Rep. Gallagher Joins the Hugh Hewitt Show

Описание: On February 14th, Rep. Gallagher joined the Hugh Hewitt show to discuss his decision to not seek re-election and his continued work as Chairman of the Select Committee on the CCP. Read highlights of the conversation below.

Hugh Hewitt: Why are you retiring?

Rep. Gallagher: ...the reality is, when I got into this eight years ago, as someone who's not from a political background, I'm from a military and intelligence background, I never conceived of doing it as a career. I'm an ardent fan of term limits, and my bill is 12 years. So I always had in my mind something like 8-12 years, and part of the reason I didn't run for Senate is I wasn't ready to commit myself and my family to 6-12 more years in Congress. And so getting back to that model of the citizen legislator, where you do a season of service, and then you go back to private life has always been important to me. The other thing I'd say, candidly, Hugh, is for someone who's trying to build and raise a young family, the lifestyle is harder than it was when I was single, that's for sure, and my wife and I have been having conversations about what's best for our family right now. We have two young kids, we'd love to have more going forward. And you know, the final thing I would say is right now, I chair what I think is the best committee in Congress, it's certainly the most bipartisan and has a huge impact on national security issues, the most important security issue being China. It'd be hard for me to go from that to returning to be a rank and file member in the next Congress, and then having to work for four years to become Armed Services Committee Chair or Intel Committee Chair, and then I kind of wake up and I'm the career politician that I evaded against when I first ran. So through a combination of reasons, I just felt like this is the healthiest for my family. The final thing I'd say is I intend to work on the same issues, my mission remains the same, which is to deter a war with China, it just means maybe from a different position with a different title.

Hugh Hewitt: Another thing you might do in retirement, however long that lasts from politics, is yesterday, the Ukrainians sank a giant Russian transport with jet skis and drones. I really don't know if anyone is doing the rethink on what we build, what we buy, and what we need to build and buy. Do you think someone's doing that?

Rep. Gallagher: Yeah, the Pentagon is trying to do something like this with the replicator initiative. Now, I've been somewhat critical of replicators, but I want it to work. Basically, the idea is to field 1000s of attritable autonomous systems. So low cost systems that you could imagine placing in the Taiwan Strait to sink a bunch of Chinese ships, as opposed to more expensive Navy ships and things like that. The problem is, there's no dedicated funding line to it, and the Pentagon bureaucracy tends to move slower, but we have some good people working on that. Doug Beck at DIU is really impressive, and we've had multiple conversations. But there's a lot more work to be done, and indeed, I do hope to dedicate myself to that problem in the private sector and by the way, Hugh, I have not ruled out public service going forward. I always envisioned the type of career where I'd be able to go between the private sector and stints of public service, and if I had an opportunity to work on that issue in a public or private capacity, I'd love to do that.

Hugh Hewitt: Do we need to get aid to Ukraine?

Rep. Gallagher: We need to get aid to Israel, Ukraine, and Taiwan. And the last one, obviously, I am most focused on as the China guy because if deterrence fails or breaks down across the Taiwan Strait, like it has in Eastern Europe, like it has in the Middle East, it will be a nightmare. It will make the current conflicts in the Middle East and Eastern Europe look like child's play in comparison. I guess you could step back, and let's say you're more skeptical of Ukraine, what we need to do overall is to build more weapons systems to restore our arsenal of deterrence, so that we're ready for whatever crisis emerges. Our defense industrial base is brittle, and we must make it more robust and resilient.