‘I Am Utterly Convinced Of It’: Congressman Mike Waltz On Trump’s Ability To Keep Americans Safe

The following is an edited transcript of a special RNC episode of Morning Wire. Daily Wire editor-in-chief John Bickley sits down with Florida Congressman Mike Waltz to discuss the controversy surrounding the Secret Service’s response to the assassination attempt on Donald Trump’s life.

Former President Trump says that when he has a question about the military, the first person he calls is Florida Congressman Mike Waltz. A former member of the Green Berets, Waltz now sits on both the House Armed Services, Foreign Affairs, and Intelligence committees. Waltz joined the Daily Wire at the RNC to discuss the Trump assassination attempt as well as the threats America is facing on the global stage.

* * *

JOHN: Joining us now is Florida Congressman Mike Waltz. Congressman, great to have you here. So I wanted to start with the attempt on Donald Trump’s life. There have been a lot of questions about the security response that fateful day where a heroic father’s life was taken. The president was a fraction of an inch from losing his life. First, are the criticisms we’re hearing directed at the Secret Service and local law enforcement, are they merited?

MIKE: Well first, let me just say a quick thing about the president. Because I have been in combat all over the world — Africa, the Middle East — I’ve been fired upon, I’ve seen men fired upon, and your base instincts kick in. I’ve seen base instincts kick in to run, hide, get behind cover, and I’ve seen the base instinct of stand strong, move to the sound of the guns, and he clearly had the latter. And then the instinct, despite all of it, of everything going on and almost losing his life, to make sure the crowd knew he was okay and that the country knew he was okay, which I thought really spoke to his character. Look, I have mixed feelings about the entire response. Clearly, there were some key things missed in the advance. I thought the reaction was absolutely appropriate, both the body bunker with the close-in detail and the counter sniper. At the end of the day, my prediction and what I’m hearing from agents who have been reaching out to me very frustrated and upset is that we’re going to see this was a resources issue. What do I mean by that? Well, what they have been telling me, the agents reaching out, is basically Trump was given a standard package for former presidents. The problem was he’s not a standard former president. He’s not a Jimmy Carter or George W. Bush painting in his barn. Between his multiple residences, between all of the rallies going on, and he didn’t just have a standard amount of domestic threats, he had foreign threats, particularly from the Iranians. All of that, to me, right out of the gate, merited a much larger package. These agents are telling me they repeatedly asked headquarters for it and were repeatedly denied.

JOHN: Now, we’ve been told from the head of the Secret Service those claims are not true, but you’re saying you have heard repeatedly that that is true.

MIKE: That’s absolutely right. These are not just agents calling out of the blue, they’re the ones who would have direct knowledge. I suspect, I don’t know yet — we’re going to have our hearings in Congress and hopefully get this out — but I think the Secret Service is splitting hairs here. If you say I gave them two more agents or I gave them one more sniper team, then you can credibly say, well, we gave the Trump campaign more resources. But if the request was for 20 or 30, then it was nowhere nearly sufficient. And obviously it wasn’t, given that some kid could get that close to taking down the president of the United States. Clearly there was a failure here. So that immediate pushback from the Secret Service gives me a lot of pause. And then other than that, it’s been silence. The fact that the director hasn’t come out, reassured the country, and answered what questions she should also gives me pause.

LISTEN: Catch the full interview with Congressman Mike Waltz on Morning Wire

JOHN: Speaking of the director, there’s been a lot of reporting on her DEI focus, specifically wanting to get 30% of new enrollments to be female. Do you think there’s a problem at the top with the Secret Service?

MIKE: Well, I think there’s a problem with this entire ideological agenda, whether it’s pilots in the Air Force or forcing women into combat arms. Look, at the end of the day it’s about standards, not skin color, not gender, anything else. What are the standards to do the job, to be the best of the best? And if you hit them, great. And if you’re a woman, you hit them, great. But the thing is we’re dealing with this in the military. I’m on the Armed Services Committee, actually the women who are hitting the standards to get through Ranger School, Special Forces, or what have you, when they see women basically getting kind of pushed through, it undermines their achievement. They’re the ones that are most upset.

