Politics
Former US Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel on Mueller, Foreign Threats
Former United States Security of Defense Chuck Hagel is partnering with the University of Chicago to launch a lecture series focused on foreign policy.
The inaugural lecture, hosted Thursday by the university’s Chicago Project on Security & Threats, will feature former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, who served from 1997 to 2001 and was the first woman to hold the position.
The event comes on the heels of a big public announcement by special counsel Robert Mueller, who made it clear on Wednesday that Russian intelligence officers and private entities interfered in the 2016 U.S. presidential election.
“I will close by reiterating the central allegation of our indictments, that there were multiple, systematic efforts to interfere in our election. And that allegation deserves the attention of every American,” Mueller said in his first public comments since undertaking the Russia investigation more than two years ago.
Hagel, a former Vietnam combat veteran and U.S. senator who represented Nebraska from 1997 to 2009, served as U.S. defense secretary under former President Barack Obama from February 2013 to February 2015.
As Pentagon chief for two years, Hagel encountered the rise of the Islamic State group in the summer of 2014, a terrorist group Hagel at the time called an “imminent threat to every interest we have.”
Hagel joins us to discuss Mueller’s comments as well as tensions with North Korea, Iran and Syria.
Follow Evan Garcia on Twitter: @EvanRGarcia
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