"Something like this would come up and we'd have to swat 'em down"

Mark Esper: At various times– during the– certainly the last year of the administration, you know, folks in the White House are proposing to take military action against Venezuela. To– to– to strike Iran. At one point, somebody proposes we blockade Cuba.

These ideas would happen– it seemed, every– every few weeks. Something like this would come up and we’d have to swat ’em down.

Norah O’Donnell: Who’s “we had to swat ’em down?”

Mark Esper: Well, mostly me. I had good support from– from General Mark Milley.