The Daily Signal - America Locked in Cold War With China, Former Navy Secretary Says

Episode Date: October 2, 2020

Former Navy Secretary J. William Middendorf says America has entered a new cold war with China.  Middendorf, author of the new book “The Great Nightfall: How We Win the New Cold War,” joins the show to explain the threat that China poses to America's interests. Middendorf, a member of The Heritage Foundation's Board of Trustees since 1989, also outlines what the U.S. military must do to be prepared to stand against our adversaries.  We also cover these stories:  Senate Democrats led by Sen. Dianne Feinstein of California formally ask Senate Republicans to postpone confirmation hearings for Supreme Court nominee Amy Coney Barrett until after the presidential inauguration.  The Trump administration proposes lowering the number of refugees allowed to settle in the U.S. to 15,000 during the next fiscal year. California Gov. Gavin Newsom vetoes a bill requiring ethnic studies for high school students.  Enjoy the show! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This is the Daily Signal podcast for Friday, October 2nd. I'm Kate Trinko. And I'm Virginia Allen. The former Secretary of the Navy, J. William Middendorf, a trustee of the Heritage Foundation, says America has entered a new Cold War with China and Russia. Secretary Middendorf joins the show to discuss his book, The Great Nightfall, how we win the new Cold War. and explain the threat China poses to America's interests and what the U.S. military must do to be prepared to stand against our enemies. And if you're enjoying this podcast, please be sure to leave a review or a five-star rating on Apple Podcasts, and please encourage others to subscribe. Now on to our top news. Senator Diane Feinstein, Democrat of California and a group of Democrats have formally asked Senate Republicans to postpone, phone, Amy Coney-Barritt's confirmation hearing until after the inauguration. On Wednesday,

Feinstein, the leading Democrat on the Judiciary Committee, sent a letter to the chairman of the committee, Senator Lindsey Graham, Republican of South Carolina, asking him to delay his October 12th hearing start date. In the letter, Feinstein says, the timeline for consideration of Judge Barrett's nomination is incompatible with the Senate's constitutional role. We again, urge you to delay consideration of this nomination until after the presidential inauguration. Feinstein argues that the committee and the American people do not have enough time to review Barrett's qualifications before the hearing is scheduled to begin. Barrett has already submitted her 65-page questionnaire to the Senate Judiciary Committee,

detailing her professional legal history. She's also given them hundreds of pages of her legal opinions and writings to, review. White House press secretary Kaylee McAnney spoke with Fox News White House correspondent John Roberts about President Trump and white supremacy after Trump's remarks at Tuesday's debate, which stirred controversy. Via Fox News, here's that exchange. If I could start off, I'd like to ask you for a definitive and declarative statement without ambiguity or deflection. As the person who speaks for the president, Does the president denounce white supremacism and groups that espouse it in all their forms?

This has been answered yesterday by the president himself. The day before by the president himself on the debate stage, the president was asked this. He said, sure, three times. Yesterday, he was point blank asked, do you denounce white supremacy? And he said, I've always denounced any form of that. I can go back and read for you in August 2019. In one voice, our nation must condemn racism, bigotry, and white supremacy in August of 2017. Racism is evil, and those who cause violence in its name are criminals and thugs, including the KKK, neo-Nazes, white supremacists, and other hate groups.

I have an entire list of these quotes that I can go through with you. He has condemned white supremacy more than any president in modern history. Just to clear it up this morning, can you naming it, make a declarative statement that the president denounces it? I just did. The president has denounced this repeatedly. The president was asked this. You're making, you're contriving a storyline in a narrative. I'm just asking you to put this to rest.

I just did. I read you all of the quotes. And if you need to see them in writing, I will put them in email. So, Haley, can you right now denounce white supremacy and the groups that is about? I just did. The president has announced white supremacy, the KKK and hate groups in all forms. He signed a resolution to that effect. The president just last week, perhaps you all weren't covering it, but just last week expressed his desire to see the KKK prosecuted as domestic terrorists.

