes to make false accusations. Although, i would say it is rare. In evidence and testimony we make our own judgment whether or not you should get this promotion. In light of all of this is there anything you would like to tell us that could help make the decision regarding you . The executive sessions that with me last week and its a very important piece to continue to look at. I stand by my testimony and the executive session, much of which was very difficult to talk about, but i spoke openly, candidly, and i share all of the information that is applicable to this case. I would encourage the committee if you have questions to go back and look at that, to look at the evidence thats fair to loo beat the information. I provided to the committee and the judgment based on the evidence that you see. The fear that men and commander positions of authority will be subjected to false accusations because it was here that women spend time basically sitting around accusing then falsely is a dangerous view, and in my opinion because the fact is women who are sexually assaulted carlton do not report. You testified this morning it took you a significant amount of time to recognize that theres a toxic leadership issue in your command. I take full responsibility for everything in my command. But the nature of a toxic leader is they are brilliant to the boss. They absolutely are. That is how many have made it all the way to the ring because the bosses dont see those kind of things. You have to have people that come to you and when people started coming to me, because she was so brilliant in her work i thought that there was an issue with rough edges around an army officer. Army officer. We talked about that, if issues around language, we talked about that. But it took me to do an actual inquiry into that climate of my headquarters before i saw the evidence that there was a toxic leader there. When you indicated that it took a significant amount of time to recognize that there was a toxic leadership situation, it sounded so you have gotten some indication that there were concerned so it is not as though everyone came to you and said thithat this person is a toxic leader. Would you say perhaps you have a blind spot because you considered her brilliant and you kept giving her her good revies even during the course of the investigation or the process . I ha have a small number of people come to me and i talked about those in detail and the executive session so i wont share their names and what they told me in the open hearing. But, i think that again, toxic leadership is the one very difficult thing to identify, and once i did identify, i moved quickly in order to deal with that. But it still took me a while to do that. I cant deny that. Youve been asked questions regarding sturridge and yo you yourself use the word, sexual trauma and the military and also there was a time to do something about it. I would be very interested to know what specifically would you do to really end the scourge of the Sexual Assault within the military as well as in the service academies. If i am confirmed as the vicechairman that is something i will have to look at very closely. Drift into issues of Sexual Harassment. We dealt with those quickly. My policies on how to deal with a hasnt been sufficient. Ive had experiences with people close to me that have been victims and it is just a horrible, horrible thing. But i really dont feel like i am an expert in that area and that i can talk you. The point and change will happen. Thank you mr. Chairman. Senator kaufman. General, thank you for your appearance today. I associate myself about the threats we face that senator inhofe said on the Nuclear Deterrent forces and senator fisher. But i think that we all know that this hearing would not be nearly so widely covered. I want to associate myself with secretary wilson, former secretary wilson who was resigned in the administration and returned to the academy under no compunction to be here today. And to recognize Sexual Assault and Sexual Harassment, misconduct of any place has no place in the military. But the facts do matter and we should judge every case on its facts. This committee has spent dozens of hours reviewing your case and asked the senator said, theres been no corroborating evidence of the allegations against you. As the secretary said, you have been falsely accused. I jus just want to touch on a ff the details that i know are in your personal knowledge. As the commander of the Strategic Command, for him in a clear chain of command, correct . Yes, sir i am. If russia decided to go for the jugular and launch an allout Nuclear Strike on the United States, how long from the time you warn th the president f the United States of the strike to his decision to launch or lose the missiles what the president have . s in the worst case, it is a small number, but its in most cases the president has a significant period of time, however because the worst case is a small number of minutes, we have to be connected all the time. So at no time can you be off the grid. I cannot be off the grid. I bet you are prepared in this very hearing just about to advise the president on such a contingency is that right . If something happened, my Communications Team is right there and i would start out and get on the phone. So, you are guarded and attended to by your security details and communications detailed 24 hours a . s unless im on leave. In which he would sig assignt to another person. Is secretary wilson said, your details were interviewed in the process of this investigation. Are you aware of them giving any corroborating testimony to your accusers allegations . s i read all of their testimony and only got a copy of the investigation a week ago and ive only had a chance to go through it once but every member of th the detail that was interviewed saw nothing like that. Is the Strategic Command you are a target for cyber attack for places like china and russia. Do you have a felon besides they government phone . Was searched as a part of this investigation . To your knowledge didnt include any corroborating evidence of the evidence against you . s nine. Some claim air force mishandled the investigation and that you should have been temporarily made removed or have your security temporarily revoked. Would you remove from the java revoked the security clearance of any security with no corroborating evidence in the interim . A twopart answer to that question. Number one, i would not take any action unless the information was corroborated because i think that presumes guilt, but i would take action to remove an individual if they are in the same Office Temporarily until we got to that point. The nature of the Sexual Misconduct allegations have been widely reported in the media. Has your accuser ever accused you of other kinds of misconduct . s yes, sir. What was the nature of those accusations . Since she was relieved against my command and me before this investigation, i think there were 34 different accusations, 24 against my chief of staff, six against me, to against my deputy commander, to against the investigating officer of the investigation. Were any of those of a nonsexual nature against you or others corroborated were substantiated . s my time is almost up. I want to commend in particular senator inhofe and senator reid for the way theyve conducted this. We have spent dozens of hour ofe 14 page report and hearing from your accuser and general hyten, it shows zero corroborating evidence of these accusations is acknowledged. Every evidence some of which we touch upon to be more of which i hope will be released soon as appropriate extends to credit your denials and i think its important that we confirm you because i think you will be great for the job and its also important that we maintain the basic american standards of the facts do matter and when someone faces an accusation whether it is a general