Overnight Defense: VA chief won’t resign | Dem wants probe into VA hacking claim | Trump official denies plan for ‘bloody nose’ N. Korea strike | General ‘100 percent’ confident in US missile defense
THE TOPLINE: Veterans Affairs Secretary David Shulkin said Thursday he won’t resign after a scathing inspector general report released the day before said his chief of staff doctored an email to gain approval to use taxpayer dollars to pay travel expenses for Shulkin’s wife.
“No,” Shulkin told reporters when asked if he has considered resigning.
“Listen, I came here, I left a very good career in the private sector for one reason, and that’s because I believe so strongly that our veterans deserve better care. I’m going to stay focused on that as long as I’m here to make sure that we’re doing that every day. I’m not going to be distracted by issues like that.”
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He also doubled down on allegations that the aide’s email was hacked and said the department will investigate if the doctored email was among those that were hacked.
Shulkin was speaking to reporters after a largely genial House Veterans Affairs Committee, a day after a VA inspector general report about a trip Shulkin took to Europe last year.
The investigator said Shulkin’s chief of staff, Vivieca Wright Simpson, changed an email to make it appear Shulkin was going to be honored at a special dinner during the trip, thus necessitating his wife’s travel.
The Hill’s Rebecca Kheel has more here.
SHULKIN’S RESPONSE: During the hearing, Shulkin said he “accept[s] responsibility” for the bad “optics” of the trip to Europe.
“I do recognize the optics of this are not good,” Shulkin said. “I do accept responsibility for that, but I do believe it’s important the United States continues its work with its allied countries.”
Read about those comments and the reaction here.
TOP DEM ASK JUSTICE TO REVIEW SHULKIN’S HACKING CLAIM: The top Democrat on the House Veterans’ Affairs Committee is asking the Justice Department to review Shulkin’s allegation that a top aide’s email was hacked, resulting in a doctored email at the center of a scandal related to his travel.
“These allegations from the VA secretary that the third senior-most official at VA may have been the target of criminals committing fraud and computer intrusion with the intention of harming her reputation, and that these criminal activities took place on VA computers and networks are very serious,” Rep. Tim Walz (D-Minn.) wrote in a Thursday letter to Attorney General Jeff Sessions.
“I refer these claims of email intrusion and tampering on government computers and networks, and whether other cyber crimes have been committed against senior-level VA officials or on VA computers and its network for your review.”
Shulkin told reporters that “we know” someone took over Wright Simpson’s email.
GENERAL: ‘100 PERCENT CONFIDENT’ IN MISSILE DEFENSE AGAINST NORTH KOREA: The military official in charge of the command that defends the United States from missile threats says she’s “100 percent confident” in her ability to protect the country from a North Korean ballistic missile attack, while also calling for more improvements to U.S. missile defense.
“I want to assure this committee today that I am confident that I can defend the United States,” Gen. Lori Robinson told the Senate Armed Services Committee on Thursday.
“While I’m confident that we can defeat this threat today, it is critical that we continue to improve the ballistic missile defense enterprise, with emphasis on the development of improved sensor networks combined with interceptor capability and capacity in reliability.”
Robinson noted that budget predictability is key to being able to continue to protect the nation.
“To me predictability is everything. … Today I can defend the United States of America when it comes to ballistic missile defense … but we have to allow the services to be able to plan, because they’re the ones that provide us that readiness.”
Read more on the hearing here.
NO PLANS FOR ‘BLOODY NOSE’: The Trump administration, meanwhile, does not have a “bloody nose” strategy for North Korea, according to a bipartisan pair of senators and an administration official.
“I had a briefing with some other senators yesterday with someone from the White House who made it very clear that there is no bloody nose strategy for a strike against North Korea, and we asked if we could go out and quote him on that, and he said yes,” Sen. Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.) said at a Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing Thursday.
Reports have surfaced in recent months that administration officials are considering a limited preemptive strike against North Korea to show the United States is serious about stopping the country’s nuclear weapons development. The hope would be that North Korea gets the message and does not strike back.
Those reports have alarmed several lawmakers and experts.
MATTIS: TALKS WITH TURKEY CENTERED AROUND ‘ABSOLUTE HONESTY & TRANSPARENCY: Defense Secretary James Mattis said Thursday that the U.S. and Turkey were working to find “common ground” in Syria, despite growing tensions between the two countries.
“I believe we are finding common ground and there are areas of uncommon ground, where sometimes war just gives you bad alternatives to choose from,” Mattis told reporters after a NATO meeting in Brussels.
Mattis said that Washington and Ankara are engaged in an “absolutely open and honest dialogue” about U.S. and Turkish efforts in Syria.
The two countries have been at loggerheads in the region over Washington’s support for a Syrian Kurdish fighting force called the YPG. Ankara says those fighters are linked to Kurdish separatists in Turkey who are considered terrorists by the government.
Read more about that here.
ON TAP FOR TOMORROW:
Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) will speak on the Russia probe and U.S. national security: at 8:30 a.m. at the Council on Foreign Relations in Washington.
Air Force Secretary Heather Wilson will speak at an Air Force Association breakfast discussion on space as a warfighting domain at 9:30 a.m. at the Capitol Hill Club in Washington.
ICYMI:
— The Hill: Trump officials blame Russia for massive global cyberattack
— The Hill: Ethical hackers discover 100 vulnerabilities in U.S. Air Force systems
— The Hill: Tillerson leaves military response to Syrian chemical attacks on the table
— Reuters: Turkey demands US expel Kurdish militia
— ABC News: Thousands of service members could lose jobs under new Pentagon policy
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