Transcripts. Bannon’s War Room. "We Now Have A Dysfunctional National Security Apparatus": Frank Gaffney Reacts To Austin's Absence. Jan 8, 2024.
Topic: Secretary of Defense Absence. Guest Frank Gaffney. January 8, 2024.
Transcripts from Bannon’s War Room on Rumble: "We Now Have A Dysfunctional National Security Apparatus": Frank Gaffney Reacts To Austin's Absence
January 8, 2024
Steve Bannon
Frank, just how incomprehensible is it even what we're talking about, Sir?
Frank Gaffney
It beggars belief on so many different levels, Steve, that a guy who is the Secretary of Defense would contemplate doing this. We're hoping you're going to have General Boykin on. He worked for a Secretary of Defense, Donald Rumsfeld. We're going to have Derek Harvey on. He worked closely with, I think at least one, maybe two, of the Trump secretaries of Defense.
I worked for Cap Weinberger. Cap Weinberger would not have been gone for an hour AWOL. And Jeff's absolutely right in describing this as absent without leave. Without Ronald Reagan knowing exactly where he was, and you know in probably very, very routine contact. The key piece of this is and I just have to put it boldly, how it could it possibly be that nobody noticed Lloyd Austin was gone for three days or more? Which again raises some of these questions about did some people know when they're just not copping to it, or they didn't want to tell Biden.
And more broadly, what I think we've heard in the course of this conversation is we have now a dysfunctional national security apparatus manned by people who, let's face it, are mostly diversity equity inclusion hires. And the Defense Department I think is now rife with this, Steve. We've talked about the promotions Tommy Tuberville was trying to hold them up so that we could avoid compounding this problem.
The rot starts at the head of this fish. It's absolutely clear Lloyd Austin has to go, and it seems to me that that probably requires successive levels down, people who were in the loop or should have been in the loop, and then they tell you that no, no, no, no, the deputy secretary was on the job. She knew. She was on vacation. For heaven sakes, and apparently she didn't know, let me go. Is a scandal...
Steve Bannon
Is a scandal in look, I was the aide to the chief naval operation and one of his special assistance during Weinberger, you knew every second you you knew exactly where the contacts had to be. There wasn't even a question would there be a moment if anything happened that you couldn't get in touch with it? Now the decision making is different, but actually the direct communications to think that the Secretary of Defense has gone for five days, and nobody knows.
We had a carrier battle we had a Carrier Battle Group and combatants under attack in the Red Sea, last week. We had troops up in Iraq took I think 118 Hits or portion of the 118 hits. How is Jake Sullivan not talking to? How does Jake Sullivan not know this? How does the national security adviser to the President of United States not know that Austin's not around? Is he not talking to the Secretary of Defense every day? I mean, Frank, help me out there. We got 30 seconds. Before you go to break.
Frank Gaffney
He should be. In the normal course of things at a time like this, especially Steve, and you've mentioned some of the things that are already underway. I'm particularly worried and thank you for putting an article we call red alert up on War room.org This is a time when the Chinese Communist Party, I believe, is poised to go to a shooting war over Taiwan, and they will start it. I'm convinced with a bonfires of the tyrannies conflagration here at home. It is unimaginable that people are not in general quarters and every hand is on deck.
Steve Bannon
Gaffney what should happen here?
Frank Gaffney
Steve, the biggest concern, and I'm delighted you're doing this kind of coverage of Taiwan because as you know, at least the polls are correct at the moment. This isn't going to go the way that the election of President of Taiwan is not going to go the way Xi Jinping wants. So, we're looking now at the most critical question of our time. Are we able to deter Xi Jinping from using one of, presumably, several different techniques, everything from a blockade to an actual invasion of Taiwan to seize that ground, which he has made very clear in...
Steve Bannon
OK, hold it. Hang on one second. Eric Prince, I hold you and Eric Prince up as two of the smartest guys in the space. Eric Prince said the other day on his podcast, not our podcast, another podcast and I'm trying to track Eric down. He said, “hey, look, regardless of how this goes, but particularly if Xi loses, the kinetic part of this is going to start in the Spring”. Are you actually coming in and having Princess back? Do you believe that we're heading to kinetic conflict in the South China Sea and Taiwan in the next six months?
Frank Gaffney
Yeah, I tried to get Eric on today as a matter of fact, I think he's on a train in the UK at the moment. So, he's out of pocket, but we did have a conversation about this, Steve. The only thing we disagree about and he's got a lot of good arguments on his side is the timing. Are the sea states such that they have to wait until April or May? Or are they going to go for it sooner than. And my guess is that even with rough sea states and so on, they're going to start putting into place a blockade at a minimum and quite possibly go over the beach.
But here's the thing that we've got to be paying attention to, and it's the point of this essay I did at Warroom.org, Red Alert. What she has been doing. We've documented this extensively in our Committee on the Present danger China Webinar Series, which you've contributed and helped us publicize. There's every reason to believe there will be another act of arson by Xi Jinping after Ukraine after Israel, after the Red Sea and who knows where all else, but it's coming here, folks.
And this Mickey Mouse operation passing for the national security apparatus of the United States is clearly failing to signal to the Chinese Communist Party, don't even think about this, let alone be prepared to deal with what they have in mind to torch on here in the United States. Steve, you've done as good a job as anybody documenting the thousands, probably now 10s of thousands of divisions worth of Chinese People's Liberation Army, maybe special forces units that are in this country and good to go to take it down. That's what we're facing, and this is no time for people being AWOL, to say nothing of being utterly incompetent, or they are simply on the basis of the color of their skin or their sex. I mean, this is where you need warriors and yes, it could be messy having a confirmation hearing in the moment, but we need warriors both on the military side but also on the political side because we're at war. We're at the unrestricted warfare phase for sure, but we are now facing the imminent prospect. Maybe it's..is my great concern. We're not even focused on it, let alone putting the nation on a war footing.
Steve Bannon
Frank had a people. How can people get to you?
Frank Gaffney
Presentation hina.org is where you can get all of our webinars. Securefreedom.org is where we've got our Center for Security policy site and securingamerica.tv and on sub stack is where you can go to get our show. The Securing America program here at Real America's Voice.
Steve Bannon
Red Alert is up on War Room right now. I'm going to push it out with some commentary later in the day. Raheem is going to be on here, but the American people are hip to this. They say 2/3 of American people say, hey, guess what? This is an invasion. That's the term you use. What Frank after is warning people about this election in Taiwan if it goes the way that the patriots and the lovers of freedom want and it’s going to be tight.
But if the non-appeasement party wins, is the balloon going to go up with Xi? Eric Prince says the Spring Frank Gaffney says right away. So, we got to be this is a Red Alert. The CCP's are existential, mortal enemy and when they see the fiasco that is the national security apparatus around this illegitimate president, they know they, they start thinking about making a move. Gaffney, thank you so much. Honored to have you on here.
END