or thousands of lieutenants and sergeants out there that are watching the hearing today, they understand that the facts do matter. Thank you, senator. Secretary wilson touched on this in the introduction. You have a lot of responsibilities or will argue to be confirmed as the vice chair, but there is no more solemn responsibility then when you are in the oval office with the chair talking about the military situation is the result of taking military action. Will you commit unequivocally that in that situation you will get nothing but your unvarnished truthful analysis based upon your 38 years of experience and based upon your wisdom and knowledge of the circumstances that would result from the military action . I have the last two and a half years some uncomfortable discussions that if confirmed as the vicechairman i will continue to provide the best military advice as you described. You believe it would be in the National Interest of the United States of this treaty . Im not a legal expert on the treaty. So i do not know the pros and cons and the benefits of that. I do know the law is an appropriate standard. The nations look at including the United States when they consider freedom of navigation and borders and all those kinds of pizzas. But i dont have enough legal knowledge to talk about the treaty. Ive not looked at the senator. Thank you. How do you define the National Security interest in the United States in the arctic which is one of the most strategic areas in the world. It is noise been critical to north america. Ive been a member of north american aeroSpace Command and ive watched them talk about it in particular any text but a very well. As the climate changes in that part of the world does open up to navigation, the threats of there will be much more significant, when you go all the way back to the 50s, all the way up north, in order to watch the threats from the soviet union at the time to make sure we have the present time just respond that is always been a good piece and will become more critical as the ceilings open up. I agree. I have friends who say why are we paying all this money to upgrade nuclear forces, where missiles, bombs, airplanes, summaries, why are we spinning money to talk about upgrading them. Give me the argument to take home. In 2029, it is going to become very, very difficult to maintain the minuteman force in the current confer duration because the nature of rockets. Just because of their age customer. Just because of their age. Same will happen with b2. Because the characteristics of the b2 will have to be replaced, its interesting because at a certain day of the future, i will not go into that here, the higher class summary not be able to go in the water anymore. Therefore we need a new submarine to replace us. Whats behind that . We have adversaries were building to try to challenge us to effectively deter them. The primary use is to prevent the use of Nuclear Weapons on the United States of america. It also happens to be ready forces and adversaries have to know that. Because if they are not ready, and not capable then they are not an effective deterrent. Thats exactly right. The key. They can best determine. Thank you. Senator brown. Thank you, mr. Chairman. First i want to thank you and your family for 38 years of service to this nation. I know the events of the last few months have been hard on you and your family. But im certain you understand the reason you need to move forward. I want to say thank you to chairman inhofe and Ranking Member read for conducting a very thorough and fair inquiry and ive appreciated the hours that a lot of the members of the committee put in and i preach it your testimony as well an and executive session. I want to focus on something we dont talk enough about. That is with regard to the readiness of the armed forces today and what needs to be done about it. Underscore to describe a couple of issues that im aware of that i think have to be resolved in the near future. Let me give some examples, the ib bombers, this is the workforce for their first today. Right now of all of the bombers we have six of them that are fully mission. Five split, 15d ones are in depot. The remaining 39 and 44 are down for a variety of discrepancies and inspections. When it comes to the navy, we have f18 switch only 40 of them were mission capable. 60 were not. We have moved up from that, perhaps closing in on the 60 range now. We are making progress. Then the navy itself, just on submarines, we need to have the resources or capabilities, the boise, the u. S. Attacked summary, nuclear pac attacked submarine, will have been a dry dock or at dock not even capable of some urging for six years, three other nuclear texan marines we find in exactly the same predicament. It means or depots are not ready for them. When it comes to f15s, we have had f15s set up and held down because they have not met structural requirements, we have f22s that of the premier Fighter Aircraft in the world today and yet their age is showing. Time and again, is not just to seek frustration but a matter of depot and the capability to put equipment into the depot and get it out in a timely fashion. We will look, this year our committee is recommending or prepared to vote on a 738 billion Defense Budget, i would like you, if you could into different areas, number one what do we have to do to get the depot system so that actually work the way theyre supposed to. Second, can you imagine a scenario in which we can do any justice to those men and women who wear uniform and need absolutely good equipment if we end up with a 576 billion Defense Budget rather than 738 billion Defense Budget as required by seek frustration to movie defense proposal found in the bba fisher. I think the big answer is the same for both questions. That is stable funding. When you look at the challenges and you look at our problems, many of the problems date back to the first year. That combined with continuous set or capabilities for the last ten years, if you put those things together it was a huge pressure on the force. So having stable, thats why i saw the agreement on the 738 billion on the bipartisan act. There was a return to continuing registration or a longterm continued resolution, both of those scared me first from a readiness perspective. We are just now starting to come operate the race to be one issues. We took a hard look at that after the fitzgerald and the mccain in the pacific across our forces. We sell issues in the b1. We were just beating the heck out of them. In fixing those issues, and the depots can do that. So this is a core issue bring i appreciate you raising them. Thank you, mr. Chairman. Thank you, senator, senator heinrich. As you know, im concerned about the risks that nsa is taking by splitting the production up with ton plutoniu. I want to ask you, are you concerned about the risk especially with respect to meeting the timelines with lapd which have touched on but with respect to the potential force putting expertise and potentially creating the center for excellence of los alamos in a facility that has yet to be stood up and mocks. One of the things that administrator and i have discussed, its a composition that we cannot split the expertise from those almost, we have to focus on that. When you look at the longterm plan, it was going to be difficult of los alamos and still difficult for los alamos. What we cannot do to get to 30 is pull people out of los alamos in order to build up the capability. We cannot do that. Ive had my staff, i want to make sure we are watching that and understand what that is, i have a great relationship with the ministry or in the secretary of energy. We are not going to make that mistake and want to closer. If i am chairman also get to watch it from the perspective. I think that is my concern exactly. And i appreciate your focus on that. We have had conversations in the past about modernization