JOHN: Absolutely. Stepping back and looking at this election year, do you feel like we are in a heightened political environment in terms of risk to various candidates, specifically President Trump? In general, is this a heightened situation in the country right now?

MIKE: Yes, I think it is but we also have to take a step back and put it into perspective. It has been, what, decades since we’ve had an assassination attempt. You go back to 1968 when you lose a civil rights leader and an attorney general in the wake of losing a president. We have had worse moments in our history. For sure in terms of political vitriol. I think what’s so unique about this case, though, is it really was the thrust of the campaign for the Democrats — to demonize Trump, to put fear into people’s hearts that he will be a dictator who will take away their rights. I’m glad to see President Biden pulling back on that, we’ll see if they stick to it.

JOHN: Yeah, for now. Looking outward a bit, you mentioned foreign threats to President Trump. Of course, there’s foreign threats to the United States, generally speaking. What are the biggest threats that you think the American military and our intelligence agencies need to be keyed in on at this particular moment?

MIKE: Well, first and foremost is China, and everything else is a distant second. We have never faced an adversary that could economically, diplomatically, from an information space and now militarily, not only compete with us but in some ways they are exceeding us. When you look at weapons like hypersonic missiles, first strike missiles that we truly struggle to defend against. Their Navy is now larger than the U.S. Navy. Their Space Force is launching more than ours. They’re doing things in space that we struggle to do, like putting a rover on the backside of the moon. So, we have to put everything we’ve got into deterring that threat. We can’t take the approach that Biden has taken, which is to start trickling things in after the invasion has occurred, as he did in Ukraine. You have to stop it on the front end. Look, we will have to deal with terrorism, North Korea, Iran — particularly Iran. Then you get into the question of rationality if the ayatollahs have a nuke. That is very different than the Russians or Chinese or irrationality I should say. So the real question is, how do we deal with all of that with $35 trillion in debt and growing?

JOHN: Do you believe a Trump second term will actually result in a safer America?

MIKE: I am utterly convinced of it. I truly am. If you just look at Iran, which I mentioned what’s going on in Israel and what’s going on in Gaza, President Trump knows that the heart of the issue is Iran — that is behind Hezbollah, that’s behind Hamas, that’s behind the Houthis. The heart of Iran’s economy is energy. If you flood the world with cheap, clean American oil and gas, not only you take care of our inflation problem at home, you put Russia on its back foot and dry up its war machine and Iran too. So he fully appreciates that we are blessed with a lot of oil and gas, that we are blessed with a strong economy and a great system. Our true strength is our economic strength.

JOHN: Now, President Trump has reached out to you a number of times. He’s cited you as his go-to guy for security questions. What kind of steps do you think he will take, and would you advise him to take, in the first year?

MIKE: Well, first, I think we need accountability in the Pentagon. We need to clean house. The fact that things cost way too much, take twice as long as they should, and deliver half as much as our troops deserve, it’s just completely unsustainable. And yet you see these weapon systems, the ships, like the littoral combat ship that just completely blow up the budget, don’t deliver, and no one’s fired. There’s just no accountability for it. Kind of a shoulder shrug and give us another $800 billion. I see it on the Armed Services Committee. So, I would say that’s one. Two, really taking a hard look at our industrial base. Shipbuilding, for example. Do we have the steel, the aluminum, the workers, the shipyards? I’ve talked to them a lot about it. We’ve gone from 300 shipyards to 20 over the last couple of decades. Who’s taken all of that business? China. They could literally shut down global trade by shutting down those ships and that shipbuilding industry. So that will be point two. And then number three, I think bringing in new technologies. In a way, JD Vance will know quite well, working with the tech space and working with the startup and private equity space. We have to move away from these legacy, big, slow defense contractors that just aren’t getting it done.

JOHN: You brought up JD Vance, and I wanted to ask you about that last actually. He is now the official vice presidential pick. Do you agree that this is a good choice for the president?

