Watch booktv this weekend on cspan2. President biden has picked Denis Mcdonough to head the Veterans Affairs department. He previously served as white house chief of staff during the last four years of the obama presidency. His confirmation hearing he was asked about veterans access to healthcare, modernization efforts in the das responds to covid19. This is just over two hours. [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] i i want to call this evening to order. I want to welcome everybody. I appreciate all that are here, all those that are online. The purpose of this hearing is due from the i president s nominate to serve as secretary of Veterans Affairs, Denis Mcdonough. Before i talk about him i just want to say i appreciate this committee all the reasons we sat on this committee thats been bipartisan and its been nonpolitical, and we tried to do the best by our veterans whether you are the republican side for the democratic side of the aisle. I particularly appreciate the re
Acknowledging the American Association for their additional support. Im here now for the next 30 minutes with Brandon Wales sampras charity Infrastructure Security Agency for what i hope its going to be a fascinating conversation about the election, about the covid pandemic, about the state of cybersecurity and infrastructures charity and Critical Infrastructure across the country. Brandon thanks so much for joining us today. Thank you so much for the presentation but im very happy to be here to talk about important the important work that our agency is doing. Today is december 3. It is hard to believe exactly a month ago on november 3 we were sitting down as the country to watch the first Election Results roll in. It feels like we as a country with about 25 years in the last month and i would imagine for you this is felt somehow even longer than that. I want to start off today by taking you back three weeks ago on ers day after the election. You put out a statement that i want to quot
German politics. Despite the many crises shes faced, the often called mama of germany is now more popular than ever. And a president ial election in west africa mobbed by extremist violence. People in bikini faso head to the polls today. But a growing Islamist Insurgency means many voters want to be able to cost of ballots. A math and how would welcome leaders of the worlds wealthiest countries are wrapping up their online g. 20 summit hosted by saudi arabia. A virtual gathering has been dominated by efforts to win the coronavirus pandemic, and the global recession. A draft declaration shows the biggest economies will pledge to pay for Fair Distribution of coded 19. 00 vaccines and tasting so that poor countries. Im not left out. Climate change and the environment have emerged as another theme. As the summit draws to a close, and u. S. President defended his environmental record and justified his decision to pull out of the International Paris climate agreement. I withdrew the United S
A mock up of their own on to an 18th century palace. It seemed to capture what may well be one of the strangest and most important g. 20 summits ever. Lets go to our Brussels Bureau chief alexandra phenomena who is following the g. 20 summit for us alexander good. Have you with us distribution of the covert . 19 vaccine is the issue of greatest urgency this weekend. Have any agreements been made . We are still waiting for their leaders to adopt and sign a joint declaration later today. But as you mentioned, we expect them to pledge to pay for a Fair Distribution of cobbett 19. 00 of the axioms so that no country is left out. And there are also expected to extend debt relief to poor countries who really needed. And theyre also going, as we expect to strike a more balder tone on International Trade and on climate change. Climate change is the most important topic today. So they seem to be quite united one prominent exemption. You as president dont seem to be the only leader, not talking
Welcome, matt, thank you for appearing here. Good to be here with you. Spinal tap thing behind you. Matt it is relegated to the basement and this was the lightest corner i could find. It gets a nine on room rater i want to talk about the walk up to the election, but i think everyone is most interested that you resigned after chris was fired at the Cybersecurity Infrastructure agency. Walk us through two weeks before the election before the firing and what it was like to be cisa. s eisa inside the election was four weeks ago today and we knew that the results process would be protracted because of the mailin voting. So we were gaming out some of the contingencies that we wanted to be prepared for. We get through the weekend and before it was called for biden, it was the day before when politico dropped a piece about a Government Agency that you have never heard of that is countering the president s lawyers claims about impropriety and fraud. That night, i saw at first. I saw it first. I