This president had advocated for the death penalty for a white supremacist, the first federal execution in 17 years. His record on this is unmistakable. The Trump administration has proposed lowering the number of refugees allowed to settle in the U.S. to 15,000 during the next fiscal year. This number would be the lowest on record. The Department of State said Wednesday night that the low number was being considered in a commitment to prioritize the safety and well-being of Americans, especially in light of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. The president has lowered the number of refugees admitted into the U.S. since he took office. Last year's cap was 18,000. Former President Barack Obama allowed up to 116,000. refugees to enter the country during his final year in office. Trump has received harsh criticism from the left for his proposal. Menar Waheed, Senior Legislative and Advocacy Council for the American Civil Liberties Union,

said in a statement, America must play a role in the protection of people seeking safety from persecution, torture, and genocide as are laws demand. This is the America we fight to be. Governor Gavin Newsom, a Democrat, has vetoed a bill that would have required all California high school students in about a decade to take ethnic studies in order to graduate. However, Newsom isn't vetoing it because he disagrees with mandatory ethnic studies, but because he thinks the model curriculum of ethnic studies needs work. In his veto message, Newsom noted that he had signed legislation that mandated all California

State University students take ethnic studies in order to graduate and said that California doesn't just tolerate diversity, it celebrates it. Now stay tuned for my conversation with the former Secretary of the Navy, Jay William Middendorf, about the new Cold War America finds itself in with China. America is at a crossroads. Each day we see the penalties of progressive policies across our nation, while night after night our city streets are set ablaze by riots and rage. That's why the Heritage Foundation has developed a plan to help take our country back. The Citizens Guide to Fight for America provides a series of heritage recommended action items delivered to you each week.

Make an impact in your community and in our country. Sign up for the Citizens Guide at heritage.org slash 2020 and join in the fight for America today. I am joined by the former Secretary of the Navy, William Middendorf. Sir, thank you so much for being here today. We really appreciate it. Well, thank you very much. Your bio is incredibly impressive. You served as the United States ambassador to the Netherlands

before becoming the Secretary of the Navy in the mid-1970s. You also headed the CIA transition team for then incoming president, Ronald Reagan, and you served as the U.S. representative to the European economic community, now known as the European Union. We could go on and on about all of the various roles that you've served in. You've also authored a number of books, including your latest The Great Nightfall, how we win the new Cold War. And you were serving in the Navy and positions of leadership in the American government really all throughout the Cold War. Do you mind just taking a few minutes to tell us a little bit about what that was like to be serving on the front lines during the Cold War?

I was mainly in the shipbuilding side of that. Of course, the Secretary of Navy's job is to provide their material and weapons and recruit the men and women for the Navy. And so during the Cold War, I sponsored long lead time, ships and planes that were needed to win the Cold War. The long lead time is about 10 years. So to build any weapon system, we began production on the Trident submarine, which is the Ohio-class submarine, which carries the ICBM nuclear warhead, long-range nuclear warheads. There's a final shield of America. 70% of our entire nuclear arsenal is deployed on them. And we also started the Aegis Missile Program, building a...

fleet of 60 ships, the Arly World Class, cruisers, with advanced radar that could detect advanced weapons systems from the Soviet Union and shoot them down. And then finally, we built the F-18 at Advanced Aerial Attack Fighter. Ten years later, they were front and center at the apogee of the Cold War, and they, along with advanced weapons developed by the Air Force, in the Army, where we were able to win the Cold War, the Soviets had to stand down. Based on that experience, I wrote the book The Great Nightfall, How to Win the New Cold War,

which is basically against China, with China, and who has stolen the march on the sun, building so very advanced weapon systems, and they pose a threat today that's exponentially greater than the threat we face at the end of the First Cold War. Can you tell us a little bit more specifically about that threat? Because I think, you know, many Americans we view China as a threat, certainly economically, certainly technology-wise. But specifically, how is China a threat to America militarily? Several ways, both conventional and non-conventional warfare. Their Navy now exceeds ours.

They have built 350. and ours is 293. Most people are not aware of that, and they're building their third and forced carriers, and they're proposing a fifth carrier, which will be nuclear. The missile capabilities they have are very advanced. They and the Russians have developed a hypersonic cruise missiles 4,000 miles, and we have no defense, as Secretary of Mattis said,

we have no defense against these. This could be a checkmate in a serious obligation. They've built some very competent and vast submarines and anti-submarine warfare capabilities. In addition to that, they've gone heavily into non-conventional warfare systems. The EMP threat, the electromagnetic pulse threat to America is vital because we lay naked, so to speak.

If they set off a nuclear blast a couple hundred miles over Omaha, we would incapacitate most of our electrical grid for many months. And the Defense Department a few years ago said that we would lose 80% of the population

in six or eight months before that could be fully repaired. We're working hard to correct that imbalance, but we're not there yet. In a of that if you consider warfare, new form of warfare, cyber warfare is just as important in that it downloads and our intelligence and our top secrets two years ago in a very drastic accident. The Chinese downloaded our top secrets, our nuclear submarine top secrets

from a submarine facility in Newport, Rhode Island. This was 600 gig. I think something like that. It was a devastating loss to us. That's an act of war. If there ever was one in a non-conventional warfare capability. So we are well into the second Cold War by that very act, plus the fact that they've stolen everything else. We have sitting around on the computers.

