ELECTION DAY: Today is the day the nation picks a president and vice president. The Electoral College meets, not on some single campus, but in 51 separate meetings across the country, mostly in state capitals. But the results won’t be official until the votes by the 538 electors are counted by a joint meeting in Congress, and assuming there are no objections, are certified. So far only one elector has indicated he may not vote for the candidate he’s pledged to, Donald Trump. The president-elect has a healthy 306 to 232 lead over Hillary Clinton.
CHINA BEFUDDLED: If Trump’s strategy is to keep China guessing, it’s working pretty well judging by an editorial in China’s Global Times newspaper this morning, just one of China’s state-sanctioned media outlets that has mocked Trump over his tweets. What has China confused is that right after the Pentagon demanded China return an undersea drone snatched under the nose of a U.S. oceanographic research ship, Trump tweeted “We should tell China that we don’t want the drone they stole back.- let them keep it!”
“Trump is not behaving as a president who will become master of the White House in a month. He bears no sense of how to lead a superpower,” said the editorial. “Trump’s second tweet makes people worry that he will treat China-US relations as child’s play. Now people don’t know if Trump is engaged in a psychological war with China or he is just unprofessional,” said the state-run Global Times, which often reflects official thinking in Beijing.
Trump’s “no-big-deal” response was in stark contrast to the outrage expressed by Senate Armed Services Chairman John McCain, who issued an angry statement which said, “China had no right to seize this vehicle, and the United States must not stand for such outrageous conduct.” McCain blamed the incident on a China emboldened by the failure of President Obama to provide “a strong and determined U.S. response.” Asked about what he thought about Trump’s tweet, McCain told CNN, “I don’t know. I know that the Chinese are able to do a thing called reverse-engineering, where they are, while they hold this drone, able to find out all of the technical information. And some of it is pretty valuable.”
China later promised to return the six-foot-long ocean glider, which was plucked from international waters in the South China Sea, where it was being used to measure salinity and water temperatures, according to the Pentagon.
At his news conference Friday, President Obama said it’s not just Trump’s prerogative, but his obligation to reexamine U.S. China policy, but he warned against allowing the relationship to degenerate into “full conflict mode.” “Since there’s only one president at a time, my advice to him has been that before he starts having a lot of interactions with foreign governments other than the usual courtesy calls, that he should want to have his full team in place, that he should want his team to be fully briefed.”
GATES JUDGES OBAMA: Another of Obama’s former national security principles is faulting him for indecision that sent a signal of American weakness. “I think there’s actually the problem has been that President Obama’s actions often have not matched his rhetoric,” said former Defense Secretary Robert Gates on NBC’s Meet the Press. “His rhetoric has often been pretty tough. But then there’s been no follow-up and no action, and if you combine that with red lines that have been crossed, the demands that [Bashar] Assad step down with no plan to actually figure out how to make that happen, the withdrawal from the Middle East, from Iraq and Afghanistan, and essentially the way it was done, I think it sent a signal that the U.S. was in retreat.” Gates was responding to a question from Chuck Todd about whether Russian President Vladimir Putin may have pursued hack-and-release operations against the U.S. because he perceived Obama had become “soft” on Moscow and wouldn’t retaliate.
But Gates also gave Obama credit for managing what he called a difficult situation where the American people were tired of 15 years of war. “I think that there’s been some very real achievements in the military,” Gates said, but added he was flatly opposed to the intervention in Libya. “I said, ‘Can I just finish the two wars I’m already in before you go looking for a third one.’”
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HACKING PROBE EMPANELED: A bipartisan group of senators announced on Sunday they will form an investigative panel to look into allegations that Russia tried to manipulate the U.S. election by hacking into Democratic officials and groups’ email servers, Anna Giaritelli writes. Democratic Sens. Chuck Schumer and Jack Reed will partner with McCain of Arizona and Lindsey Graham for the committee’s creation, according to a report of the joint letter.
BAD LOOK FOR NUNES: House Intelligence Chairman Devin Nunes declined to accept phone calls from a top U.S. intelligence official who sought to discuss evidence that Russia interfered in the presidential election, according to a new report, Joel Gehrke writes. CIA Director John Brennan wanted to talk to Nunes following congressional briefings that seemed to indicate a disagreement between the CIA and the FBI about whether the cyberattacks against the Democratic National Committee and Hillary Clinton campaign co-chairman John Podesta, and the ensuing leaks — which both entities agreed were conducted by Russia — were carried out in an attempt to help Trump win the election. “Brennan tried to talk to Nunes several times about the dispute. But officials said the congressman didn’t take his calls until after he issued a statement Wednesday asking intelligence leaders to ‘clarify press reports that the CIA has a new assessment that it has not shared with us,'” according to the Washington Post.