over space assets and in particular on the importance of preserving our success in the things that are working well and not reinventing the wheel as we stand up new capabilities. As you all know the Capabilities Office and the director all play a Critical Role in researching and developing our nation space system. I want to ask you, your commitment that you will push for the full utilization of existing assets even as we modernize our space capably. I commit to that. There is an important piece of the answer print. One of the things i was pleased with was a growing interest in investment of hypersonic r d over the last several months, the pentagon requested a transfer of 50 million to cover the cost of the design and development of a prototype mobile launcher for a longrange hypersonic weapon. Can you talk from your perspective about this reprogramming and more broadly where you see the future of Hypersonic Development going for dod. I am not involved in the details of moving money around, im a huge advocate for pursuing Hypersonic Technology. Im also huge advocate for hypersonic defensive and sensing. That is what i do. This is critical to our nations future. We had adversaries going extremely rapidly and we have had over the years Hypersonic Technology which is a mistake, we should be going after that technology consistently and rapidly over the years and we had not. As vice chairman, i guarantee you that we will advocate to the Oversight Council and other places in order to ensure that we continue to focus on hypersonic. It seems theres a handful of these capabilities like hypersonics, directed energy that really are going to define the nature of the relationship adversaries in the coming years. Another one of them, Artificial Intelligence. Secretary expert said, he explained his belief that Artificial Intelligence will likely change in character of worker and whoever masters at first would dominate on the battlefield for many, many years. I tend to agree with that estimation and just like your thoughts on the importance of a. I. I have to speak on that a few times in the past in public. Once in halifax with Alphabet Google talking about the impact. It is going to be significant, no doubt. I believe the United States has to have leadership in that area. But we also have to have a leadership position and how to integrate into our concepts. If we dont get that right we can make big mistakes in terms of command authority, we cannot let that happen. Artificial intelligence has has to help us do the job better but it cannot tell us what to do. Thank you, mr. Chair. Senator ernst. Thank you, mr. Chair. General heightened you been nominated to be the second highest ranking military officer in the United States armed forces. This position demand the highest level of trust in responsibly, of course sound judgment and impeccable moral compass. You have been accused of Sexual Misconduct by a subordinate officer. I have reviewed the evidence as well as your performance will serving as commander. We have heard numerous times, members of this committee have stated to focus on the facts. Yet the facts have left me with concerns regarding your judgment leadership in fitness to service the next vice chairman of the joint chiefs of staff. I have several questions for you and if you answer yes or no or keep your answers very brief. A recent investigation revealed that several subordinates reported their concerns directly to you regarding the alleged toxic leadership style of the Commanders Action Group director who is an officer under your command. You stated a small number of people had brought concerned to you. About how many people brought concerns . I would say approximately half a dozen. Less than half a dozen. What were the ranks of those individuals . Civilian, major, navy captain,. Would you say theyre fairly highranking . I would say pretty much the entire headquarters is a group of senior people. Absolutely. How many people served in the Commanders Action Group . None. You only have one tact i misunderstood the question. Approximately eight. So you said about halfdozen folks brought forward concerns and you have eight people that serve. It sounds like a large number of the tag brought concerned to you. These are leaders that are fairly experienced and have a good number of years of service me back nobody on the cac brought me the spring. So these outside folks. Thank you for the clear purgation. Just declared for, if you go back, he will see i described one individual named to me too speak for people on the cagle, that was the one that was instigator for me. Despite the fact that you were cited numerous times throughout the investigation as enabling this alleged toxic leader within your command you did not take the inquiry outside for an impartial commander to review or adjudicate, correct . Noah did not. About a month before the start of this investigation on november 14 tnovember 14, 2017. Evaluated her of having multistart potential is that correct . That is. A 90 days later after the investigation was completed you approved a written reprimand of colonel. I was aware of the written reprimand that came from the army Element Commander but i was aware of it. During the time that the director was under your command, did you ever formally counsel her in writing about the deficiencies in her leadership or performance . I counseled her verbally about her language. Even though other members have brought forward allegations of a toxic leadership . I transited that to the language she was using. But never for any other actions . No maam. After the investigation had been initiated you advocated for her by emailing and calling several other general officers to secure a followon position of her. Is it safe to assume at this time you still thought highly of her as an officer . I had questions about that but particularly when the army Element Commander sought her down to inform her of the investigation, i walked through all the events and talked about those significantly. I told her that i would allow the process to plan before he did anything else and i asked if these were true. She told me clearly, specifically, concisely they were false and not true. She would be found innocent and i committed to her that i will not treat her any different until i affirm evidence to the contrary. I am very concerned that during the process of your time as commuter, there had been the structure with your command that other people, multiple times voicing concern about the toxic leadership but you did not acknowledge him, you did not do written counseling statements, you did not advise her any different, you served in one of the most important positions within our United States military overseen Nuclear Arsenal, however, you cannot bring yourself to admit or recognize toxic leadership within your command, you did not take the course until the 15 investigation was brought forward. And continue to endorse her. You only did something about it when concerns were raised about your own leadership. In the investigation was not forwarded on to your higher command which i see is a clear conflict of interest. So all of this suggests your personal inclinations in your professional responsibilities. You need to make sure that those with a new command or following your directive and not engaging in toxic leadership rate so this leaves me with concerns about your judgment and ability to lead and one of the highest positions in the u. S. Military. I listen to the rest of the confirmation process, but i do want to share those concerns today. Thank you very much. Senator mention. Thank you very much and thank you for you and your family for the services. First question, what he considered the greatest that the market faces today and near future customer. My perspective, the greatest longrange challenge is china. The economic power in building the military power to challenge us, recently and ultimately globally. Back in 2010 as the time we had admiral and we asked him a question and he said the debt of our nation as a greatest threat we face. Were going over to join dollars again. And the reason i say that, the people of West Virginia aspen, we have around 700 billion, and then you look at china, about 250. And then you look at russia, about 60 billion to 65 billion. And we try to justify. Then we look at the people that we have in uniform and i think it military we have 1. 