Discover video-sourced quotes by politicians

Tom Cole: “We didn't lose any jobs at Tinker [Air Force Base].”

Featuring: Tom Cole, Republican | U.S. House Oklahoma, 4th Congressional District

Tom Cole on China, Iran, Ukraine and America's future | Hot Seat full interview

Published May 9, 2026 | Video Starts at 31:56

I always tell people, gosh, a year ago, weren't you telling me we were going to lose hundreds of jobs at Tinker and we were going to lose the National Weather center, and We didn't lose any jobs at Tinker [Air Force Base]. National Weather center got a hundred million dollar increase. And, you know, trust us, we know how to do things. Things can be proposed. So I hope to continue to do that. (31:56–32:08)

CLAIM

Asserts that no jobs were lost at Tinker Air Force Base.

This is an excerpt from a raw transcript. The assertions have not been audited or verified. Tap the video to view the source footage and understand the context.

Discover more from

Tom Cole

“We build less than 5% [of the world's ships]... they're mostly our warships.”
Tom Cole on China, Iran, Ukraine and America's future | Hot Seat full interview | Uploaded May 9, 2026 | 02:01-02:07
“About 70% of the casualties over the last years that both sides have experienced have been inflicted by drones.”
Tom Cole on China, Iran, Ukraine and America's future | Hot Seat full interview | Uploaded May 9, 2026 | 12:37-12:44
“They have five to 600,000 dead Russians, million more casualties on top of that.”
Tom Cole on China, Iran, Ukraine and America's future | Hot Seat full interview | Uploaded May 9, 2026 | 14:26-14:33
“The Ukrainians have probably lost 150 or so thousand soldiers, maybe another 350 casualties on top of that.”
Tom Cole on China, Iran, Ukraine and America's future | Hot Seat full interview | Uploaded May 9, 2026 | 14:33-14:41
“The Russian economy, which was the second economy in the world going into, you know, again, the late 80s and 90s, is now about the size of…”
Tom Cole on China, Iran, Ukraine and America's future | Hot Seat full interview | Uploaded May 9, 2026 | 18:47-18:59
“China, very different matter. And now the largest navy in the world passed us in the last four or five years.”
Tom Cole on China, Iran, Ukraine and America's future | Hot Seat full interview | Uploaded May 9, 2026 | 19:20-19:28
“They used to have 18 to 20 nuclear weapons that they could deliver. Now they're in the hundreds.”
Tom Cole on China, Iran, Ukraine and America's future | Hot Seat full interview | Uploaded May 9, 2026 | 19:36-19:43
“All of that stuff is sitting in Oak Ridge, Tennessee, right now, over 60 tons of it.”
Tom Cole on China, Iran, Ukraine and America's future | Hot Seat full interview | Uploaded May 9, 2026 | 21:21-21:26
“A couple years ago, I don't know what it was, last year, 58% of all the medicines in the world that were patented were patented in the…”
Tom Cole on China, Iran, Ukraine and America's future | Hot Seat full interview | Uploaded May 9, 2026 | 26:19-26:27
“We didn't invest enough, particularly during the Biden years.”
Tom Cole on China, Iran, Ukraine and America's future | Hot Seat full interview | Uploaded May 9, 2026 | 00:43-00:46
“We gave away a lot of stuff to Ukraine, which I'm supportive of... but we weren't replacing a lot of what we were giving away.”
Tom Cole on China, Iran, Ukraine and America's future | Hot Seat full interview | Uploaded May 9, 2026 | 00:47-00:56
“We were two or three years behind in delivering to Taiwan what stuff they've paid for.”
Tom Cole on China, Iran, Ukraine and America's future | Hot Seat full interview | Uploaded May 9, 2026 | 01:00-01:08
“The unemployment rate is 4.3%. I mean, that's historically low.”
Tom Cole on China, Iran, Ukraine and America's future | Hot Seat full interview | Uploaded May 9, 2026 | 04:19-04:24
“We've got high earnings and increased investment in the country, not just from our investors here, but a lot of foreign money flowing into…”
Tom Cole on China, Iran, Ukraine and America's future | Hot Seat full interview | Uploaded May 9, 2026 | 04:30-04:40
“The perception... is influenced quite often more by their political opinions over who's in power than an objective assessment of what the…”
Tom Cole on China, Iran, Ukraine and America's future | Hot Seat full interview | Uploaded May 9, 2026 | 04:49-05:18
“The drone school [at Fort Sill] is expanding exponentially over the last few years in terms of number of students going through it.”
Tom Cole on China, Iran, Ukraine and America's future | Hot Seat full interview | Uploaded May 9, 2026 | 12:00-12:07
“American troops, historically, since certainly since the end of the Second World War, have never had to look up on a battlefield.”
Tom Cole on China, Iran, Ukraine and America's future | Hot Seat full interview | Uploaded May 9, 2026 | 12:52-13:00
“We've got a lot of investment going on in everything from producing more drones, producing them more rapidly.”
Tom Cole on China, Iran, Ukraine and America's future | Hot Seat full interview | Uploaded May 9, 2026 | 13:16-13:24
