LAS VEGAS — Hillary Clinton appeared to have revealed at least some sensitive information about the country’s national security when attacking Donald Trump at the final debate Wednesday night over whether he should be trusted with nation’s nuclear codes.
“The bottom line on nuclear weapons is that when the president gives the order, it must be followed. There’s about four minutes between the order being given and the people responsible for launching nuclear weapons to do so,” Clinton said. “And that’s why 10 people who have had that awesome responsibility have come out and in an unprecedented way said they would not trust Donald Trump with the nuclear codes or to have his finger on the nuclear button.”
Retired Army Lt. General Keith Kellogg, who worked for the Joint Chiefs of Staff as director for all communications for U.S. forces and now advises the Trump campaign, responded to Clinton’s attack telling The Daily Caller Wednesday evening, “It is foolish to talk about any nuclear command control timing decision.”
He explained, “It is just not done, because you just don’t give up any indications of what your windows are for decision-making — especially when it comes to nuclear command and control. You hear her say it and it’s almost cavalier. It just corresponds to me to her cavalier approach to security in general from having an unsecured server in the basement in her home with a comment like that. It’s like ‘security’s not that important.’ It’s crazy. It’s incredibly foolish for someone to do something like that.”
The Clinton campaign rejected claims that the former secretary of state revealed any secret information, showing Fox News several published reports describing nuclear response times.
However, intelligence experts and a former Navy SEAL told Fox News that just because the response time was previously reported in academic documents does not allow government officials holding security clearance or who had previous access to classified information to discuss it in a public forum.
Clinton’s statement “now validates with specificity something of great sensitivity that has long been speculated by our adversaries and others in the national arena, including academics and think tanks,” the former SEAL officer said.
