In June of 2020, then President Trump directed former
Secretary of Defense Mark Esper to shoot protesters in the
legs in downtown DC, an order Secretary Esper refused
to comply with. Would you carry out such an
order from President Trump, Senator, I was in
the Washington DC National Guard unit that was in Lafayette
Square during those. Protesters in the legs. I
saw 50 Secret Service agents get injured by rioters trying
to jump over the fence, set the church on
fire, and destroy that sounds to me that you
will comply with such an order. You will shoot
protesters in the leg. Moving on, President-elect has
attacked our allies in recent weeks, refusing to rule
out using military force to take over Greenland and the
Panama Canal, and they threatening to take, uh
, to make Canada the 51st state. Would you
carry out an order from President Trump to seize Greenland
, a territory of our NATO ally Denmark? By
force or would you comply with an order to take
over the Panama Canal, Senator, I will emphasize
that President Trump received 77 million votes to be the
lawful commander. We're not talking about the election.
My question is, would you use our military to
take over Greenland or? An ally of Denmark,
Senator, one of the things that President Trump is
so good at is never strategically tipping his hand.
And so I would never in this public forum give
one way or another what orders to me in any
context. It sounds to me that you would contemplate
carrying out such an order to basically invade Greenland.