CNN "State of the Union with Jake Tapper" - Interview with Mark Esper

Interview

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Joining us now, the defense secretary, Mark Esper.

Secretary Esper, thank you so much for joining us. I appreciate it.

You're sending more personnel to New York City over the next few days. Mayor Bill de Blasio called for a -- quote -- "national enlistment effort" for medical personnel across the country to bring more health care professionals there.

Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BILL DE BLASIO (D), MAYOR OF NEW YORK: We don't have the same kind of draft we used to have, but we're going to have to create something new, right now at this moment in history, to enlist all available medical personnel from around the country. And I mean civilians, anyone with medical training.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

TAPPER: What do you think, Secretary Esper? Are you willing to do that?

ESPER: Well, first of all, Jake, thanks for -- thanks for having me on this morning.

I want to lay out at least three things up front to help frame our discussion.

First of all, the Department of Defense has been all in now since the beginning of this, going back two-plus months to January. We have been all in and ahead of the curve when it comes to responding to the coronavirus.

Secondly, I have laid out now three clear priorities for the Department of Defense, first, protect our people, second, ensure we retain our national mission capabilities, and, third, provide full support to President Trump's whole-of-government, whole-of-nation response.

The third point I would like to do is, I'd like to thank all the 50,000-plus American soldiers, sailors, airmen, Marines who are on the streets of America today helping out their fellow Americans. Many are deployed away from home, away from their families.

Many more are risking their own lives, their own welfare, to help the American people. But that's what we do. And we're going to continue to support this effort.

Now, with regard to the mayor's statement, I have had several conversations with the mayor. We have been working very closely. As you know, we have over 1,000 doctors, nurses and other medical professionals deployed now around the United States in several cities.

Many of them are in New York City. The mayor and I talked as recently as Thursday. I spoke to the governor on Friday.

What we plan on doing now is deploying over 1,100 additional doctors and nurses and other medical professionals to New York. The bulk of them will go to the Javits Center. And then, as of late yesterday, we agreed to deploy a few hundred of them to 11 New York City hospitals that are also seeing a deficiency when it comes to medical staff.

What's interesting, Jake, is, we are -- we will soon be taking over the Javits Center, a 2,500-bed capacity. To show you how all in we are, the United States military will soon be running the largest hospital in the United States. That shows you our commitment.

[09:05:02]

TAPPER: CNN reported earlier this week that the Pentagon has not shipped any of the 2,000 ventilators that you have to FEMA or to HHS because you were not told where to send them.

Following up on that story, have FEMA or HHS reached out to you yet to tell you where to send those ventilators, or do you still have them?

ESPER: Oh, that report is not accurate, Jake.

We have, first of all, many of those ventilators deployed with the USNS Comfort and Mercy in New York and L.A. respectively. They are with our field hospitals. We have several field hospitals deployed in New York, in Seattle, in New Orleans, and Dallas.

And then we provided have several hundred more that are prepositioned and ready to go, particularly with regard to New York City, when they're needed. As you may know, HHS has several thousand ventilators in stock right now. And they plan on delivering those first.

On top of that, we have...

TAPPER: So, of the...

ESPER: We have -- we have delivered millions of N95 masks to both New York and 12 other city, states around the country and other PPE.

TAPPER: So, of the 2,000 ventilators that the Pentagon had, how many do you still have?

ESPER: Oh, I -- I'd have to do a quick count, but probably we're probably sitting on a few hundred.

But we're sitting on them in the sense that they're prepared to ship once they're -- once they're needed, once HHS exhausts its stuck.

TAPPER: The captain of the USS Theodore Roosevelt, Captain Brett Crozier, was relieved at his command on Thursday after he wrote a memo that expressed his dire concerns about the more than 100 infected sailors in a coronavirus outbreak on his ship and whether or not those individuals would spread the virus to the thousands of sailors also on the ship.

I want you to take a look at this video of Captain Crozier leaving the ship to cheers from his fellow sailors.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED NAVY SAILORS: Captain Crozier! Captain Crozier! Captain Crozier!

(END VIDEO CLIP)

TAPPER: So, Secretary Esper, can you explain to those sailors cheering, "Captain Crozier, Captain Crozier," why exactly he was relieved of his command?

ESPER: Well, Jake, first of all, first and foremost, we need to take care of the sailors on the ship. We need to ensure their well-being and get that ship back out to sea as soon as possible.

I'm pleased to report, right now, over half of the ship has been tested. Only 155 sailors have come up positive. Those are all mild and moderate. There have been no hospitalizations whatsoever.

So, the -- the crew is being taken care of out there.

With regard to the relief of Captain Crozier, I think acting Secretary Modly made a very tough decision, a decision that I support. It was based on his view that he had lost faith and confidence in the captain, based on his actions. It was supported by Navy leadership.

And I think it's -- it's just another example how we hold leaders accountable for their actions.

TAPPER: Shouldn't there have been at least an investigation before he was relieved of command? I mean, the captains of the USS John McCain and the USS Fitzgerald, who were captains when sailors died at sea, they at least had investigations before they were relieved of their commands.

Captain Crozier was trying to save lives, and he wasn't even afforded the benefit of an investigation.

ESPER: Well, there is an investigation ongoing.

But, at this point in time, the -- Secretary Modly did not have faith and confidence that he could continue in his role as captain of the ship. That is not unheard of. The -- all the services at time relieve commanders without the benefit of an investigation up front because they have lost confidence in them.

It's certainly not unique to the Navy. The Navy has a culture of swiftly and decisively removing captains if they lose confidence in them.

TAPPER: You know there are a number of noted high-ranking formal -- former officials, like Admiral Mullen, who was former chair of the Joint Chiefs, Admirals Stavridis, who is former NATO supreme allied commander, both of whom have said they did not think it was appropriate for Crozier to have been relieved of duty so quickly, without an investigation, and that it would undermine morale.

