Congressman Don Bacon Discusses NATO, Political Violence, AI and Other Matters In Press Conference

By Gordon Hopkins U.S. Representative Don Bacon of Nebraska recently held an online press conference to discuss legislative activities as well a few of the major issues. Political ViolenceThe press conference took place on September 11, the anniversary of 9/11 and just one day after the assassination of conservative political activist Charlie Kirk in Utah, so the subject of political violence was a pressing topic. While the death of Kirk was dominating the headlines, Bacon pointed out it was not the only example of recent violence.“Yesterday was a hard day for all of us,” said Bacon. “I've had two vision images in my brain. They're very searing. You know, one is Charlie Kirk getting shot in the neck, and seeing that image. It was very searing and emotional. I know him. We talked two or three times a year. Would say all the time, but periodically during the year, a couple of political things. Of course, he was out in Omaha multiple times. I got to host him twice.”“The other searing one is that young Ukrainian woman being murdered on that bus, just the trauma of it,” said Bacon, referring to the stabbing of Iryna Zarutska, age 23, Ukrainian woman on board a Charlotte Area Transit System train last month. The motive of the accused attacker, Decarlos Brown Jr., has not been publicly established.“Charlie Kirk, I didn't always agree with him, but that's irrelevant. He was a conservative voice. He was all about freedom of speech. He was all about debate, and debating differences of opinion and doing it in a civil way. He never advocated violence. He was very strong on antisemitism, opposing it,” said Bacon. “And I think this is an opportunity for those of us in Washington to include the President, to include our leadership in Nebraska, to come together and remind ourselves, even though we're maybe Republican or Democrat, we're still Americans first, and it's good to have a debate. It's good to have dialog, but we can't be demonizing our ourselves.”The congressman emphasized that political violence is not a partisan matter.“We have to remind ourselves this isn't just a Republican or Democrat issue. Yesterday was a conservative that was killed,” said Bacon. “I get the temptation, if you're a partisan, to try to blame the other side for all of this. There's a temptation there. I don't think it's smart in the big scheme of things. I think America needs people to stand above this. And it would be one thing. It was only Republicans getting killed. It's not we had some Democrats killed in Minnesota. And so, this is not one side or the other side. It's a problem that all of us share.”Minnesota state representative Melissa Hortman, the leader of the state House Democratic caucus, who was assassinated alongside her husband, Mark, at her home on June 14 of this year.When asked about solutions, Bacon said, “We can defend our positions without demonizing and belittling on the other side. And most people can listen to the demonization or the over exaggerations and aren't going to take action, but there's just a small number of people who get caught up in it. They get radicalized.” UkraineThe day before the press conference, the House passed the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA, the U.S. federal law that sets policy and authorizes the budget for the Department of Defense (DoD).Bacon described the passage of the bill as bipartisan, “It's not as much as I wanted, but we had roughly 15 Democrats. We did lose four Republicans, but it's a good defense bill.”Support for Ukraine was key component and one Bacon said he fought for hard, “We preserved our European force structure to include our support to the Baltic states, and include aid to Ukraine. I spoke twice on the floor yesterday defending the money going to the Baltics, and also to defend the money going to Ukraine.”Bacon has been a supporter of Ukraine’s battle in the ongoing war with Russia and that has, on occasion, put him at odds with those in his own party, such as Elbridge Colby, undersecretary of defense for policy, who supports reducing aid to Ukraine. NATO“I'm very concerned that we have an undersecretary in the Pentagon in the Department of Defense that would like to decouple the United States from Europe, to defund the Baltic states and not fund Ukraine at all. Well, I think it's an error. I think he's leading this administration down a bad path, and it will be a black day in our history books if the undersecretary has his way. The United States and NATO has served the world in a good way over the last 70-some-odd years, and our partnership with Europe has worked,” said Bacon. “And we've got to realize, if Ukraine falls, so will Moldova, so will Georgia and the Baltics will be under serious threat. As I pointed out on the floor yesterday, it is not a conservative position to be isolationist. It is not a conservative position to be weak toward (Russian leader Vladimir) Putin.” CyberAlso included in the NDAA was $142 billion toward artificial intelligence (AI) and other cyber-related activities.Bacon oversees the cyber subcommittee. He said, “It is my legislation that will start a joint task force for cyber in the Pacific. We need to upgrade our cyber capabilities under Pacific Command.”

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