“Hundreds of employees, over 170 engineers working out of [FISTA] now, representing I think about 30 different defense companies.”
Tom Cole on China, Iran, Ukraine and America's future | Hot Seat full interview | Uploaded May 9, 2026 | 13:48-13:57
“The Russians didn't see [the Ukraine war] coming either. They thought that was going to be a four week war and again they're in the fifth…”
Tom Cole on China, Iran, Ukraine and America's future | Hot Seat full interview | Uploaded May 9, 2026 | 14:18-14:24
“We had 2,800 deaths in 20 years of combat in Afghanistan.”
Tom Cole on China, Iran, Ukraine and America's future | Hot Seat full interview | Uploaded May 9, 2026 | 14:42-14:47
“The American military is enormously adaptable, enormously capable, is well led, very motivated.”
Tom Cole on China, Iran, Ukraine and America's future | Hot Seat full interview | Uploaded May 9, 2026 | 14:58-15:08
“China is certainly [a near peer power].”
Tom Cole on China, Iran, Ukraine and America's future | Hot Seat full interview | Uploaded May 9, 2026 | 15:53-15:55
“We're very fortunate to have Secretary of State Rubio right now.”
Tom Cole on China, Iran, Ukraine and America's future | Hot Seat full interview | Uploaded May 9, 2026 | 16:09-16:14
“They're not even covered by any of the restrictions that we negotiated with the old Soviet Union.”
Tom Cole on China, Iran, Ukraine and America's future | Hot Seat full interview | Uploaded May 9, 2026 | 19:47-19:53
“We've reoriented a lot of our defense and to be fair, beginning with Obama, to the Pacific.”
Tom Cole on China, Iran, Ukraine and America's future | Hot Seat full interview | Uploaded May 9, 2026 | 20:08-20:15
“The United States was able to get Libya when Muammar Gaddafi was planning to, after the invasion of Iraq, to turn over all its weapons of…”
Tom Cole on China, Iran, Ukraine and America's future | Hot Seat full interview | Uploaded May 9, 2026 | 21:10-21:22
“Obama takes out Muammar Gaddafi.”
Tom Cole on China, Iran, Ukraine and America's future | Hot Seat full interview | Uploaded May 9, 2026 | 21:29-21:33
“That war at the time was a huge mistake.”
Tom Cole on China, Iran, Ukraine and America's future | Hot Seat full interview | Uploaded May 9, 2026 | 21:41-21:45
“We made a mistake in encouraging the Ukrainians to give it up [nuclear weapons].”
Tom Cole on China, Iran, Ukraine and America's future | Hot Seat full interview | Uploaded May 9, 2026 | 22:24-22:31
“Libya is no better off. It's war torn and, you know, divided right now.”
Tom Cole on China, Iran, Ukraine and America's future | Hot Seat full interview | Uploaded May 9, 2026 | 23:15-23:21
“We're the oldest democracy on the planet.”
Tom Cole on China, Iran, Ukraine and America's future | Hot Seat full interview | Uploaded May 9, 2026 | 25:13-25:16
“We're still the leader [in artificial intelligence].”
Tom Cole on China, Iran, Ukraine and America's future | Hot Seat full interview | Uploaded May 9, 2026 | 25:52-25:54
“I'm fortunate enough to be chairman of the Appropriations Committee.”
Tom Cole on China, Iran, Ukraine and America's future | Hot Seat full interview | Uploaded May 9, 2026 | 31:39-31:43
“National Weather center got a hundred million dollar increase.”
Tom Cole on China, Iran, Ukraine and America's future | Hot Seat full interview | Uploaded May 9, 2026 | 32:07-32:10
“We lost a lot of seniority when Mark Wayne, we lost his seat on Appropriations Committee.”
Tom Cole on China, Iran, Ukraine and America's future | Hot Seat full interview | Uploaded May 9, 2026 | 33:32-33:38
“We lost a seat on the Senate Armed Services Committee.”
Tom Cole on China, Iran, Ukraine and America's future | Hot Seat full interview | Uploaded May 9, 2026 | 33:37-33:41
“We lost a seat on the Ways and Means Committee.”
Tom Cole on China, Iran, Ukraine and America's future | Hot Seat full interview | Uploaded May 9, 2026 | 33:41-33:44
“The most important things that are happening in our society right now probably aren't happening in Washington D.C. they're probably…”
Tom Cole on China, Iran, Ukraine and America's future | Hot Seat full interview | Uploaded May 9, 2026 | 36:13-36:24
“Despite Al Gore's claim, he really didn't invent the Internet.”
Tom Cole on China, Iran, Ukraine and America's future | Hot Seat full interview | Uploaded May 9, 2026 | 36:33-36:37
“It's been pretty Damn successful for 250 years.”
Tom Cole on China, Iran, Ukraine and America's future | Hot Seat full interview | Uploaded May 9, 2026 | 37:32-37:37
“We're about to go back to the moon and we're in another race with a great power again to go back.”
Tom Cole on China, Iran, Ukraine and America's future | Hot Seat full interview | Uploaded May 9, 2026 | 37:45-37:51
“Happy birthday to America that's given us more opportunity, more freedom and more security than any people enjoyed in the entire history of…”
Tom Cole on China, Iran, Ukraine and America's future | Hot Seat full interview | Uploaded May 9, 2026 | 38:02-38:14