United States Air Force Retired Major General Michael “Mick” McGuire is running for U.S. Senate as a Republican in the competitive Arizona primary election on August 2. McGuire formerly served as the Adjutant General of the Arizona National Guard from 2013 to 2021, and he currently serves as the Chairman of the Board for the National Guard Association of the United States.

McGuire and I discussed the southern border, the future of the military, and how he would have voted on large spending bills like the American Rescue Plan and the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act. He slammed incumbent Democratic Sen. Mark Kelly for supporting liberal border and economic policies that he believes have done significant damage to the country. In addition, he said that Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas should be impeached for dereliction of duty.

Please note that this interview has been edited for grammar, length, and clarity. 

Cameron Arcand: Why do you think you’re the best candidate to defeat Sen. Mark Kelly?

Mick McGuire: I am the best candidate to defeat Mark Kelly because I’m the proven, trusted, confident leader of any of the four of us that are remaining on that debate stage. Although Mr. Brnovich did not attend a debate on Newsmax, he opted out of that cause we had a live audience. I say that because, Cameron, I believe that leadership is the solution to every problem we face in this nation relative to public policy, the rule of law, and protecting the Constitution from school board all the way up to the president of the United States.

Clearly, at the presidential level, I’ve never seen a weaker, more feckless leader than the current president. And in the U.S. Senate, I’m hoping to try to encourage the other U.S. Senators, how to lead with some strength as opposed to always playing badminton when they get in charge.

CA: What would you kind of push in the Senate in order to secure our southern border?

MM: On that issue, I’m the only one that has operationalized the response to the border. [I] deployed guardsmen to the border two different times under both Obama and President Trump as commanding general of the guard. If you want proof of Biden and Mark Kelly being for open borders, look no further than the executive order that was signed in by Biden on January 20th, 2021. When I came in on the morning of the 21st, as commanding general, I had a notice that they were gonna zero out the funding for 1,030 guardsmen.

We had paychecks for 1,030 national guardsmen, fully federally funded. Those were being zeroed out and those soldiers would be recalled. What would I do with the 51st vote in the U.S. Senate? Under the reconciliation project for the budget, I would demand wide item funding for at least $6 billion to come down here to Arizona to build and complete all the wall, and finish all of the construction projects that Mr. Biden told my engineering group we could no longer assist any engineering activities with the civilian contractors that were working that under Trump. Turn on and power up all the camera systems that are literally built out there, but have no power to them. Reactivate the helicopter’s surveillance helicopters specifically they were OH-58. We could use any variety of surveillance helicopters that Obama parked in 2014 and then ultimately reactivate those 1,030 guardsmen. And recall Mayorkas. Andy Biggs here in this state has proposed articles of impeachment against Mayorkas.

The Senate has the ability after the filibuster rule, as you know when they changed the rule on confirmations to just get to 51 and I think 1876 was the last time a cabinet secretary was impeached. But Mayorkas has clearly derelict his duty by telling Customs and Border Protection, immigration services, and ICE that they cannot request mutual aid. That matters, because as a guy who worked with the first responders being the primary combat reserve for the United States Air Force and the United States Army and also having the only part of the Department of Defense that could pivot and provide direct support to these great law enforcement entities in a supporting capacity. When you tell them they can’t request mutual aid, that’s a dereliction of duty. That’s like telling one jurisdictional Sheriff’s office that if they’re overwhelmed, they cannot request mutual aid from an adjoining jurisdiction. Every city county, state, and federal law enforcement entity, and first response entity has mutual aid agreements signed. And Mayorkas doing that the first day is really, really derelict. 

It’d be like me deploying soldiers during my tenures as commanding general to Afghanistan, Iraq, you know, Somalia, wherever it might be and telling them they can’t have any sustainment logistics, operation communication, or aviation support.

CA: As someone who did serve in the military a big question is how to better improve lives for veterans once they get out of active duty. How do you think the federal government can better serve veterans?