3 active in another 860,000 reserves, china has twopoint to million active, 510 reserves, and russia has 1 million active and 200 halfmillion in reserves. But we use mcconnell tractors and a higher cost than any countries put together. I look at basically National Guard and reserves and think we have specially tian that we could use greater. Have you done for that and looked at ways that can be justified and have better control of the cost we are spending right now . Ill give you specific examples. The point raised is a really good one. We have to Work Together with the congress to balance the number of people in uniform. But in the next generation, twice in my career we have basically said we dont need engineers in the program anymore in the military, we will hire it out. Two things happen with that, you lose expertise inside the military, number two, you end up with the fox guard in the henhouse. Im very concerned about that. Im concerned about the way we had to put the program in place, where the structure because we did not have expertise. We need to continue to build that insider military and continue to work on forward because of his critical for our ability to do it. I saw twice my career where everything is fine, well get rid of engineers and do that. There are things we havent even scratched the surface of becaus that be a highpriority looking at basically how we utilize what we have the potential to use a butter. Absolutely. An overview, it seems like we are reluctant to support taiwan of f16s. We are afraid in my cause of rumble with china. But yet we have done nothing with chinas aggression itself. Aggression and moving further out, what are we concerned about if we dont show strength to them, i know russia and how sometimes how they react when they dont understand were going to be resolved. What is your evaluation the questioning. Im a big believer in president reagans structure. I believe we have to show strength. My command in the last years has had bombers deployed in the pacific from the United States and into the pacific from the cream peninsula in a number of our allies and prayed 50 continue to show strength because we want peace. The only way to guarantee the piece is to make sure our adversaries understand that we will not allow certain behavior. The other thing i want to talk about a space force, i think directly asking you, do you believe Space Force Commander in the general in charge should be elevated to the joint chief of staff questioning. I do believe that. I really appreciate the work the senate has done in terms of defining the future. I think im a little concerned about the level of responsibly and will get arrangement here shortly. If he becomes ahead of the space force in Nuclear Command, there is a good transition in the senate plane ethical have to Work Together and i hope the confirm of the vice chairman they reach out to me and help you work that. That will be a cop located arrangement. I think where the burger place across the legislation. And you believe its the right thing to do . I figure has to be under, i think the space force to be under their first previous topic and a. Thats exactly my point, i cannot get there. I cannot get there with the joint chief of staff, why cant we continue with that type of support command under the . The joint to. The marine corps is under the department of the navy. I think the head of the space force is going to be a member of the kelechi ubozoh. At some point but under the department of the air force. I think that is how you keep it small. How you keep the broker see from going crazy. Thats what you dont have all the recommendation across the board. I appreciate you being here. Thank you mr. And recommended for the process we have played out here and thank you for being here. Congratulations to your family and denominations. I want to get an idea of your headquarters staff, how big is it, how many direct reports you have . Headquarters staff is about 3500 people, direct reports is a fairly small number, i would say roughly 10 20. 10 20 reports, over the course of the day, how much time you spent with your direct reports and how much time would you spend with your group . Over the course of 50, i would spend more time with the directors and joint staff all my stuff, what will we do trouble, i spend more time with the directors and the joint staff. You responded to a prior question that you had five or six people come to you addressing the concern with the toxic environment and you said five of them, all of them were outside the cac, and one of them came to you and expressed their concerns on behalf of people who are reporting to the cac. Can you give me an idea of timely, when was out the last discussion that you had before you order the 156 . That was the last discussion had late fall of 2017 and when i ordered a preliminary inquiry into the overall climate of the office. Not just the commanders actions, but my office, the chief of staff office, the lawyer, public affairs, protocol, everybody in office. To be honest, i was still looking at the issue that this might be an Army Air Force navy issue because Army Officers tend to be a little more aggressive, a little more rough around the edges and you need to understand, she is brilliant. She was doing spectacular work. Is it true you gave a strong evaluation but based on your knowledge of the past history, has that been typically true of other assignments that the colonel had . She had up and down her back room. I dont know much about her time of the earlier officer, and i know there is upanddown times in her rocker. I want to fully associate myself with the comments, the work she has done here. Literally the public needs to understand the hours of research that has gone in ahead of this committee. Nearly 1300 page report that we have reviewed, every allegation has been studied and proven to not have any cooperating testimony. I think all the information will continue as we move forward and go under confirmation this week. I want to shift to some local issues and North Carolina and really the housing situation across the country. Are you aware of the military housing problems that we have and can you give me a quick brief on what we need to do about it. I am fully aware of those problems. I have seen those problems, we have a good housing at the air force base where i live now. But that is not the case in a large number of bases across the country. Even that goes through for a few months is going to be impactful. I look forward to supporting the confirmation. Thank you, senator. The next one to be recognized will be senator duckworth however we have three votes for starting and ithatare startingo catch the first one and come back. You are recognized and senator fisher is residing. I would like to talk about looking at the production talking about the nuclear faith but i do think we have overlooked the logistics capability or the lack thereof within our military. I dont think we have the capability or the heavy lift airlift capabilities in order to protect and sustain the forces abroad for any extended period of time. Would you agree and can you give your opinion on that . s if you look across the entire portfolio i think you will find the Biggest Challenges we have in the military and its not just to see left side and airlift but the tinker piece as well. If you look at what we have to do in order to move her out of the world, we