Oklahoma Senator Jim Inhofe has made up his mind on President-elect Donald Trump’s pick to be the Secretary of Defense. Inhofe is the senior member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, where retired General James Mattis is testifying today. He told NPR’s Morning Edition, Mattis and Trump will restore America’s military dominance.
“I don’t think anyone is going to say there has been anyone who has been a better strategist, a better Marine, than Mattis. He is the right one for this time,” Inhofe said.
Oklahoma’s senior U.S. Senator said the United States’ position in the world is more threatened than ever, and Mattis is a good choice to help rebuild the military.
“We have been disarming America now for eight years,” Inhofe said. “This is something that is going to stop and we are going to regain respect again around the world that we have lost the last eight years.”
The position of defense secretary is typically a civilian-held position. Mattis retired in 2013, so Congress will have to grant him a special waiver to serve in the post.
.@Jiminhofe up next to question Jim Mattis in the @SASCMajority hearing. Watch: https://t.co/k4cwuLur24
— Inhofe Press Office (@InhofePress) January 12, 2017
Inhofe also said people who are floating unsubstantiated allegations against Trump are in denial and that if any of the claims were true, they would have already come out. CNN reported both President Barack Obama and President-elect Trump received a two page briefing that Russia had allegedly obtained compromising information about Trump. BuzzFeed News published the entire 30 page dossier of allegedly compromising information.
“I look at this, and I think some people don’t like Trump, and that’s their problem,” Inhofe said. “They are going to have to live with it for at least four years.”
Republican Senator John McCain alerted the Federal Bureau of Investigation to the aggregated allegations in December.
“John’s not been real close to Trump, he wasn’t someone he was promoting, let him go ahead and do it and let them all have a good time,” Inhofe said. “When it’s over we’ll go ahead and give the guy a chance to be President of the United States.”
