Former Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel talks presidential election
LAWRENCE, Kan. — The 24th U.S. Secretary of Defense and former Sen. Chuck Hagel of Nebraska said Thursday that the upcoming presidential election will determine both foreign policy and domestic politics.
Lecture at the University of Kansas Dole Institute of Political Science Speaking at a forum about presidential candidates and their relationship to global politics, Hagel said these are the most dangerous times since World War II. He said the two candidates, former President Donald Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris, did not talk enough about potential threats to America’s standing on the world stage.
Hagel was one of more than 100 signatories to a recent letter from former U.S. security officials endorsing Harris’ bid for president. Hagel said he looks for “three essential elements” in a leader: character, courage and judgment.
“I don’t agree with everything Harris says, but I think elections are always about choices,” he told Jerry Seib. A visiting researcher at the institute and the host of Thursday’s event.
Hagel disagreed with Trump’s actions and rhetoric regarding the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), his stance on Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, and the foreign policy and economic consequences of Trump’s interest in raising tariffs. However, he said Harris’ stance on Israel was not tough enough.
“This election will define a lot of things,” he said.
He said the future of foreign and domestic policy is at stake and the president must have the support of Congress. He said the war in Ukraine would be a “real test” of the direction of U.S. foreign policy.
“This can’t go on indefinitely. So, I mean, how do you end this?” Hagel asked. “How do you end this in an honorable way that’s important to the future of Ukraine and the future of the world?” Are they all correct? “
On October 3, 2024, former Wall Street Journal reporter Jerry Seib and former U.S. Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel held a conversation at the Dole Institute of Politics at the University of Kansas. Screenshot from Reflector Dole Institute YouTube channel)
Hagel, former President Barack Obama’s defense secretary and a two-term Republican U.S. senator starting in 1997, is a frequent critic of wars, especially the war in Iraq. On Thursday, he argued that the dangerous global climate the United States faces today is the result of a failure to learn the lessons of the past.
“We should have learned something from the Vietnam War,” said Hagel, who fought in the war in 1968. “We should have learned something from it, but we didn’t.”
Now, he said, narrow government attitudes, failed leadership and an imperfect education system are making the United States once again face the lessons of the 1930s.
Hagel said Republicans have become less “open-minded” since he became an official.
“I’m not sure there’s still a Republican Party,” he said. “I think it’s a fusion of tribes.”
He said he’s hopeful about bipartisanship but “is also a realist.”
“Only through compromise can democracy work,” he said.
This first appeared in kansas reflectoris a sister site to the Nebraska Examiner, a Nebraska newsroom.
