ASPEN, Colo. — Former Defense Secretary Mark Esper, one of the Trump administration officials under constant security because of Iranian threats, said Wednesday that it was time for the Biden administration “to do better than just playing defense.”
His remarks were some of the first from one of the targeted Trump administration officials since reports this week that the latest threat to former President Donald Trump's life from Iran led to beefed-up security in the days ahead of an unrelated assassination attempt on the Republican presidential nominee at a campaign rally Saturday.
U.S. intelligence and security officials say Iran is intent on revenge for the 2020 killing of Iranian Gen. Qassim Soleimani, which Trump ordered as president.
“To me, it’s personal as well,” Esper said at the Aspen Security Forum, an annual conference in Colorado that draws U.S. policymakers, journalists and others. “Because I’m in that group that’s on their hit list, and so like a few of my colleagues, I carry around a very robust 24/7 security protection detail that watches over me and several of us."
“It’s going on for years now … and we got to do better than just playing defense,” Esper said, citing an earlier, foiled plot against John Bolton, Trump’s former national security adviser. Esper said additional plots have been uncovered but did not elaborate.
“So this administration needs to do a far better job in terms of how we deal with this problem,” he said, adding that officials need to figure out how to go after those behind the plots.
National Security Council spokeswoman Adrienne Watson said Tuesday that the Biden administration considers “this a national and homeland security matter of the highest priority.”
Besides Esper, other high-level Trump administration officials who also receive protection following Soleimani’s assassination include retired Army Gen. Mark Milley, who was chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and retired Marine Gen. Frank McKenzie, who headed U.S. Central Command and was in charge of the Soleimani operation.
The Biden administration also has repeatedly extended 24/7 protection to former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and his top Iran aide, Brian Hook, due to credible threats on their lives from Iran.
Iran’s mission to the United Nations called the accusations “unsubstantiated and malicious.”
In a statement Tuesday, the mission said that while it sees Trump as a “criminal” who should be punished in court for ordering Soleimani’s assassination, “Iran has chosen the legal path to bring him to justice.”
