Tom Ridge
Tom Ridge
Thomas Joseph "Tom" Ridgeis an American politician who served as the Assistant to the President for Homeland Security from 2001 to 2003, and the first United States Secretary of Homeland Security from 2003 to 2005. Prior to this, Ridge was a member of the United States House of Representatives from 1983 to 1995 and the 43rd Governor of Pennsylvania from 1995 to 2001. He is a member of the Republican Party...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionPolitician
Date of Birth26 August 1945
CityMunhall, PA
CountryUnited States of America
Today the United States government raised the national threat level.
to make North America more secure and more prosperous.
Yeah, we weren't certain, ... Still, in the context of everything else (intelligence chatter and a terror attack in Saudi Arabia), we could not set it aside and dismiss it as not credible.
We know they have the capability to succeed and they also hold the mistaken belief that their attacks will have an impact on America's resolve,
We can be afraid or we can be ready,
We could go back over the past two years and pick out threat reports of pretty much the same substance,
Maybe that's very much the reason that you'd be worried about it, because you hadn't seen it before,
I think they moved as quickly as they could,
It is as reliable a source, group of sources that we've ever seen before.
I think there is a significant minority within the party that would either like it removed from the platform or at least a recognition that decent God-fearing people don't always have the same view on this,
I think for a long time we thought we were 'fortress America' and that we were impenetrable. Maybe in our heart of hearts we knew sooner or later that it was going to happen, ... But to take a look at the president and extraordinary vice president ... I couldn't think of a better team at a tougher time to be leading America, so I'm optimistic about it.
We've engaged the law enforcement community around this country, but there are also certain things we can do within this country outside of law enforcement that would be a deterrent to an attack, ... The president's strategy gives us a road map to accomplish that.
We think, based on the initiatives that we've announced today, that we can absorb that cost.
We think at the end of the day, a lot of this is going to be about turnout in the battleground states,