Rep. Don Bacon (R-Neb.), a moderate Republican, slammed President Trump’s decision to fire the director of the National Security Agency (NSA) and his top deputy after demands from far-right influencer Laura Loomer, saying Sunday that China and Russia are “laughing at us” after that decision.
“I will tell you, this puts us back. It hurts us,” Bacon said in an interview on CBS News’s “Face the Nation.”
“Russia and China today are laughing at us because we just fired the absolute best leaders, the most qualified guys that we spent three-and-a-half decades preparing to have this role, and he’s gone,” Bacon continued. “And it’s heartbreaking to see that that decision was made without explanation, and it hurt us.”
Bacon, who sits on the House Armed Services Committee, said he is not aware of any White House communication to Congress explaining the president’s decision to fire Gen. Timothy Haugh, a four-star general who was unanimously confirmed to lead the NSA and U.S. Cyber Command. He was fired late Thursday.
Haugh has more than 30 years of experience in the U.S. Air Force and led numerous cyber operations to counter efforts from Russia and other U.S. adversaries.
Trump late Thursday also fired Haugh’s civilian deputy, Wendy Noble, after firing earlier that day several other top national security staffers. The firings came a day after meeting with the far-right activist Loomer. She argued that some within the NSC are not sufficiently loyal to Trump’s agenda.
Bacon offered an unwavering defense of Haugh’s credentials, calling him “the absolute best leader in the US military to lead Cyber Command and the National Security Agency,” saying he led both “because half of Cyber Command relies on NSA to be effective in cyber operations, so you have to have this team.”
“He served 34 years in the military, and his entire career was working signals intelligence or cyber operations,” Bacon added. “Frankly, he is the best that we had.”