READY FOR THE BUILDUP: The Navy on Friday announced the results of its year-long force structure assessment, which calls for a 355-ship fleet, a significant buildup from the 273-ship fleet of today. Most of the growth comes in large warships and attack submarines, as well as an aircraft carrier.
ALEPPO EVACUATIONS BACK ON: The AP reports that a fragile cease-fire was back on in Syria, and buses once again were evacuating civilians from eastern Aleppo. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said 10 buses left with civilians from the two Shiite villages long besieged by rebels and were on their way to government-controlled areas. The U.N. Security Council is expected to vote today on a resolution seeking to deploy U.N. monitors to Aleppo in an attempt to prevent feared “mass atrocities” by Syrian forces and pro-government militias.
GET ’EM OUT: Trump pledged Friday night to keep Islamic terrorists the “hell out of our country” in a speech to supporters in Orlando, Florida, where a U.S.-born gunman who pledged himself to the Islamic State killed 49 people and injured 53 others at an LGBT nightclub downtown in June, Anna Giaritelli writes. “The attack on Pulse Nightclub in Orlando was the worst mass shooting in American history and the deadliest assault on the LGBTQ community in American history,” Trump told the crowd at his “thank you” rally at the Orlando Amphitheater. “We’ve seen Islamic terror attacks from Paris to Belgium to San Bernardino. One after other, again and again. We’re going to stop it. Let me state this as clearly as I can: I am going to keep radical Islamic terrorists the hell out of our country.”
UPPING THE ANTE: The U.S. government is now offering $25 million to anyone who comes forward with information that leads military officials to the Islamic State’s self-declared ruler, according to a State Department press release issued Friday, Anna Giaritelli writes. The boosted reward more than doubles the $10 million the department initially offered in October 2011 for the location, arrest or conviction of Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi.
“Protecting the homeland and the American people is our top counterterrorism priority, and just as we have intensified our efforts against ISIL, we are increasing the means available to us to gain information on their leadership and bring them to justice,” a State Department spokesman said on Friday.
IN BUSINESS: Northrop Grumman has announced that it has successfully completed the first flight of an E-2D Advanced Hawkeye equipped with aerial refueling. “The aerial refueling capability will allow the E-2D to provide longer on-station times at greater ranges, extending its mission time to better support the warfighter,” said a statement Monday
Also, the Air Force selected Raytheon to develop and produce its new F-16 Modular Mission Computer Upgrade. The new mission computer offers more than two times the current processing power and 40 times the current memory, equipping pilots with near-fifth-generation aircraft computing power, according to the company.
And Pratt & Whitney says it’s delivered the first “PurePower” engines to China Southern Airlines, the first mainland Chinese airline to take delivery of an Airbus A320neo aircraft powered by the revolutionary engine technology. Pratt & Whitney is a division of United Technologies Corp.
THE RUNDOWN
Defense One: Tracking Trump’s National-Security Conflicts of Interest
Defense News: The Name Game: Rumors for Deputy and Service Secretaries
Reuters: NATO seeks to allay concerns at meeting with Russia
Military Times: Congress wants taxpayers to know how much they spend on war
Navy Times: All Navy F/A-18 E/F Super Hornets, Growlers grounded after incident injuring aircrew
UPI: Raytheon to provide new F-16 mission computers for U.S. Air Force
Navy Times: LCS crew is stuck in Singapore for the holidays
Military.com: China’s 1st Aircraft Carrier Carries out Live-Fire Exercise
MIT Technology Review: The Pentagon’s Innovation Experiment
Washington Post: Marine Corps withheld suicide investigation results that suggested drug use among Marines
Associated Press: Idlib likely to be Syria’s next bloody theater after Aleppo
Daily Beast: The Fall of Aleppo is a Huge Gift to ISIS
New York Times: ISIS Suicide Attack Kills 48 in Southern Yemen
Reuters: Exclusive: Iran to land first Airbus jet within weeks under sanctions pact
Calendar
MONDAY | DECEMBER 19
10 a.m. 1300 Pennsylvania Ave. NW. A panel of think tank analysts talks about what Palestinians and Israelis expect from Trump’s administration. wilsoncenter.org
10:30 a.m. 1030 15th St. NW. Air Force Secretary Deborah Lee James delivers remarks at an Atlantic Council event titled “Capabilities, Reassurance & Presence: The US Air Force in Transatlantic Security.” atlanticcouncil.org