MIKE: This is going to sound like some kind of platitude. I truly thought the entire slate was fantastic. It really did kind of highlight the Republican bench and that next round of leaders. I think JD is a very strong pick. I think getting him on the road, getting him to some big 10 football games in the rust belt he embodies. I just introduced the Republican party platform to the floor as the co-chair of the platform committee and it was geared towards the forgotten man and woman. His story is that. He embodies that. But I also think he brings that tech experience, that business experience, private equity. And he’s a bit of an outsider, which is in line with President Trump. I also like the fact that he has been very strong. If you look at the legislation he’s gotten behind in regards to China and is very strong on holding our allies like NATO accountable. The VP has to fully align with the president’s vision and I think J. D. does that.

JOHN: Speaking of the Republican Party platform, there’s been some criticism from some pro-life conservatives. I wanted to give you a chance to talk about it. Do you feel like it’s a strong platform? Do you feel like you guys have presented something that’s going to really make a difference in the coming years?

MIKE: Yes, I understand the concerns, but at the end of the day it’s just indisputable that you have not had a president that has done more to protect the unborn, that has done more for the pro-life community than Donald Trump. We wouldn’t even be having this conversation if he hadn’t stood by Neil Gorsuch, if he hadn’t stood by Amy Coney Barrett despite everything thrown at him and gotten three Supreme Court justices. Fantastic picks, by the way, all three of them. So, look, at the end of the day, he feels very strongly, and I certainly support him, that what Roe did was return the issue to the voters and not legislate from the bench, and the voters in the states are working through the issue. Vote for your state legislators, vote for your governors. I think we’re going to have the challenge throughout this campaign in showing the extreme position on the other side — when is abortion not okay? That’s what we should be asking the Left over and over again. When does life begin in your world? The day before birth? The month before? Three months before? Reframe the argument. This is about life and what legal and constitutional protections they deserve.

JOHN: Congressman, thank you so much for joining us.

MIKE: Thank you.

JOHN: That was Congressman Mike Waltz, and this has been an extra edition of Morning Wire.

* * *

Be sure to catch the full interview with Congressman Mike Waltz on Morning Wire on DailyWire+

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​[[{“value”:”

The following is an edited transcript of a special RNC episode of Morning Wire. Daily Wire editor-in-chief John Bickley sits down with Florida Congressman Mike Waltz to discuss the controversy surrounding the Secret Service’s response to the assassination attempt on Donald Trump’s life.

Former President Trump says that when he has a question about the military, the first person he calls is Florida Congressman Mike Waltz. A former member of the Green Berets, Waltz now sits on both the House Armed Services, Foreign Affairs, and Intelligence committees. Waltz joined the Daily Wire at the RNC to discuss the Trump assassination attempt as well as the threats America is facing on the global stage.

* * *

JOHN: Joining us now is Florida Congressman Mike Waltz. Congressman, great to have you here. So I wanted to start with the attempt on Donald Trump’s life. There have been a lot of questions about the security response that fateful day where a heroic father’s life was taken. The president was a fraction of an inch from losing his life. First, are the criticisms we’re hearing directed at the Secret Service and local law enforcement, are they merited?

MIKE: Well first, let me just say a quick thing about the president. Because I have been in combat all over the world — Africa, the Middle East — I’ve been fired upon, I’ve seen men fired upon, and your base instincts kick in. I’ve seen base instincts kick in to run, hide, get behind cover, and I’ve seen the base instinct of stand strong, move to the sound of the guns, and he clearly had the latter. And then the instinct, despite all of it, of everything going on and almost losing his life, to make sure the crowd knew he was okay and that the country knew he was okay, which I thought really spoke to his character. Look, I have mixed feelings about the entire response. Clearly, there were some key things missed in the advance. I thought the reaction was absolutely appropriate, both the body bunker with the close-in detail and the counter sniper. At the end of the day, my prediction and what I’m hearing from agents who have been reaching out to me very frustrated and upset is that we’re going to see this was a resources issue. What do I mean by that? Well, what they have been telling me, the agents reaching out, is basically Trump was given a standard package for former presidents. The problem was he’s not a standard former president. He’s not a Jimmy Carter or George W. Bush painting in his barn. Between his multiple residences, between all of the rallies going on, and he didn’t just have a standard amount of domestic threats, he had foreign threats, particularly from the Iranians. All of that, to me, right out of the gate, merited a much larger package. These agents are telling me they repeatedly asked headquarters for it and were repeatedly denied.

