{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://www.wicker.senate.gov/2024/8/senator-wicker-joins-national-security-shows-to-discuss-peace-through-strength-plan", "Senator Wicker Joins National Security Shows to Discuss \u201cPeace Through Strength\u201d Plan", "2024-08-27", "2024", "2024-08", "Republican", "Senate", "MS", "Roger F. Wicker", "W000437", "www.wicker.senate.gov", "wicker", "https://www.wicker.senate.gov/press-releases", "scraper", "WASHINGTON \u2013 U.S. Senator Roger Wicker, R-Miss., the highest-ranking Republican on the Senate Armed Services Committee, participated in his first podcast appearances since releasing his defense spending blueprint in May, the \u201c21st Century Peace Through Strength: A Generational Investment in the U.S. Military\u201d report.\n\nSenator Wicker joined former spokeswoman for the Secretary of State, Morgan Ortagus, on her SiriusXM show, where he spoke about ongoing tensions in the Middle East, the Biden-Harris administration\u2019s failed foreign policy, and his \u201cPeace Through Strength\u201d report. Senator Wicker also had an in-depth discussion with Hudson Institute senior fellow Aaron Maclean on the \u201cSchool of War\u201d podcast.\n\nBelow are key excerpts from Senator Wicker\u2019s appearance on the \u201cMorgan Ortagus Show.\u201d A clip of the interview is available for listening here.\n\nOn Houthi terrorism in the Red Sea and the Middle East Crisis: \u201cOne thing we need to do is realize \u2013 and go ahead and admit \u2013 that when the Houthis, or Hamas, or Hezbollah attacks us or our allies, this is Iran using proxies to attack us.\u201d\n\n\u201cSo, there\u2019s no question about it. It is the Iranian regime...that is attacking the United States...The Ayatollah needs to understand that we know this...it\u2019s not just a rabble of some terrorist group. They are absolutely sponsored and directed by Iran.\u201d\n\nBelow are key excerpts from Senator Wicker\u2019s appearance on \u201cSchool of War,\u201d which is available for listening here.\n\nOn the importance of a multi-theater military: \u201cThere\u2019s no question that we\u2019re in a dangerous time...We are not prepared for the threat that comes from what I call in my report, the \u201cAxis of Aggressors.\u201d And of course, chief among them [is] Communist China with Xi Jinping, having told his congress that they need to be ready to retake Taiwan by 2027. Well, that\u2019s right around the corner...then you add to that Russia with their illegal war crimes of invading their neighbor, something that threatens the 70-year old rules-based Europe, and Iran, and all of their three proxies \u2013 at least their three proxies, which are raining havoc, and doing so even as we speak...and add to that a person who is probably not very well balanced, and that\u2019s the dictator of North Korea. And so, it\u2019s a four-pronged axis of aggressors that we simply are not prepared to fight...it\u2019s wrong to take these conflicts \u2013 or potential areas of conflict \u2013 separately.\u201d\n\nOn defense acquisition reform: \u201cMore money in itself is certainly not the solution. The solution is more weapons and more advanced weaponry and more ammunition...one thing that we are insisting on now \u2013 and it\u2019s something that has worked in the past but should work better if we do it on scale \u2013 is multi-year contracts. We know that we\u2019re going to need more than one...amphibious troop-transporting ship, we know we\u2019re going to need more and more of those. And so, why not do a multi-year contract, a block buy...and it can save us a lot of money...but also, we\u2019ve let our manufacturing plants shrink to a level that they\u2019re not capable of giving us what we need. We need more shipyards. We just don\u2019t have the capacity that China has.\u201d\n\nOn shipbuilding: \u201cYou don\u2019t ever get anything done if you don\u2019t get started. And one of the arguments that I\u2019ve had over the past year is that \u2018there\u2019s no reason to authorize more ships if we don\u2019t have more shipyards.\u2019 Well, let\u2019s get some more shipyards and get going on it...And to their credit, after I really pressed the administration over this past year to add to our shipbuilding industrial base, they agreed to add to the supplemental bill $3.4 billion.\u201d", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-04-07T21:36:13Z"]], "columns": ["url", "title", "date", "year", "month", "party", "chamber", "state", "member_name", "bioguide_id", "domain", "scraper", "source", "date_source", "text", "has_text", "collected_at", "updated_at"], "primary_keys": ["url"], "primary_key_values": ["https://www.wicker.senate.gov/2024/8/senator-wicker-joins-national-security-shows-to-discuss-peace-through-strength-plan"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 0.99543621763587, "source": "dwillis/congress-press", "source_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press", "license": "MIT", "license_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press/blob/main/LICENSE"}