How Biden’s administration could tackle the U.S. defense and intelligence budget

Jane Harman, former congresswoman and author of 'Insanity Defense’, joins Yahoo Finance to discuss the role of women in politics and expectations of the Biden administration.

Video Transcript

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- The coronavirus pandemic has provided yet another front in terms of national security conflict. The latest example, perhaps, of that-- reports this morning that Russia has had a disinformation campaign when it comes to Western-made vaccines, apparently in an effort to boost its own vaccine, Sputnik. Joining us now is someone who knows a lot about national security issues. That is Jane Harman. She's a former Congresswoman from California as well as the recently retired director of the Wilson Center and author of "Insanity Defense," which talks about how the national security apparatus keeps making the same mistakes over and over again.

Jane, thank you so much for being here. I want to start on that Russian disinformation campaign, because that speaks to a persistent threat from various global actors here in the United States. And I'm curious on that front how well you think we have done when it comes to disinformation and what now the Biden administration needs to tackle on that front.

JANE HARMAN: Well, Happy International Women's Day. And thank you for talking about my book. On this topic, the point I make in my book, starting with the end of the Cold War at the end of the '80s-- and I was in the first post-Cold War class-- is that we have, as a nation, not wrestled adequately with hard problems. This is a very hard problem. And it's a very recent problem. What should we be doing? First of all, we have to identify-- we have to attribute exactly where this is coming from. That's certainly one. And we now have the capacity in the Biden administration to do that.

But second of all, our response has to be nuanced. It's not enough to just cut off Russia and we'll never deal with them again and have a big photo op about it, or do nothing. Those are not the good options. The good options-- and we're thinking about this also in terms of Russia's recent major hack that has been attributed to the Russian intelligence agency of-- I think it's nine government departments and 100 private firms. We have to do multiple things, including things we don't talk about.

So what's my answer? I think in this case, publicizing the misinformation-- making it absolutely clear that our vaccines have been thoroughly tested and are valid-- is step one. Maybe we want to talk about theirs. I don't have information about theirs. But certainly getting that word out.

MYLES UDLAND: And you know Jane-- it's Myles here-- and you talk about that post-Cold War era, this inability to deal with big problems. That made me think immediately about the pandemic and sort of the reticence with which we saw the government's apparatus kind of thrown at this challenge. I mean, is that, perhaps, the wake up call? If we all sort of have our own views on Russia, and people do whatever they do on Facebook, is the pandemic something so present, so obvious, so clear, maybe a reminder of how little capacity there is right now in the federal government to really go after a problem that is nationwide?

JANE HARMAN: Well, actually, the pandemic could have been a success story-- not a success story to have this worldwide epidemic, but a success story in terms of planning. We had experience with H1N1 and with various other coronaviruses over the last couple of decades. And there was a manual prepared and steps to take. And the Trump administration totally ignored it. That's not to excuse prior administrations, either. I think more could have been done.

I think worse mistakes-- not to excuse this. And I think this is priority number one at this point. And I think the steps the Biden administration is taking are excellent. But things we didn't plan for at all in the '90s after the Cold War-- we thought we were the uni-power of the world, that China wanted to be like us. We missed the rise of terrorism. We missed the rise of China. Then came 9/11. We over militarized our response. We disinvested in soft power-- that's our ability to project diplomacy, culture, and every other thing that would win the argument and help our allies work with us. We didn't do that, either.

And so we're on our back foot in those areas. And on the pandemic we're catching up, but we do have the Defense Production Act. We are finally using it. We have a military that has a logistics capacity, best in class in the world. And if we do this right, our goal should be not only to get to herd immunity in the United States, but to be recognized-- this is a use of soft power-- as the leader in getting the rest of the world vaccinated.

- Jane, in terms of the budget for defense and intelligence, what would you like to see from the Biden administration?

JANE HARMAN: Well, I don't think it's a question of throwing more money at the problem, not that I think we should under invest. But at the end of the Cold War, to go back to that, we thought we won. We thought Russia lost. We've paid a high price for embarrassing Russia. But at any rate, we disinvested in procurement for defense and intelligence. And we declared a peace dividend. Well, oops, no peace. And what we ended up doing was threatening the livelihoods of a lot of highly trained aerospace workers who happen to live in my congressional district.

What is the right amount now? I would say the right amount is good leadership to overcome the purges and demoralization of the Trump era of both our intelligence community and our defense community, not just single departments, and the Homeland Security department, too, because these threats are-- talk about pandemics. They're worldwide, including at home. And there may be linkage between foreign and domestic threats. But at any rate, the right thing to do is better leadership, let the intelligence community speak truth to power, and then invest against current and future threats.

We keep funding-- this is part of defense insanity-- old legacy systems because districts in Congress make them and members of Congress squeal, but also because the Defense Department has a bureaucracy designed to protect that. So what are the new threats? Cyber, artificial intelligence-- huge deal. And we are way behind there in terms of growing our own capacity against China's capacity.

- Jane, speaking of being way behind, or at least how far we still have yet to go, I do want to talk about women in politics for a moment. And of course, you've been a pioneer. You were the first woman director of the Wilson Center. We have a lot of firsts right now-- first female treasury secretary, female vice president, female speaker of the house that we have right now. What still needs to happen, particularly in politics, for the pipeline of the next generation of female leaders?

JANE HARMAN: Oh, and you should add in there, first female director of National Intelligence. And President Biden just agreed to nominate or promote two women to four star generals. This is all cool. That's part of the answer is women serving as role models so younger women can emulate them. But another part is for women who are in positions of power to help younger women. Men can do this, too. A lot of men were role models in my past. A few women were, too. But there weren't a lot of women.

But the goal is to build the base and then help everyone travel through it. And we have-- let's celebrate this-- well over 100 women elected in the House. In my day, the first year of the woman, we doubled the number of women to something like 30. But we've grown hugely. The Senate is, I think, almost 25% female. And we have women in leadership positions in both parties. And we have Nancy Pelosi, the one and only Nancy Pelosi, who I think might be there another 100 years.

So what I'm saying is, our country can do much better. Some others in the world have women as presidents. And we've never had that. So let's think about that for a Women's Day in the near future.

- Yes. Let's. I like that. Jane, finally, I just quickly do want to ask you about the situation with Andrew Cuomo here of New York, the governor of New York, of course, who has now been alleged by several women to have had various harassing behavior. Do you think it's important to then have consequences when there are these cases in order to then make women feel more safe in order to be in those political spaces?

JANE HARMAN: Yes. But in his case-- and frankly, looking back on the case of Al Franken from Minnesota, who resigned from Congress very quickly when some allegations came out a little bit similar to the allegations against the governor-- I think it's very important to have an investigation and a conclusion from dispassionate people about what actually happened and what the consequences should be. That does not mean I don't respect the women. I deeply respect the women. And I believe them when they said that they were afraid and hurt and in one case felt in danger.

But I don't know what the facts are. So let's quickly have the right investigation. And then I think New Yorkers-- certainly not me. I'm in New York right now with four of my eight perfect grandchildren. But I'm a California resident. So it's not my view to opine on specifically what should happen to the New York Governor.

- Copy that. Well, I hope you get some time-- good time with your grandchildren while you're in the area. Jane Harman, former Congresswoman, author of "The Insanity Defense" and former director of the Wilson Center. Thank you so much for your time today. Really appreciate it.

JANE HARMAN: Thank you so much.