United States Air Force Retired Major General Michael “Mick” McGuire is running for U.S. Senate as a Republican in the competitive Arizona primary election on August 2. McGuire served previously as the Adjutant general of the Arizona National Guard between 2013 and 2021. He is currently the Chairman of the Board of the National Guard Association of the United States.
McGuire and me discussed the south border and future military plans. We also talked about how McGuire would vote on major spending bills such as the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act and the American Rescue Plan. In his scathing attack on incumbent Democratic senator Mark Kelly, he said that Kelly supported liberal policies along the border and economic policy which have done serious damage to the nation. He also said Alejandro Mayorkas, Homeland Security Secretary, should be removed for misconduct in duty.
This interview was edited to improve grammar and clarity.
Cameron Arcand: Why do you think you’re the best candidate to defeat Sen. Mark Kelly?
Mick McGuire I am the best candidate to defeat Mark Kelly because I’m the proven, trusted, confident leader of any of the four of us that are remaining on that debate stage. Although Brnovich was not able to attend the Newsmax debate, he chose to miss it as we did have a live audience. Cameron, leadership, as I see it, is what solves every problem in the United States. It includes public policy and the rule of law. And protecting our Constitution, from the school board to the President of the United States.
Clearly, at the presidential level, I’ve never seen a weaker, more feckless leader than the current president. And in the U.S. Senate, I’m hoping to try to encourage the other U.S. How to be strong and not play badminton whenever they are in charge.
CA:How would you push the Senate to protect our southern border?
MM: On that issue, I’m the only one that has operationalized the response to the border. [I]Obama and Trump were the commanding generals of the guard, so they sent guardsmen across the border twice. The executive order signed by Biden in January 2021 is proof that Mark Kelly and Biden are for open borders. As commanding general I received a notification that the government was going to zero out funding for 1 030 guardsmen when I arrived at the office on Monday, the 21st.
There were enough paychecks to pay 1,030 federally-funded national guardsmen. These were to be eliminated and the soldiers would be recalled. How would you handle the U.S. Senate’s 51st vote? According to the reconciliation plan for the budget I would ask for wide-item funding of at least $6 billion for Arizona to construct and complete all construction projects. Mr. Biden informed my engineering group that we couldn’t continue to assist with engineering activities for civilian contractors working under Trump. All the cameras that were literally installed out there but are not powered by you should be turned on. Reactivate the helicopter’s surveillance helicopters specifically they were OH-58. You could make use of any surveillance helicopter Obama had parked in 2014. Then, activate those 1,030 guardsmen. Recall Mayorkas. Andy Biggs, here in the state of Washington, has suggested articles for impeachment to Mayorkas.
After the filibuster rule was changed, the Senate can exercise that power. I believe they did this to change the rules on confirmations. They went to 51. Mayorkas, however, clearly defied his duty, telling Customs and Border Protection and Immigration Services that mutual aid cannot be requested. This matters because Mayorkas was the US Air Force’s primary combat reserve and Army’s Army’s Army Army, and was also the Department of Defense’s only component that could provide support and pivot to the law enforcement agencies in an advisory capacity. When you tell them they can’t request mutual aid, that’s a dereliction of duty. That’s like telling one jurisdictional Sheriff’s office that if they’re overwhelmed, they cannot request mutual aid from an adjoining jurisdiction. Each city, every state and federal law enforcement agency, as well as the first respondent entity have mutual aid agreements. Mayorkas not doing this the first time is really, really despicable.
It’d be like me deploying soldiers during my tenures as commanding general to Afghanistan, Iraq, you know, Somalia, wherever it might be and telling them they can’t have any sustainment logistics, operation communication, or aviation support.
CA:A big question for anyone who served in the military is: How can we make it easier to help veterans after they leave active duty? What do you think can be done to better assist veterans by the federal government?
MM: Cameron, we need to talk first about the veterans before we can talk about them. I’m saying plagiarism is the highest form of flattery. Everyone will steal what I post. It’s easy to see the race. But here’s what way I see the radical left right now in this race. And what’s happening in this nation in 2018, it was about abolishing ICE, in 2020, it was about defunding police. The narrative now shifts to mandatory obedience in 2022. While I am very concerned about the services we provide our veterans, the fact that we are literally housing people here that have crossed it legally in hotels in Scottsdale, and we have my brothers and sisters in arms living under bridges while it’s 112 degrees outside in Phoenix. My biggest concern about compulsory obedience is this: I think their number the other day was they’re six percent under strength for manpower.
They’re considering walking 40,000 fully qualified service members out the door because they refused to get a COVID-19 shot. As a commanding general I have never seen a single person in uniform because they didn’t get vaccinated. All soldiers, sailors, Marines and airmen get their flu shots every year. Never was 100 percent compliance. People deployed. They’re gone, whatever it might be. We kicked out zero people. Is compulsory obedience so terrifying? Morale and shared values are the foundation of our military. Valor, courage, integrity, honor, respect, discipline. This is not an obligation to obey.
It doesn’t mean we don’t follow orders. It doesn’t mean we aren’t respectful, but there’s a mild difference between those two things and to look at my brothers and sisters in arms and talk to them right now as a candidate and a retired general officer and hear what they’re feeling. You asked in the beginning, why I’m the only candidate because I’m the only candidate that can beat Mark Kelly, and, truthfully, Mark Kelly’s owned by the left, and who you’re gonna put on the other side of the dais in the U.S. Senate that can take on the Department of Defense and the bureaucrats that have injected this bureaucracy of wokeism into the military.
CA:The economy is my last question. Inflation was caused by the high spending on the American Rescue Plan and the infrastructure bill. This bill did receive some bipartisan support. What would your thoughts be on government spending if you had been in the Senate during that period?
MM: I wouldn’t have voted to approve the $1.9 trillion original bill. Remember, Biden’s first bill was $1.9 trillion after we had already printed $4 trillion. I said that I was the commanding General of the Guard and the State Emergency Manager. I watched as $4 trillion was spent during COVID, and in the years leading up to it. And $1.9 trillion–All that did was flood the market with dollars with very limited, the same amount of resources. Yet, oil was being cut off.
Next, we got an infrastructure package. You can think of it again. Mark Kelly voted on a federal infrastructure package that I would’ve voted against. Only one enumerated piece of infrastructure that I can find in the U.S. Constitution, is that the federal government must provide security and sovereignty for the United States. That wasn’t one dime in that infrastructure package for a border wall, cameras, surveillance equipment, or helicopters. That would not be possible. So, you add that $1.9 trillion-plus the infrastructure spending, and you’re seeing what you see today. 10% inflation. Border security will be the number one issue in a week, after I have won this primary. The cost of living is what people will vote for on the 8th of November, when Mark Kelly loses. It is all real. I’m out six days a week from 6:00 a.m. to midnight. [I’ve]Have logged 57,000 miles within this state. Arizonans have a greater pulse than anyone else.
I’ve had no less than half a dozen elder female Republican voters say “We will not be able to make ends meet with the cost of fuel, pharmaceuticals, food, and utilities,” come November, no matter what inflation adjustment they make on their fixed income. I can tell you what we are not gonna be evicting 75-year-old women in the middle of September when it’s 110 degrees outside here in Arizona. So we as a country have gotta figure out how to build a system where those that have social security and fixed income are able to make ends meet and the full faith and credit of the government is there for all that they’ve put into it. The country needs to be able to attract the most innovative capital and remove the environmental extremists. If we don’t have full access to land, oil, minerals, timber, fisheries, agriculture, and freshwater, we’re never gonna win. This country will win in all races if it has access to everything.
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