are tired from the logistics. If we cant effectively move quickly, reliably and effectively, we cannot do what they say we need to do and we are slowly coming on with tc 46. We have challenges if you look across their entire portfolio there are big issues. I guarantee we will look at the clothes. Looking to the indo pacific region, if confirmed as vice chair would you make sure the daytoday relationships with partners are allies are Strong Enough to . When i went to the summit recently, many of our friends in the region feel very much that they are unable to stand up to china because we are not there and having our presence in the region allowed him to say we can do everything you want us to do because the americans are here. Really just being a presence would you agree that we need to improve the presence in the region . When you read the National Defense strategy it is clear that china is a priority and we have to treat it as a priority which means we have to be present in the right places and partner with the right of nations and th build partnershis over the years and you cant build partnerships if you are not there. I do want to touch on allegations against you. Is it true that your official cell phone that was reviewed for Text Messages that are turned over very willingly was wiped in an upgrade process for i read that in the investigation. I was not aware that it was wiped. I guess it was part of a moral update. I use the official phon phone io its softwarand itgets software s all the time. What i learned from the investigation, the report was indeed they were both wiped and they were only able to review a couple months. There were quite a few that they were not able to review. In your answer previously about what he would do to demonstrate leadership in the area of Sexual Assault of the military and solving the problem, your answer was vague. I wanted to hear so much more and hear you say i dont know enough. Im going to wait and watch the experttalk tothe experts becauso precise answers and this is a cancer within our own ranks and youve said youve been concerned about this so weve had over ten plus years while youve been in leadership to talk about this and you cant tell us when you become vice chairman of the first things you are going to do is appoint someone to do thi the personal f whose job it is to do this and create a panel to look at this and go out to the air force academy and personally figure out whats going on . You cant come up with any ideas after ten years of concerned wax i worry about your leadership on this issue. As the vicechairman i need to work with the chairman of the services. Most have to be handled in the services but the vice chair of the significant role of reaching out to work on those issues, there is no doubt. In the United States air force, weve gone through multiple programs from a number of different programs and they have not worked, so clearly from my background and perspective thatt reason i said what i did earlier as i thought about a lot. Ive worked with people close to me asking what should we do. It is a very vexing problem for me because every time i see the numbers, they seem to be worse, they dont seem to be better if we are taking all these actions and i think those are all good programs. I think they are effective and ive got good feedback from them. Its a vexing problem and i can connect to you i will do everything if confirmed theyve implemented them and the numbers say they dont work. Thank you. I will yield. Senator cramer. Let me add my voice to the chorus for you and a chairman and a half for conducting an incredible process for all of us. I have prayed god would give you both wisdom and i think him that he has. Thank you, general hyten, for your service to the family can endure incredible sacrifice for all these years and your willingness to continue to do it. I want to followup on a couple of things that have been brought up here quickly with regards to the senators question about Text Messages. That same technology of wiping the foam queen doesnt apply to emails in other words of the emails that were referenced were available. I think we looked at 195,000. With regards to the issue of judgment and the toxic leadership issue im going to bring up a few things and let you respond to that. I dont believe you have time to respond, but the distinction that it was an army channel inspection or investigation maybe you can clarify that and then if you could also tell me if there did anyone else provide these glowing reviews of the kernel that you are now being somehow chastised for i want to make sure that its not just with you and the then a thd to round it all off is it unusual for the toxic leadership to be more easily identified by subordinates them by superiors, in other words maybe that clarifies what i will throw those out and what you respond and then maybe have a question. In terms a white house fellow very few people make it to be a white house fellow. Thats one of the highest accolades. She had fourstar commanders in the past that pushed her to be a white house fellow. My predecessor when i took command had nothing but great things to say about her. When i look at a white house fellow and my predecessor is one of the finest gentleme finest gt ive met this nothing but glowing things to say i assume that this is a spectacular officer. I saw that and then i saw the continuing great work and all those pieces coming forward and thats how the situation started and how we walk down the path. I assume the army had sent me this spectacular officer and i saw that in her performance. Is it unusual for a boss to be a subordinate through different perspective than this was difficult for me to understand as a commander because i let that happen in my organizations of the Army Regulation that became a part of the investigation it became important for me to understand and i read it in detail that was published in 2017 because commanders were having problems identifying toxic leaders. I had never read that before but when i went through the documentation, i saw what was happening in my organization that i didnt recognize it at first. Just shifting gears to the one issue that ive raised the last couple of weeks theres been a new development and that relates to the timeline and importance of the timeline of the groundbased Strategic Deterrent which is of course what we have in the layout as you know and some think we are going to to fast but now with te help from the process, does that raise concerns for you and is there any reason that should be true to us, excuse the expression, for continuing on the path that we are on . I always get concerned when competition disappears from america. Anytime youre in a competitive environment that puts pressure on schedule and cost and we have a higher likelihood of getting the delivery of the capability. I that is why i was disappointed whesodisappointed when they decd not to compete. Im not in the acquisition and i havent talked to the leadership about the impact of that. I know that we have many programs that are well run at this point and the competition i think that the remaining competitor could be that person but i havent looked at it yet. If i can provide will look at that in detail. Thank you for your willingness to continue in this process and i look forward to continuing to support your confirmation. Senator jones. General, thank you for being here and thank you for your service and your family for the service and all that you have been going through, and i especially want to thank the chairman and senator reid also for the way that this has been handlehandled with the investign but i also want to thank doctor wilson for being here. I will tell you doctor wilsons opening introduction pretty much encapsulated my feelings about all that we have heard and seen. I dont think that there is a better summary in reaching the same conclusions, and i especially