WASHINGTON – Today, U.S. Senator Tommy Tuberville (R-AL) joined a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing to speak with President Donald J. Trump’s nominee for Under Secretary of Defense for Policy, Elbridge Colby. During the hearing, Senator Tuberville and Mr. Colby discussed the Trump administration’s plan to counter our foreign adversaries and the importance of selecting locations of military installations based on merit and not politics.
Read the transcript below or watch the full interaction on YouTube or Rumble.
ON COUNTERING CHINESE AGGRESSION IN PANAMA CANAL:
TUBERVILLE: “Good to see you and your family and thank you for wanting to take on this job. It’s going to be very difficult, but we think you can handle it. Mr. Colby, you advocate for a strategy of denial in military and geopolitical context. How does this concept translate to Central and South American places like Panama and the troubling amount of influence that China is starting to have and has had in that area? And by the way, they just announced that one of our major corporations is purchasing both ports at the Panama Canal, which is very good news.”
MR. COLBY: “Well, thanks very much, Senator. And I think the President’s early initiatives on our hemisphere in places like Panama are very encouraging. I think this is part of an overall strategy, both to secure our own interests directly, secure the territorial integrity of our homeland from unchecked migration and lethal fentanyl flows that are killing hundreds of thousands of Americans. But also, as you said, Senator, to ensure that China does not gain a foothold or beyond a dominant position in critical areas of Latin America, which I think was happening. I think that’s a big part of the strategy now. I think part of that is up to the military, but a lot of it’s part of the other agencies of government, the State Department. I know former ambassador in Mexico, Chris Landau, Ambassador Chris Landau, is going through his hearing downstairs. I believe he’s up for the Deputy Secretary of State. You know, I think that’s a kind of relationship between DOD and State Department where you have a clear picture that we’ve got to have a handle on our hemisphere. We’re pursuing our own strategies and we’re also empowering countries in the hemisphere and in the region to contribute more, you know, through development, through better governance themselves, through alignment with the kind of common-sense approaches that I think that we’re following here. That can result in better outcomes for all of us.”
TUBERVILLE: “Yeah, I think you’ll find the new administration in Panama is very receptive […] once you get in your position, you’ll find that out. Been down there several times, and they need help as we need more access to the canal. So, thank you for that.”
ON IMPORTANCE OF BRINGING SPACECOM TO BEST LOCATION:
TUBERVILLE: “In 2023, President Biden overrode President Trump, the Department of Air Force, and the findings of multiple studies, including an inspector general review and directed that the headquarters of Space Command remain in Colorado instead of moving to its selected location at Redstone Arsenal in Huntsville, Alabama. My State. Mr. Colby, if confirmed, you will be the senior DOD official in charge of space policy, […] as well as strategy plans and capabilities for the entire department. Do you agree with me that, as a matter of policy, it is in our nation’s best interest to make basing decisions on merit and not on political agendas?”
MR. COLBY: “I do, Senator.”
TUBERVILLE: “Thank you. Mr. Colby, much of your work is about prioritizing our defense policy towards deterring aggression with China our pacing challenge. What do you make of the progress made over past few years by our adversaries toward integrating with their militaries. I’m talking about since Ukraine, Russia have had their conflict, all the people in the east basically that are running to China. What’s your thought on that?”
MR. COLBY: “Well, I think it’s really, really disturbing Senator. I think there has been this kind of, think of it as like a counter coalition. China, Russia, Iran, North Korea. China’s kind of the cornerstone of that coalition. It’s by far the largest economy. Their support has made the Russian war effort in Ukraine sustainable. They’re helping the Iranians. The Iranians are helping them. The Russians are helping the North Koreans. So, I think there’s a couple of things to be done about that.
On the defense side, I think it’s important for us to work with our allies to kind of plug the gaps in our perimeter. A lot of that is getting our forces in a better state of readiness, putting them in the right place, getting our defense industrial base back in a good shape, robust defense funding, and then getting our allies to step up. I think a big part of this is we have some allies—Israel, I’ve mentioned, India, South Korea, Poland— they’re really pulling their weight. You could add Finland up there, is doing a pretty good job. But a lot of the biggest economies in our alliance network really aren’t pulling their weight. They’re starting now. So, I think there’s a real opportunity to capitalize on that because together, we are much wealthier than this counter coalition, but we’ve got to turn that into real military capability.”
ON BRICS:
TUBERVILLE: “Your quick thoughts on BRICS.”
MR. COLBY: “I think, you know, BRICS are sort of a representation of the changing world dynamic. I think Secretary Rubio put it very well. We’re no longer in Charles Krauthammer’s unipolar world. We’re in a world—United States is still, I think, the strongest country out there, but China is the biggest, most powerful rival we face in probably a hundred and fifty years, and other countries are making their decisions. Obviously, the Indians who I think our relationship there is golden going forward, and we should really deepen that. And if confirmed, I would make a big priority of that. They’re part of it, so it’s complicated. But people are going to be moving around talking to, you know, the Saudis are talking to Russians and they’re talking to us. That’s very common. That’s how the world’s going to be. That’s the reality of the world system as it is now, I think.”
TUBERVILLE: “Thank you.”
Senator Tommy Tuberville represents Alabama in the United States Senate and is a member of the Senate Armed Services, Agriculture, Veterans’ Affairs, HELP, and Aging Committees.
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