Their new attack airplane looks remarkably like our F-35. and probably has almost as many capabilities, probably, because they downloaded our top secrets. In addition of that, they've developed a tremendously capable, any satellite capability in space where they can damage our entire GPS systems. So we would be traveling by, and if we had to fire our missiles and what have you. The Russians are with them on that, and they both have those capabilities. We're setting up a space force, and we're trying to catch up in that area.

but we have a long way to go. It's not only kinetic warfare, that's the World War II Heavy Weapons System against heavy weapons systems warfare, but the non-conventional where we face our greatest threats. We are talking with former Secretary

of the Navy, William Middendorf, about his latest book, The Great Nightfall, How We Win the New Cold War. Secretary, you've just laid out so clearly why China is such a threat to America today. What is America doing about this? How are we preparing to be able to meet the strength of China? Well, unfortunately, if a football field was laid out,

we would be on a minus 10-yard line starting a couple of years ago because for 8 to 10 years, two previous administrations had what they call a sequester, which reduced our military spending, especially for advanced weapons systems and they took $800 billion out of our military budget and diverted it to other programs

so we ended up in 2017 and 18 behind the eight ball really behind the eight ball so should we say behind the goal line and now we've added a couple hundred million dollars each year to the budget but we have a long way to go and one of the advanced weapons systems

We're building one of the Virginia-class submarines, which are very silent and have the Tobolk and harpoon missiles. We have to accelerate the development. The building of those from two to the three a year. We have to build the Columbia-class submarine, which we can start production of that to take the place of a 45-year-old Trident submarine program. The first one should start coming online in 2013. and we complete that program in the early 2040s. Then we could replace the trident submarine, which would then be 50, 60 years old.

That's the only choice we have. A board that Columbia will be subdued to 80% of a nuclear arsenal. And that's, of course, the great peacemaker. It's an extremely silent submarine, 6,000-plus bottles range, and of these terrifically powerful nuclear warheads, which should neutralize any potential adversary. So at this point in time, is America on track? Have we recognized the true threat that China poses?

And I mean, you mentioned all of these actions that are sort of in the works. Are we moving swiftly on these things? Or does America really need to pick up the pace in order to truly beat China in this Cold War? As I said, we have to move much faster if we want to maintain parity against China and Russia and Iran and North Korea. And also, remember this, there are 50,000 nuclear warheads, probably 8, 10 countries that have those capabilities. And there are a lot of flashpoints that I talk about in my book where nuclear warheads could be used like India, China, Pakistan, India. And once the problem with nuclear warheads being used is that once it starts, it proliferates very fast. It would be any time at all before retaliation occurs out of control.

In wartime, all morality sort of disappears pretty fast. My father and uncle both served at World War I, and we were all told that gas warfare would not occur. It was too devastating. but then it was used and instantly both sides were using it to devastating effect bully-nilly

and it had huge, heavy, heavy, heavy kinds of things everywhere. The same thing would be true once the nuclear war has started to be used and they will be used by some of these road countries possibly which will proliferate

to the larger companies. Many of the big cities, For example, Beijing or New York or Los Angeles could be reduced very quickly to by state ranks. Well, sir, it's incredible. I think that you have chosen to take the time just with your perspective and the leadership roles that you've served in to write this book and to weigh in on this really pressing issue. Why did you feel so compelled to write this book?

You know, I had my 96th birthday three days ago. Happy birthday. Thank you. So I'm obviously about to drop dead, but I just wanted to make sure that all the experience, since I served in World War II and served in a number of other roles in public service, I wanted to make sure that I got the message out as a final thing.

And I do feel that if we're resolute and wise, we can win the new Cold War. Well, Secretary, we thank you so much for your continued service throughout your entire life to this country, for your dedication to America. And we encourage all of our listeners to please visit the great nightfall.com to order your copy of The Great Nightfall, how we will win the new Cold War. Secretary Midendorf, thank you so much for your time today. Thank you so much. And that'll do it for today's episode. Thanks for listening to The Daily Signal Podcast.

You can find the Daily Signal podcast on Google Play, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and IHeartRadio. Please be sure to leave us a review and a five-star rating on Apple Podcasts and encourage others to subscribe. And I do want to note one correction from an episode last week when Amy Swearer discussed Brianna Taylor. Swearer stated that Taylor had died in her bed. In fact, Taylor's body was found in the hallway of her apartment. We regret the air. Thank you again for listening, and we'll be back with you on Monday. The Daily Signal podcast is brought to you by more than half a million members of the Heritage Foundation.

It is executive produced by Kate Trinko and Rachel Del Judas, sound design by Lauren Evans, Mark Geinney, and John Pop. For more information, visitdailySignal.com.