talk about the investigation a little bit because for 38 years, i practiced law when i was both a prosecutor in isaf with victims and witnesses and tried to assess not only credibility but also to build investigations around what they said because that is really where you lead. In terms of future Sexual Assault cases you have to think about that and thats exactly what happened here but ive also sat with people that have been accused and have done the same thing for my own investigations of the fact that this has been such an exhaustive extensive professional investigation speaks volumes to where we are today and what weve got to assess so i think doctor wilson forgetting the summary and the chairman and Ranking Member for allowing us whatever time was needed as members of the committee. So, having said that, lets talk, lets move on to some of the things that are crossing that you will find in this child should you be confirmed. The general of china, north korea, iran, they are all becoming more and more confident in challenging the United States just below the level of military conflict with many refer to as the gray zone an gray zone and g it with various tools enforce labor, information operations, support, political coercion and just other means. My question is do you believe the United States has a clear and comprehensive strategy for the competition and i dont just mean reacting when something in the world happens id been anticipating and deterring that gray zone competition as well. Senator, i dont believe that the nation has a Clear Strategy for the declaration of competition right now. I think its a very completed issue because it is a whole of government issue. Its not just a military issue or something that the military can sit down and say how do we deal with this because it impacts commerce and homeland security, almost every element of our society have so we have to figure out how to do that together as a whole of government. And its a different world that we live in. The way the country is structurestructured it becomes e more problematic whereas adversaries can move quickly because theres a single there e decisionmaker that is down the path so we have to sit down and figure this out. I know that we have team doing that right now. Ive asked a team to look at what the role of the conflict should be because it is a learning experience right out of thright nowthe department is lot that, but it is that is a wholf government issue. I take it from your answer that is being done as a priority that you think we need to do for the future. It is a priority because it will be a part as far as i can see for the future. I saw where the secretary announced this week the president said we need to draw down troops in afghanistan which i find a little bit disturbing that it is base was based on ann as opposed to some military positions. I was there with senator reid, senator shaheen recently, and do you see a drawdown that will completely remove all troops out of afghanistan and the reason i say that is because i ask the question because it seems pretty clear to me that isis is still a serious threat over their and we cant take our foot off their neck while at the same time dealing with china and russia and their influence. How do you see the troop drawdown that the president want played out in the last few months . Again, senator, ive talked about that a lot inside of the Senior Leadership of the department. Ive been in those discussions, and i think that the challenge there will be a drawdown of troops in the future. I dont think theres any doubt about but it has to be conditions based not necessarily just a specific come up the conditions are right on that specific data and we can get there from here talking to the president from the secretary, but the conditions have to be set in afghanistan before we can fully meet because otherwise the challenge will be they can raise themselves up again a again andt let that happen. That is precisely the answer i was hoping to get so thank you for your testimony. Thank you mr. Chairman and general, thank you so much and secretary wilson, we appreciate that you are here. We like having you back in dc so thank you for being here. And to your family, i want to say welcome. We appreciate that you all are here and we are thankful for your time and your willingness to work this. I want to stay right where senator joe was looking at i call it the new axis of evil which is russia and china and iran and north korea and when we talk about russia and china they are putting quite an emphasis on their strategic and nonNuclear Weapons one of which is cyber, and i want to encourage you as you take on the new role to help and this perception that they are going to have the opportunity to be a player in this great power competition, and i think you are right to say this is a strategy that is in need of talking the south and developing a strategy and having a game plan for how to move forward, so i thank you for your emphasis on that and i want to talk for just a moment about the republic of korea and have you comment for the record a little bit about the value of this relationship and the importance of our joint exercises as we look at tha the region and reads of the u. S. Forces and also just a little bit about the negotiation of the new special measures agreement for 2020 and the importance that has to us. When i look at the republic of korea, i see one of the most important allies that we have in the region. We have a had an officer from te republic of korea because of the unique nature in terms of readiness, general abrams has stated recently that with the level of exercises hes been able to do this fully ready to handle any support and i think you should also know handling any kind of threat that might come from north korea as well. I think when you look of korea a you have to make sure that we are always fully ready. 2017 was kind of a scary time with what was going on in north korea so many missiles flying, nuclear test, we were not sure whether they were going to peer Nuclear Weapons on top of that and we had to foster the forces that they have not done that in a long time. When the Political Leadership started having talks, its got a whole lot better. 2018 as a whole lot bette wholef 2019 has been good. And so, as it is in the military hopes the diplomatic process actually works but we also understand under general abrams they all have to be ready to respond that we are here in support of diplomacy right now. I look forward to supporting your nomination and see you in a leadership role and i will yield back. I want to applaud as others have the full process of the kennedy undertaken to explore the Sexual Assault allegations that have been leveled against you, and i believe the hearing last week i also applaud your thorough answers to followup questions and i especially want to applaud your demeanor which we asked Committee Members got to see. You firmly denied the allegations against you but you didnt speak in any way disrespectfully towards your accuser. That wasnt easy nor did you speak disrespectfully to the committee. You didnt say we were engaging in a witch hunt or criticize us for asking you questions we need to ask you and your demeanor today continues the pattern of recognizing this is important and you are here to answer all the questions we ask and that goes a long way with me. I would ask one more question before moving on. You would agree with me that if the allegations of Sexual Assault leveled against you were true, they would be disqualifi disqualified. Yes sir absolutely. With the move and ask another question. Did you advance policy questions or submit to you the answers to the questions delivered to the committee on saturday the 27th did you review the answers to those questions . That was a significant effort for me and my staff because of the timing that was involved in the hearing. But he