Hillary Clinton’s team denies that the candidate revealed classified information when she said during the presidential debate this week that it takes roughly four minutes from when the president gives the order to the initiation of a nuclear strike.
Clinton’s reference to the four-minute gap came as she dinged GOP nominee Donald Trump for being “cavalier” and “casual” about “the use of nuclear weapons.”
“He has advocated more countries getting them. Japan, Korea, even Saudi Arabia. He’s said if we have them, why don’t we use them which I think is terrifying. But here’s the deal. The bottom line on nuclear weapons is that when the president gives the order, it must be followed,” Clinton said.
“There is about four minutes between the order being given and the people responsible for launching nuclear weapons to do so,” she added.
Following the debate’s conclusion, multiple online news and politics sites suggested and questioned whether Clinton had revealed classified information regarding the United State’s modus operandi for a nuclear strike.
But Clinton’s team pushed back on these suggestions Thursday, and told reporters that the Democratic candidate didn’t say anything that hasn’t already been reported.
Her campaign then pointed reporters to a series of news articles referencing the four-minute nuclear strike gap.
Bloomberg News reported on Sept. 7, for example, that roughly “five minutes may elapse from the president’s decision until intercontinental ballistic missiles blast out of their silos, and about fifteen minutes until submarine missiles shoot out of their tubes.”
“Once fired, the missiles and their warheads cannot be called back,” the report noted.
Politico discussed similar details on June 11 in a report titled, “What Exactly Would It Mean to Have Trump’s Finger on the Nuclear Button?”
The report read:
Within about one minute, the duty team in the war room would format a message that would unleash the forces assigned to the president’s selection.
[…]
This message ordering the partial or all-out employment of nuclear forces would be rapidly encrypted and transmitted, using landline, radio and satellite communications, to all subordinate nuclear commanders down to the level of individual firing crews in underground launch facilities, inside submarines and onboard bomber aircraft.
Once released into the electromagnetic ether, the attack unfolds irrevocably on fast forward. Within a couple of minutes after the initial worldwide transmission of an execution message, hundreds of missiles carrying hundreds of warheads could be hurling around the planet, impervious to any attempt to recall them.
Foreign Policy likewise published an article on Aug. 5, titled “Our Nuclear Procedures Are Crazier Than Trump,” in which it reported, “U.S. presidents are currently given a four-minute window to decide whether or not to initiate an irreversible apocalypse. Sad!”
Lastly, former Secretary of Defense William Perry said in an episode of “60 Minutes” that aired in September that there are only a few minutes between the president’s order and a nuclear strike.
CBS News’ David Martin asked, “So how long, in fact, does the president have to make a decision?”
“He has minutes. Seven – eight – nine – depending on details,” Perry said. “But less than 10 minutes.”
