WASHINGTON – U.S. Senator Tommy Tuberville (R-AL) today pressed the four-star general in charge of U.S. Northern Command (NORTHCOM) during a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing, specifically asking how a strong border security strategy enhances our greater national security.
Excerpts from Sen. Tuberville’s line of questioning can be found below and the full video can be found here.
TUBERVILLE: “In regards to our southern border security, we hear all the negatives. What do you think has improved the most in the last four years, and then, what worries you most looking forward at the southern border?
GEN. VANHERCK: “What worries me most is about having domain awareness, and the opportunities and vulnerabilities that are already talked about in our own Western Hemisphere for state actors such as China, Russia, or Iran in our own neighborhood due to instability, due to ungoverned areas and spaces. So I’m significantly concerned about what’s going on right here in our own hemisphere and neighborhood.”
TUBERVILLE: “You think we need a wall?”
GEN. VANHERCK: “I’ll stay out of the politics of a wall. Border security–”
TUBERVILLE: “It’s not politics. Do you think we need one?”
GEN. VANHERCK: “Border security is national security. We need to ensure that we have policies in place and laws are enforced, to ensure that homeland defense does not become a more strategic issue from the borders.”
TUBERVILLE: “One thing I noticed coaching for 40 years and being in education is… this influx of drugs that are killing our kids. We’re losing 60,000 a year to overdose. I mean, that right there should be an alarm that we’ve got to have something different.”
GEN. VANHERCK: “Senator, I agree with you.”
Senator Tommy Tuberville represents Alabama in United States Senate and is a member of the Senate Armed Services, Agriculture, Veterans’ Affairs, and HELP Committees.
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