made one of the questions and answers do you support the United States succession to the United Nations convention and heres your answer, yes, like my predecessors by support joining the convention. Being a party to the convention enhances the United States Security Posture by reinforcing freedom of the seas and the rights of vital to ensuring the posture the convention provides Legal Certainty in the largest space. My colleague asked you the question about whether you supported the United States joining the convention on the wall of the sea and you said im not a lawyer and i dont have an opinion about that. Has anyon anyone other departmer the administration encouraged you to soften your support for the convention between the time you reviewed and submitted that answer on saturday and your testimony today . How do you explain to me the difference between your unequivocal support for the convention in new york but in answer in your statements today that if somebody thats not a legal expert he wouldnt have an opinion about the question . All i can say is we were going too fast over the weekend. We were going too fast and i blew right by that one. I read through them all and what to makworked to make sure i undd what they were. My belief is that answer has sort of a boilerplate position that every current and past a secretary defense and the secretary of state has said that they support the convention on the law of the sea and the only time ive ever heard anyone sort of suggest maybe backing away from it is viewed today and i just want to make sure that we are not seeing either an administration or department that is changing the position. Thats not true, senator. Like i said in my answer i by support all the elements that are there. We should practically abide by whether or not featuring the convention. I agree with everything thats in there. I just went to cast. Its relevant because i was worried if somebody had suggested he might take a different position it would be relevant to another question which is are you going to give your advice whether or not they are going to agree with you. I will always give my unvarnished advice and when i screw up they will tell you i did, to back. I hope i will follow that same standard with the ask a question about china and you talked about this a little bit when the general was here he said for his confirmation hearing that the most important relationship in the world and the 21st century is going to be the relationship between the United States and china and when it is written, that relationship is going to be critical to helping us go do you agree with the . And would you agree because of the need to focus on china not only the military capacity but also competitors and will miss the economically, humanitarian aid and otherwise that it is if we engage in questionable the necessary military activities were focus our attention elsewhere we could do so at the risk of allowing china to catch up and exceed us in their capacities military and otherwise . We have to always watch closely exactly where they are and i hope that we continue to have a closer military relationship so we can understand each other i think transparency in those areas is very important in the billing stability in the future. We try to do that in the soviet union and with russia. I think china is a big part of that. Thank you mr. Chair. General, thank you for being here today. I have been part of all five of the executive session this committee has held related to the nomination an and they hurtu testify at quite some length in executive session i heard the kernel and the accuser testify in the executive session and ive reviewed the very extensive report on these allegations and also reviewed some of the transcripts of your testimony and from the executive sessions just to make sure that i understood exactly what your answers were i want to give you an opportunity to respond now to some of the allegations specifically that have been made in public and in particular i understand by the way that you deny all these but let me give you the opportunity to respond specifically. The New York Times reported on july 26 the kernel alleges that on december 2, 2017, the evening on that day you came to her room and this is while you are at the forum you came to her room and sexually as did her. On that specific allegation did that incident happened, general . Thats never happened. Did you go to her room that might . Ive never been to her room. Your testimony is that you have never been to her room not only on december 2 ever, period on any trip that you ever took. The times reports that the military itinerary says they reviewed said that during the relevant time your movement was accounted for as an executive time. How would we verify you say i didnt go to her room that night ive never been to her room. How might we know that true and verified that . I think you have to look at the evidence submitted with personal security detail and interviews with the communication team. The only location of people when im traveling that i know about is my personal security details which is always right next to me and the communication suite because as we talked about earlier i have to be able to get desertion communications at a moments notice so i know where those people are and i have no idea where anybody else on the team is at any time. They could be close by or spread across the hotel were in a different hotel. But Everybody Knows where you are. And by security detail their job is to advise on me at all times. Theyve gone through procedures and theyve done that with laura and myself from the beginning weve always have a key to your room and always be able to access you and your room. We will do the followin followis to advise on new alltime. It will be a little bit overwhelming, but that is just our job. Let me ask about one other thing because its been reported that article also alleges there may have been some physical evidence that could subject to dna testing related to that incident on december 2. Do you know was there any dna testing done that you are aware of . Pic thats in the investigation, i know that there was nothing found. Your understanding is that dna tests found was nothing related to you, is that your understanding . That is perfect. When i was interrogated by the investigators i had to give a dna sample so i know they have the corinthian example and there was nothing there. Let me ask you finally a different subject on th if you u testify today the need for new operational con depths may be the commission wrote the u. S. Is urgently requiring new operational concepts that expand the options to constrain those of china, russia and other actors of course many of our existing joint war fighting concepts were developed before it was written and issued. If confirmed will you update those concepts and brief us about your progress there so that we can appropriately budget . Absolutely, senator. The thing to realize the joint staff, the chairman and vice chairman today, the Combatant Commanders weve already recognized as an issue and one of the things we were building that was what we called globally integrated base plans because when you look at the challenges, it is just my plan, the indo pacific plan, the key is how do they come together in unity and how do we fight in multiple domains at the same time with different authorities and integrate the timing of the operations . So this is going to be a challenge Going Forward that wee have started down the process. Im glad that you have begun this and what you felt like i think is important. We will have questions on the record on this and other important matters but thank you for being here today and for your willingness to serve. Senator, you do have three and a half minutes remaining if you so desire. I said my piece. I appreciate it. Very good. Senator blumenthal is supposedly one minute away. We