Clinton Calls Nuclear Development “Last Thing We Need” in Hacked Audio

By Christine Vapsva 10/3/16

Hillary Clinton’s stance on nuclear weapons was further complicated this week by leaked audio containing her criticism of a U.S. plan to modernize weapon technology.

The plan, which is estimated to cost a trillion dollars over three decades, would provide funding for new factories, refurbished weapons systems, and a fleet of new weapon carriers. These weapon carriers would contain high-tech missiles with nuclear weapons on the tip.

The former Secretary of State said at a February fundraiser that she “certainly would be inclined” to cut the nuclear missiles if she were elected president. According to Clinton, “The last thing we need are sophisticated cruise missiles that are nuclear-armed.”

This view clashes with that of the Obama administration, which has pushed for massive efforts to modernize nuclear programs. Clinton, when asked about these programs in the past, has been hesitant to take a stance, insisting that she would need to conduct a review of nuclear policies before making a decision.

Clinton’s reservations about nuclear upgrades are not hers alone–the man who asked Clinton about the program was Andrew C. Weber, President Obama’s Assistant Secretary of Defense for Nuclear, Chemical, and Biological Programs from 2009-2014. Weber called the missile program a “particularly destabilizing, dangerous type of nuclear weapon” in his question to Clinton. He co-wrote an op-ed in The Washington Post last year with Bill Clinton’s Secretary of Defense, William Perry. The piece was titled “Mr. President, kill the new cruise missile.”

Weber verified the contents of the audio, which was originally published in the Washington Free Beacon, a conservative online publication. The Beacon says that a hacker retrieved the audio from the computer of a Clinton staffer, although the Beacon did not say who the hacker was or how the publication came to possess the audio.