JOHN: Now, we’ve been told from the head of the Secret Service those claims are not true, but you’re saying you have heard repeatedly that that is true.

MIKE: That’s absolutely right. These are not just agents calling out of the blue, they’re the ones who would have direct knowledge. I suspect, I don’t know yet — we’re going to have our hearings in Congress and hopefully get this out — but I think the Secret Service is splitting hairs here. If you say I gave them two more agents or I gave them one more sniper team, then you can credibly say, well, we gave the Trump campaign more resources. But if the request was for 20 or 30, then it was nowhere nearly sufficient. And obviously it wasn’t, given that some kid could get that close to taking down the president of the United States. Clearly there was a failure here. So that immediate pushback from the Secret Service gives me a lot of pause. And then other than that, it’s been silence. The fact that the director hasn’t come out, reassured the country, and answered what questions she should also gives me pause.

LISTEN: Catch the full interview with Congressman Mike Waltz on Morning Wire

JOHN: Speaking of the director, there’s been a lot of reporting on her DEI focus, specifically wanting to get 30% of new enrollments to be female. Do you think there’s a problem at the top with the Secret Service?

MIKE: Well, I think there’s a problem with this entire ideological agenda, whether it’s pilots in the Air Force or forcing women into combat arms. Look, at the end of the day it’s about standards, not skin color, not gender, anything else. What are the standards to do the job, to be the best of the best? And if you hit them, great. And if you’re a woman, you hit them, great. But the thing is we’re dealing with this in the military. I’m on the Armed Services Committee, actually the women who are hitting the standards to get through Ranger School, Special Forces, or what have you, when they see women basically getting kind of pushed through, it undermines their achievement. They’re the ones that are most upset.

JOHN: Absolutely. Stepping back and looking at this election year, do you feel like we are in a heightened political environment in terms of risk to various candidates, specifically President Trump? In general, is this a heightened situation in the country right now?

MIKE: Yes, I think it is but we also have to take a step back and put it into perspective. It has been, what, decades since we’ve had an assassination attempt. You go back to 1968 when you lose a civil rights leader and an attorney general in the wake of losing a president. We have had worse moments in our history. For sure in terms of political vitriol. I think what’s so unique about this case, though, is it really was the thrust of the campaign for the Democrats — to demonize Trump, to put fear into people’s hearts that he will be a dictator who will take away their rights. I’m glad to see President Biden pulling back on that, we’ll see if they stick to it.

JOHN: Yeah, for now. Looking outward a bit, you mentioned foreign threats to President Trump. Of course, there’s foreign threats to the United States, generally speaking. What are the biggest threats that you think the American military and our intelligence agencies need to be keyed in on at this particular moment?

MIKE: Well, first and foremost is China, and everything else is a distant second. We have never faced an adversary that could economically, diplomatically, from an information space and now militarily, not only compete with us but in some ways they are exceeding us. When you look at weapons like hypersonic missiles, first strike missiles that we truly struggle to defend against. Their Navy is now larger than the U.S. Navy. Their Space Force is launching more than ours. They’re doing things in space that we struggle to do, like putting a rover on the backside of the moon. So, we have to put everything we’ve got into deterring that threat. We can’t take the approach that Biden has taken, which is to start trickling things in after the invasion has occurred, as he did in Ukraine. You have to stop it on the front end. Look, we will have to deal with terrorism, North Korea, Iran — particularly Iran. Then you get into the question of rationality if the ayatollahs have a nuke. That is very different than the Russians or Chinese or irrationality I should say. So the real question is, how do we deal with all of that with $35 trillion in debt and growing?

JOHN: Do you believe a Trump second term will actually result in a safer America?