On the other hand, of course, you had President Trump, who said that he thought it was not appropriate for Crozier to even write the letter. Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: I thought it was terrible, what he did, to write a letter?

I mean, this isn't a class on literature. He shouldn't be talking that way in a letter. He could call and ask and suggest.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

TAPPER: He wrote a letter to try to save the lives of his sailors. Do you think that's terrible that he did that?

ESPER: Well, Jake, I can't get too much into the facts of the matter, because there is an investigation ongoing. This could ultimately come to my desk.

I think Secretary Modly laid out the -- very reasonably, very deliberately the reasons why. And I think, when all those facts come to bear, we will have a chance to understand why Secretary Modly did what he did.

TAPPER: Acting Navy Secretary Modly reportedly told a colleague on Wednesday -- quote -- "Breaking news: Trump wants him fired."

[09:10:02]

Did -- ultimately, this decision, was it made by President Trump?

ESPER: This was Secretary Modly's decision. He briefed me about it. And I got -- I took the advice of the CNO and General Milley with regard to it. And I told him I would support his decision.

TAPPER: I want to ask you about the sailors, because you mentioned what was going on with them.

A Pentagon spokesperson Friday said the goal was to have a total of 2,700 sailors off the ship by Friday evening. As of yesterday afternoon, only 1,548 sailors had been moved to shore, more than 1,000 away from your goal.

What's the latest? And why has the Navy failed to reach the goal? When will everyone be off the ship?

ESPER: Well, the Navy is -- is working that very carefully, very closely.

The new commander will be out there, should be out there very soon. There is not a need necessarily to remove every sailor from the ship. You actually cannot do that, because there's nuclear reactors to be run. You have very sensitive equipment. You have weapons on board that ship, so you cannot completely evacuate the ship.

So it's how you manage the crew to make sure you're protecting them, segregating, treating those who need treated, while, at the same time, maintaining the readiness of the ship, in case it's called upon to get to sea quickly.

TAPPER: Doesn't the fact that the Navy hasn't even gotten all the sailors off the ship that they said they were going to get off by Friday night underline Captain Crozier's concern that the Navy is not taking this seriously enough, with the urgency it deserves?

ESPER: I think that's a completely false narrative, Jake.

The Navy's been on top of this now for several days, when it first came down that we had the first cases aboard the Teddy Roosevelt. The CNO, the chain -- the entire military chain of command, Secretary Modly himself have been involved, moving supplies, testing kits, providing support to the sailors from Guam, at Guam.

They -- they were all in terms of providing support to this crew, this ship, as it arrived in port. So, I -- I disagree with that assumption.

TAPPER: I want to...

ESPER: I have a lot of faith and confidence in the Navy leadership.

TAPPER: I want to ask you about something else the Navy is doing.

The Navy has moved the hospital ships the Comfort and the Mercy to New York and Los Angeles, respectively, to treat non-coronavirus patients, help alleviate the burden on hospitals in Los Angeles and New York.

Our latest numbers show that there are only a few dozen patients on those ships combined. What's the reason for that? And why not allow coronavirus patients on those ships as well, given the fact that these outbreaks are -- it's a really dire situation in Los Angeles and New York?

ESPER: Sure. Well, first of all, we have worked these plans out closely with New

York state and New York City. I would say a major reason why is, those two ships are ahead of need. As I said up front, DOD has been ahead of this curve from the beginning.

So, whether it's the ships, the field hospitals, or our preparation of eight sites around the country where we built hospitals, another 22 that will come online in the next two weeks, we have stayed ahead of need here. That's factor number one.

Number two is, as -- as the ships pulled in, we learned, as a result of coronavirus, we're seeing fewer trauma cases. So the plan was to take trauma cases aboard both ships, freeing up much needed room space in a hospital where you can segregate patients, you can treat them coronavirus.

And, that way, you keep the Comfort and Mercy free to deal strictly with trauma patients, and not infect the trauma patients with coronavirus. As we see now, the problem is far greater when it comes to coronavirus. That's why we have opened up the Javits Center and the other expanded hospitals around the country for coronavirus.

And we're prepared to leverage the Mercy and Comfort as well to do that. I have given authority to the Northcom commander to make that call when he needs to make the call.

But the important thing to know is that those ships have something that nobody else possesses. They possess the ability to move quickly around the country along the shoreline to deliver a 1,000-bed hospital with hundreds of doctors, nurses and technicians.

So, we want -- if we're going to lose that capability, we want to lose it as a last alternative.

TAPPER: Speaking of capability, obviously, the military still needs to be prepared to defend the country and execute its missions even during this coronavirus outbreak.

The chairman of the Joint Chiefs, Mark Milley, said this week -- quote -- "There will be an impact to readiness."

Do you agree, and how severe?

ESPER: Well, there could be an impact to readiness. We're watching it very closely.

You know, we have been at this since -- since January. In fact, on February 1, I issued -- activated our global pandemic op order. On February 3, I sent guidance out to troops in terms of how to take care of themselves, because, remember, priority number two for me is ensuring we retain our national readiness capabilities, military capabilities.

So, we watch it very closely. All the units report that they're very capable. They remain very ready. We have had to cancel exercises. We have had to constrain basic training, for example, but we think those are all manageable.

It's important that our adversaries know and that the American people know that we're on the watch, we are prepared to defend them and defend our interests abroad.

TAPPER: Secretary Esper, thank you so much for your time today.

And please thank the men and women of the United States military for all they're doing to try to help out during this pandemic. We appreciate it.

ESPER: Thank you, Jake. They're all doing a great job. And I'm very proud of them.

[09:15:07]

TAPPER: Thank you so much, sir.

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