‘I Probably Shouldn’t Be Breaking That Story’: Republican Senator Hints at Plan for New Air Force One on CNN

Sen. Mike Rounds (R-SD) served up some comments on Monday night about Air Force One’s security that he appeared to immediately regret.

The Senator appeared on CNN’s The Source, where Kaitlan Collins asked him about President Donald Trump accepting a $400 million Boeing 747-8 from the Qatari royal family. Trump said he intends to use the jet as Air Force One and will keep the plane after leaving office as part of his yet-to-be-built presidential library. Democrats and ethics experts have slammed the decision to accept the massive gift, especially considering the Trump family business is developing a $5.5 billion golf resort in the Gulf state. In response, Trump has lashed out at those critics.

Collins asked Rounds about the security and ethical implications of the gift.

“Apart from physically being able to use it and retrofit it, are you comfortable with the president flying on a plane that was gifted to him by Qatar?” she asked, specifying that she meant “ethically and optically.”

“If we can show the American people that there was a method and a reason why it is beneficial in terms of this transition, I think that will help a lot,” Rounds replied.

The senator explained that he spoke with Air Force officials, who said they have a plan to bring the gifted jet up to Air Force One standards, and that certain upgrades could be transitioned out of the gifted jet and added to a new Air Force One plane. Rounds said:

And I think there may very well be an argument made that as we transition from the old 747, which are still in service, to the new 747, there’s a number of items that have to be included in each of the 747s. If we can build some of that and then transition it out of one 747 and then into the new one, there may very well be some benefits to that while the old 747s are still flying.

So there– and we’ve had a chance to talk to some of the folks in the Air Force, and the Air Force actually does have a plan to be able to work through this. And I’m not gonna get into it because a lot of it’s still classified, but there is a logic that a lot of people aren’t talking about yet. And I probably shouldn’t be breaking that story.

Collins thanked her guest and wrapped up the interview.

Watch above via CNN.