MM: Well, Cameron, I think we gotta first talk about those that are serving before we talk about veterans. I’m saying plagiarism is the highest form of flattery. Everybody will copy whatever I put out. You can look at this race. But here’s what way I see the radical left right now in this race. And what’s happening in this nation in 2018, it was about abolishing ICE, in 2020, it was about defunding police. In 2022, the narrative has pivoted to compulsory obedience. While I am very concerned about the services we provide our veterans, the fact that we are literally housing people here that have crossed it legally in hotels in Scottsdale, and we have my brothers and sisters in arms living under bridges while it’s 112 degrees outside in Phoenix. My biggest concern about compulsory obedience is this: I think their number the other day was they’re six percent under strength for manpower.

They’re considering walking 40,000 fully qualified service members out the door because they refused to get a COVID-19 shot. Now, in my tenure as commanding general, I walked out not one person from uniform for not getting a flu shot. Every year, soldiers, airmen, sailors, Marines get their flu shot. We never had 100 percent compliance. People deployed. They’re gone, whatever it might be. We kicked out zero people. Why is compulsory obedience so chilling? Well, the military in this country is predicated on morale and a shared sense of values. Valor, courage, integrity, honor, respect, discipline. It is not based on compulsory obedience.

It doesn’t mean we don’t follow orders. It doesn’t mean we aren’t respectful, but there’s a mild difference between those two things and to look at my brothers and sisters in arms and talk to them right now as a candidate and a retired general officer and hear what they’re feeling. You asked in the beginning, why I’m the only candidate because I’m the only candidate that can beat Mark Kelly, and, truthfully, Mark Kelly’s owned by the left, and who you’re gonna put on the other side of the dais in the U.S. Senate that can take on the Department of Defense and the bureaucrats that have injected this bureaucracy of wokeism into the military.

CA: My last question for you pertains to the economy. A contributor to inflation was the large spending in the American Rescue plan and the infrastructure bill, which did get some bipartisan support. If you were in the Senate at that time, would you have voted in support of that infrastructure bill and what will your mindset be in terms of government spending?

MM: I would not have voted for the original $1.9 trillion. Remember, Biden’s first bill was $1.9 trillion after we had already printed $4 trillion. I mentioned I retired as commanding general of the guard, and I was also the state emergency manager. I had watched with what the $4 trillion that had been spent over just about 20 months during COVID and the lead-up to that. And $1.9 trillion–All that did was flood the market with dollars with very limited, the same amount of resources. At the same time, we were cutting off oil.

Then we had a subsequent infrastructure package. Again, think about it. Mark Kelly voted on a federal infrastructure package that I would’ve voted against. The only enumerated infrastructure I can point to in the U.S. Constitution is the requirement for the federal government to provide for the security and sovereignty of the United States. That wasn’t one dime in that infrastructure package for a border wall, cameras, surveillance equipment, or helicopters. So no, there would be no way being voting for that. So, you add that $1.9 trillion-plus the infrastructure spending, and you’re seeing what you see today. 10% inflation. The number one issue a week from Tuesday, when I win this primary for primary voters, is gonna be border security. But on November 8th, when I defeat Mark Kelly, the number one thing people are gonna be voting on is the cost of living. The threat is real. I’m out six days a week from 6:00 a.m. to midnight. [I’ve] done 57,000 miles in this state. No one has a better pulse of what Arizonans are thinking.

I’ve had no less than half a dozen elder female Republican voters say “We will not be able to make ends meet with the cost of fuel, pharmaceuticals, food, and utilities,” come November, no matter what inflation adjustment they make on their fixed income. I can tell you what we are not gonna be evicting 75-year-old women in the middle of September when it’s 110 degrees outside here in Arizona. So we as a country have gotta figure out how to build a system where those that have social security and fixed income are able to make ends meet and the full faith and credit of the government is there for all that they’ve put into it. We have got to unleash the innovative capital to this country and get the environmental extremists out of the way. If we don’t have full access to land, oil, minerals, timber, fisheries, agriculture, and freshwater, we’re never gonna win. If we give access to all that, this country wins in every race.