MIKE: I am utterly convinced of it. I truly am. If you just look at Iran, which I mentioned what’s going on in Israel and what’s going on in Gaza, President Trump knows that the heart of the issue is Iran — that is behind Hezbollah, that’s behind Hamas, that’s behind the Houthis. The heart of Iran’s economy is energy. If you flood the world with cheap, clean American oil and gas, not only you take care of our inflation problem at home, you put Russia on its back foot and dry up its war machine and Iran too. So he fully appreciates that we are blessed with a lot of oil and gas, that we are blessed with a strong economy and a great system. Our true strength is our economic strength.

JOHN: Now, President Trump has reached out to you a number of times. He’s cited you as his go-to guy for security questions. What kind of steps do you think he will take, and would you advise him to take, in the first year?

MIKE: Well, first, I think we need accountability in the Pentagon. We need to clean house. The fact that things cost way too much, take twice as long as they should, and deliver half as much as our troops deserve, it’s just completely unsustainable. And yet you see these weapon systems, the ships, like the littoral combat ship that just completely blow up the budget, don’t deliver, and no one’s fired. There’s just no accountability for it. Kind of a shoulder shrug and give us another $800 billion. I see it on the Armed Services Committee. So, I would say that’s one. Two, really taking a hard look at our industrial base. Shipbuilding, for example. Do we have the steel, the aluminum, the workers, the shipyards? I’ve talked to them a lot about it. We’ve gone from 300 shipyards to 20 over the last couple of decades. Who’s taken all of that business? China. They could literally shut down global trade by shutting down those ships and that shipbuilding industry. So that will be point two. And then number three, I think bringing in new technologies. In a way, JD Vance will know quite well, working with the tech space and working with the startup and private equity space. We have to move away from these legacy, big, slow defense contractors that just aren’t getting it done.

JOHN: You brought up JD Vance, and I wanted to ask you about that last actually. He is now the official vice presidential pick. Do you agree that this is a good choice for the president?

MIKE: This is going to sound like some kind of platitude. I truly thought the entire slate was fantastic. It really did kind of highlight the Republican bench and that next round of leaders. I think JD is a very strong pick. I think getting him on the road, getting him to some big 10 football games in the rust belt he embodies. I just introduced the Republican party platform to the floor as the co-chair of the platform committee and it was geared towards the forgotten man and woman. His story is that. He embodies that. But I also think he brings that tech experience, that business experience, private equity. And he’s a bit of an outsider, which is in line with President Trump. I also like the fact that he has been very strong. If you look at the legislation he’s gotten behind in regards to China and is very strong on holding our allies like NATO accountable. The VP has to fully align with the president’s vision and I think J. D. does that.

JOHN: Speaking of the Republican Party platform, there’s been some criticism from some pro-life conservatives. I wanted to give you a chance to talk about it. Do you feel like it’s a strong platform? Do you feel like you guys have presented something that’s going to really make a difference in the coming years?

MIKE: Yes, I understand the concerns, but at the end of the day it’s just indisputable that you have not had a president that has done more to protect the unborn, that has done more for the pro-life community than Donald Trump. We wouldn’t even be having this conversation if he hadn’t stood by Neil Gorsuch, if he hadn’t stood by Amy Coney Barrett despite everything thrown at him and gotten three Supreme Court justices. Fantastic picks, by the way, all three of them. So, look, at the end of the day, he feels very strongly, and I certainly support him, that what Roe did was return the issue to the voters and not legislate from the bench, and the voters in the states are working through the issue. Vote for your state legislators, vote for your governors. I think we’re going to have the challenge throughout this campaign in showing the extreme position on the other side — when is abortion not okay? That’s what we should be asking the Left over and over again. When does life begin in your world? The day before birth? The month before? Three months before? Reframe the argument. This is about life and what legal and constitutional protections they deserve.

JOHN: Congressman, thank you so much for joining us.

MIKE: Thank you.

JOHN: That was Congressman Mike Waltz, and this has been an extra edition of Morning Wire.

* * *

Be sure to catch the full interview with Congressman Mike Waltz on Morning Wire on DailyWire+

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