Don Bacon and fellow former generals make closing argument as campaign draws to a close
Concerns about Don Bacon’s reelection campaign in Nebraska’s second congressional district came up at the last Pachyderm luncheon. Gary Javitch, representing the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) said, “AIPAC, which has endorsed Don Bacon, reports that he’s approximately two percentage points down. This is a race that Congress cannot afford to lose.”
Hal Daub, who held the same Congressional seat in the 1980s, was more blunt. “I hope you all understand the disaster that’s in the making if Don Bacon loses this congressional race,” Daub said. “The House is going to be divided. The Senate is likely to go Republican, but all appropriations and spending bills originate in the House by Constitution, not in the Senate. We need to keep him there, and he proved it more than once on Sunday night in that debate.”
Earlier this week, Bacon held an event with House Majority Whip Tom Emmer (R-MN) in an attempt to boost support during the waning days of his campaign. Then on Friday, Bacon sat with three former generals — Gen. Tom Hobbins, Gen. Frank Gorenc, and Lt. Gen. Dick Newton — for a panel discussion on national security at the University of Nebraska-Omaha Thompson Alumni Center.
World on Fire
Bacon opened the discussion by saying that the world was “on fire,” sparked by the Biden administration’s disastrous withdrawal from Afghanistan in 2021.
“I’ve never been so angry in my life with what happened in Afghanistan,” Bacon said. “The way it was done, the botched withdrawal, leaving $7 billion of weapons behind, but more so our reputation in tatters. It’s no surprise that we saw Russia invade Ukraine. China’s watching how we handle Ukraine, and how we handle Afghanistan. They’re eyeballing Taiwan. And it should not surprise us either that Iran does not fear us.”
Newton and Gorenc both described the situation similarly. “I believe that we are in the most chaotic global national security environment we’ve ever seen in my lifetime, and perhaps even my dad’s lifetime,” Newton said. He went on to describe China as the world’s greatest threat, combined with the multiple “spinning plates” in the middle east and Ukraine.
“Never in my wildest dreams did I think we’d see a land war in Europe at the scale that it’s at,” Gorenc said. “Between Russia and Ukraine, we’re talking about a million casualties already, and that conflict doesn’t seem to have an ending.”
Gorenc cited bipartisan commissions in 2018 and 2022 that found the United States was “nowhere ready for a global conflict.” Bacon also added that the current military funding level of 3.1% of GDP was inadequate.
“It’s not adequate for rebuilding our ICBMs, to counter China, and to provide a quality of life for our servicemen and women that is needed to retain them and recruit them,” Bacon said.
Cybersecurity
Hobbins said that Bacon’s experience in cybersecurity was one of his major strengths.
“We have a lot of reliance on digital infrastructure, which makes us vulnerable in monetary policy, banking, health care,” Hobbins said. “And I have to ask you, what about the power grids? Why would we want somebody in Don’s position who doesn’t have an understanding of what that’s about?”
“We have more digital communications than anybody else in the world, probably combined, which makes us the most vulnerable to China and Russia,” Bacon said. “Even Iran’s involved in our campaign, hacking into President Trump’s campaign computers. So we’re a big target, but we’re also really good at it on the offensive side. As mentioned, folks are trying to get into our energy grid. They want to turn it off on day one of the war. They want to turn off Wall Street. They want to create chaos. They’re trying to get into our space satellites too, through digital means. So it’s a big target.”
Ending the Ukraine War
The generals spoke at length about the current conflict in Ukraine, specifically on how to bring it to an end.
“Do we want the Ukrainians to win, or do we want to stop the war? Those are two different things. And until there’s clarity on that, I think it’s a problem,” Gorenc said. “There’s no off-ramp to this conflict for Putin, and the end-state right now is being described by President Zelensky, who says he wants Ukrainian borders and Crimea re-established before they’ll stop fighting.”
“Ukraine has got to declare neutrality and just forget the drive for NATO. It’s not going to happen,” Hobbins added. “If we let them join NATO, that would create a problem for us. Article V says an attack on one is an attack on all, and that means NATO will get involved. We don’t want a World War here. We just want this war to end. We want the dying to end. We want the destruction of Ukrainian property to end. So I think there could be some sort of neutrality and also an exchange for Russian withdrawal from Ukraine.”
Hobbins also said that any negotiated end to the war had to come with military victory. “I think it was Clausewitz who said that victories on the negotiation table only happen after victories on the battlefield,” he said. Hobbins suggested the use of drones to cut supply lines to Russian troops. “The Russians don’t have air superiority, and neither do the Ukrainians, but perhaps with technology, and the ability for the NATO nations to come together and build a plan, cutting these supply lines might be the beginning of the end for them.”
Unholy Alliances
A recurring concern was the alliance among four nations that Bacon dubbed an “Unholy Alliance” — Russia, North Korea, Iran, and China. Hobbins and Newton both mentioned that North Korea was now providing troops to fight for Russia in Ukraine.
“They’ve got several hundred special operations in North Korea, and soldiers training in Russia at this very moment.” Newton said. “There’s 10,000 to 12,000 more coming. Why is that important? Because North Korea is also supplying Russia with 155-millimeter artillery shells, which they’re out of.”
Bacon highlighted other cooperative efforts among the four nations. “China’s buying the fuel from Iran and Russia. And then Iran is providing drones to Russia, and then surging the terrorism in the Middle East. You’ve got North Korea selling weapons to Russia as well. So these four are working together,” Bacon said. “Their worldview is not about democracy, it’s not about free markets, it’s not about rule of law. It’s about dominance. They want to dominate their regions and the world.”
State of the Campaign
Bacon wrapped up the panel discussion with a brief update on his campaign. In particular, he praised KETV for fact-checking Tony Vargas after their last debate. Vargas had claimed, among other things, that Bacon would support a ban on abortion with no exceptions, raising taxes on the middle class, and voting against health insurance for pre-existing conditions.
“Don Bacon’s against pre-existing conditions coverage? I have voted for it every time,” Bacon said. “Don Bacon wants to raise middle class taxes? Do you really think that? Don Bacon wants to defund the police? I’ve gotten every police endorsement that you can get. Don Bacon’s against the life of the mother in abortion? It’s just an outright lie.”
Political ads like these will only continue to dominate the airwaves with little more than one week before Election Day. Current polls show Vargas with a slight edge on Bacon but still within the margin of error. Bacon nevertheless remains optimistic.
“After the debates, and after the ads we have on there, we have more than turned the corner. We are in a dominant spot right now. We’ve got the momentum,” Bacon said. “I firmly believe if the election were today, we’d have a narrow win. But it’s too close to call.”