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FORMER AIR FORCE SECRETARY FOR RAISING SECURITY CONCERNS ABOUT DONALD TRUMP'S NEW GIFTED JET. ON FRIDAY, THE PENTAGON STRIP SECURITY CLEARANCE FROM SOMEONE YOU'VE FREQUENTLY SEEN ON MSNOW INCLUDING THIS PROGRAM, FRANK KENDAL, THE HEAD OF THE UNDER PRESIDENT BIDEN. THE MOVE COMES AFTER KENDALL SPOKE TO THE NEW YORK TIMES ABOUT THE RUSH TO RETROFIT TRUMP'S NEW AIR FORCE UNDER PRESIDENT BIDEN. THE MOVE COMES AFTER KENDALL SPOKE TO THE NEW YORK THAT IS A PENTAGON THAT PICKS AND CHOOSES WHEN IT CLAIMS TO CARE ABOUT CLASSIFIED INTEL.
LAST DECEMBER, AN INSPECTOR GENERAL REPORT FOUND THAT PETE HEGSETH SHARED SENSITIVE NONPUBLIC INFORMATION IN AN UNSECURE group chat. He faced no consequences. Andrew Weissman and Lieutenant General Mark Hurtling are back with us. All right, let's sort through this together, General Hurtling, and talk first about what Frank Kendall told the New York Times last month. This is what it was. Quote, time didn't permit all the normal Air Force One modifications. So some mix of security, communications and support is missing. With the Iran situation, this could be of concern.
Frankly, I'm surprised to see this plane used outside the US. The Pentagon later called that an unauthorized disclosure of classified information. What in here, General Hertling, is supposed to be classified you can use ChatGPT, you can look at Wiki. You can watch a Netflix series on Air Force One that will tell you what it has versus a normal 747. It's not hard to do and Secretary Kendall who is a good man and who loves the Air Force, knows the aircraft intimately because his pilots and Air Force crew man the doggone thing. So he didn't say anything that would violate any kind of classification.
So this appears to be another targeting of an individual who's speaking the truth about what the administration is doing. And that's really unfortunate. I want to just get Kendall's response in here. He told the AP that he's completely mystified by the allegations, Andrew. Quote, no one has said anything to me about what I'm asserted to have revealed and I can't imagine what it could be. It seems pretty clear, Andrew, what's happening WHAT IS HAPPENING HERE?
WELL, THE BIG PICTURE HERE IS THAT WE HAVE NOT JUST A WAR IN IRAN. WE ALSO HAVE A WAR ON THE truth, this sort of in the weeds legal issue here is that the courts traditionally have given the executive branch and the president specifically wide range to issue sort of both security clearance and to withdraw it. I should mention that has happened to me, but also to many, many people much more exalted than me by this. It administration. And the issue that's actually pending in the D.C. circuit is, at what point does the president's wide latitude cross the line, the hypothetical that was USED IN THE D.C.
CIRCUIT WAS, WHAT IF YOU SAID THIS ABOUT ALL DEMOCRATS OR EVERYONE OF A CERTAIN RACE OR RELIGION? COULDN'T THE PRESIDENT AT THAT POINT HAVE VIOLATED the wide swath that the courts have given him with respect to security clearances. So that, you know, is another example of the president going to the limit and then and beyond, in many cases, of the law. And we're seeing it here, I think, in this case. You know what's so additionally wild to me, General Hurtling, is the fact that Secretary Kendall, in that quote that I read for
HE'S EXPRESSING CONCERN ABOUT THE SAFETY OF THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES. HE'S EXPRESSING CONCERN ABOUT THE SAFETY IN MY OPINION, IT'S ACTUALLY AN INCREDIBLY PATRIOTIC THING TO DO TO SAY I BELIEVE THAT INCREASES OUR SAFETY AS A NATION. THE FACT THAT THERE IS RETRIBUTION FOR SAYING WHICH, TO YOUR POINT, IT SHOULD BE OBVIOUS TO ANYONE WHO HAS EVER WATCHED A MOVIE ABOUT THE PRESIDENCY SEEMS PATENTLY ABSURD. YEAH, WELL, I MEAN, IT'S THEY'RE GOING AFTER PEOPLE WHO ARE TELLING THE TRUTH LIKE ANDREW WEISSMANN, LIKE OTHERS WHO ARE SPEAKING, HERE how the government works. And when you're having an obfuscation of what exactly they are doing,
when you know that's not the case, I mean, like you said, Secretary Kendall was saying, hey, this is unsafe to fly this aircraft overseas, especially during a period of wartime when there's a lot of people attempting to attack U.S. assets. So I agree with you, Alicia. This was a very patriotic thing for him to do, and he's being slammed for it. I should say, though, as a caveat that the president and the secretary of defense can pull any security clearance they want to. They can do that. But when you start doing that you're you're actually hurting the defense industry and you're hurting the capability of people like secretary kendall to inform the american public and that becomes critically
important when you see an administration that ISN'T USING TRUTH TO INFORM THE AMERICAN PUBLIC, WHICH IS SOMETHING THEY SHOULD BE DOING. AS ANDREW SAID, A WAR ON THE TRUTH. LIEUTENANT GENERAL MARK HURTLING,