will vote and senator blumenthal gets here. [inaudible] thank you for your patience in d service to the nation. To answer the questions you have a. I know you will be responding we need to make them public as much as possible. I am hopeful that you will support how to make it public as much as we can. The men and women who serve the country in the military as well as the public will be watching the committee closely. I know youve been asked what you think should be done if you have declined to give specifics. I understand its not your direct area of expertise if youve been at a high level of the military for a substantial period of time id like to ask you now in the responses you get to those written questions to be more specific about what can and should be done. We have asked the general about it and i know hes very attentive to this issue, but i would like your commitment that they will be more specific in response to the questions what can be done by way of programs to take action promptly and fairly in response and what can be done throughout the military because you will now have a position of trust and if you want to be more specific now, i welcome it as a hoping your questions for the record that he will be. They will respond in detail in the followup questions. Let me just say a couple things, senator. First of all the most important thing i can do is to always hold people accountable. I think that has to be the fundamental precept that we have issues we have to hold people accountable, and i strongly, strongly believe that. It is unacceptable behavior and everybody has to know that, and it is and i have to make sure that victims understand they can come forward and will be treated with respect and dignity. They will have advocates to help them through the process and their accusations will be treated seriously. I can tell you having lived through the last few months that any victim should be confident in coming forward with their accusations that they will be treated seriously by the investigators because these were very serious allegationarevery d treated very seriously. For specific programs i do not have plans for specifics as i sit here today. I know we need t the need to dee programs. I think theres people in this building that actually know more about this issue than i do. I understand the structure and strengths and weaknesses but i have to find those people and a pledge to you that i will do that. I hope that we see the answers to the questions and others im sure will as well. My time is expired, thank you. Senator scott will be here shortly. I want to thank you for being here and for your testimony. I want to make clear that this aspect can never be tolerated not in the military or anywhere else in this country and im glad to be working and i want to thank you for all of the efforts during all of the hearings we have had to make sure the truth comes out. The claims made are very serious. I cannot understate that and its so important that we listen and hear every side. We have a process in place to thoroughly investigate and review any misconduct and im glad we follow the process. The air force investigation concluded there was no effort to put these claim. The air force left no stone unturned in the investigation into the senate has been thorough as well. We have to focus on the nominees that come before us and focus on evidence when accusations are made and the surface and lack of evidence to support accusations are compelling. I hope we can find a way to Work Together to reject the partisanship of the current political environment. Now i want to focus on areas that infects the state. Why is russia doing what they are doing in cuba and venezuela and what do you think the end result is going to be and what should we be doing that we are not doing right now . Its not just a regional strategy, this is a global strategy to influence and russia honestly doesnt have many friends in the world and the friends they do have tended to be trouble but they tend to reach out to try to influence the nation that can counter the United States and nato and the influence of the global structuron the globalstructure e world war ii. If you look at what they are doing in europe it is in line te with that so it is a natural part of the strategy that they are pursuing. With regards to this hemisphere is especially cuba and venezuela, what should we be doing to counteract we have to work with our partners and its a question of u. S. Southern command weve certainly looked at it as all the combatant command what we have to do is reach out to our partners and build a partnership we have to point ou out venezuela as a disaster. Cuba because of the partnership is struggling nation. We understand this is an area where the military is in a support role of the structure. We dont want conflict in our backyard that we have a role to play to make sure we are always there. I went to panel and argentina and clearly china is making investments down there, Big Investments in camelot and argentina. Does that concern you ask they announced that strategy in the 1990s and theyve been going down that path for a while. They are changing the structure of the way the world has been for a long time and we have to be cognizant of that and aware of that again there are strategic adversaries but they dont have to be an enemie enems Network Without the military is a huge role to play and be ready and be present. I want to thank you for your service and your family as well. I know that this hasnt been an easy process for you. Can you say publicly do you categorically deny the allegations that have been all the allegations were completely false. As you know my state is the cornerstone of the nations Missile Defense and an increasingly important testing ground for the nations missile defensdefense and those of our s a very successful test, very important from the Missile Defense perspective in general any test is good because you learn from testing with v. Is for the Defense Force the structure Missile Defense needs to be an international capability. We need to be able to partner. It requires interceptors and new technologies in the last three or four years the bipartisan advancements in the country is Missile Defense both as reflected into the trumpet ministrations focus on this you might recall the president unveiled the Missile Defense review a couple of months ago if confirmed will you commit to continuing and continuing to advance Missile Defense whether it is more capability as we have at fort greeley in the deals were the radar radar sites. Let me ask another issue with the secretary i want to get a commitment for you to come back to alaska and to her what Billy Mitchell referred to as a strategic place in the world. Icy secretary nicholson smiling. There will be generation fighters, f22s and 35. We are looking at the air force is looking at deployment so we have a very old tanker. I want to ask the secretary tearing his confirmation hearing with the potential adversaries in north korea, russia and china to have over 105th gem fighters into th would show extreme strategic reach. In air force is confirmed on the deploymendeployment of the tc 4i think with the 105th gem fighters in the most strategic place in the world would be an important signal can you comment on that and get your th the presence is unbelievably important and i will commit to work with you on that as we continue to go forward if we have to have some of those capabilities where alaska can be an interesting game changer in how people look at the posture because of the unique location on the planet both to the west of alaska and the north of alaska inorth ofalaska it is a c location so we have to figure out how to effectively do that. Theres always going to be forced to balance we have to look through but theres no doubt. Thank you, general and your whole family. We are churned. It corroborated across the