Florida representative on drone sightings in New Jersey, leaders reaching out to President-Elect Trump, and more

(CBS, KYMA/KECY) - Represenatative Mike Waltz (R-Fla.) spoke to Margaret Brennan on Face the Nation Sunday about drone sightings across New Jersey.

When asked if the public should be concerned about the reported drone sightings "all over the East Coast," Waltz said:

"I think what the drone issue points out are kind of gaps in our agencies, gaps in our authorities between the Department of Homeland Security, local law enforcement, the Defense Department. And I think Americans are finding it hard to believe we can't figure out where these are coming from. And I can tell you, from the Defense Department standpoint, you know, they're focused on bombers and cruise missiles, and it's pointing to gaps in our capabilities and in our ability to clamp down on what's going on here. And we need to get to the bottom of it, and I think the Biden administration is working to do that."

During the interview, Brennan and Waltz talked about President-Elect Donald Trump's call with Chinese President Xi Jinping, with Brennan asking if the two leaders "intend to speak by phone," to which Waltz said, "President Trump is taking all calls, as you know. He believes in having a relationship with allies and adversaries at that kind of head of state level. And those conversations are ongoing, but they are, really, nothing beyond congratulatory and niceties."

Brennan followed up by asking Waltz's plan for the consequences to be for China because of the "massive and pervasive hack of eight U.S. telecom companies, which has breached the metadata of potentially millions of Americans," which Senator Marco Rubio said was "egregious, dangerous, and a vulnerability that no one anticipated."

"I think Senator Rubio, and hopefully future Secretary of State Rubio, is absolutely right. We are...we have been, over the years, trying to play better and better defense when it comes to cyber. We need to start going on offense and start imposing, I think, higher costs and consequences to private actors and nation state actors that continue to steal our data, that continue to spy on us, and that even worse, with the Volt Typhoon penetration, that are literally putting cyber time bombs on our infrastructure, our water systems, our grids, even our ports.That is wholly unacceptable, and I think we need to take a much stronger stance. Senator Rubio is right. President Trump has indicated that as well. We need to start changing behaviors on the other side, rather than just constantly having this kind of escalation of their offense and our defense. The Colonial Pipeline hack was another key point. And then finally, we've got a tremendous private sector with a lot of capability. That relationship between public and private, with our tech industry, they could be doing a lot of good and helping...us defend, but also making our adversaries vulnerable."

Rep. Mike Waltz (R-Fla.)

Later in the interview, Brennan and Waltz talked about Prime Minister of Hungary Viktor Orbán.

"Orbán has regular engagement with the Russians, and he clearly has a good relationship with President Trump, and I would hope the entire world would want to see some type of cessation to the slaughter that is happening in eastern Ukraine," Waltz expressed. "I mean...people need to understand [that] this is a World War I style warfare. It is a meat grinder of human beings. President Trump's been very concerned about the carnage that's ongoing. And where is this all going? We need to stop the fighting. And, you know, look, if that is some type of ceasefire as a first step, again, we'll take a hard look at what that means. But until January 20, we are also in coordination with this current administration."

Brennan and Waltz then talked about Trump's plans to defend Ukraine, with Brennan asking if he plans to "limit how Ukraine can use U.S. weapons or targeting assistance" when he takes office, to which Waltz said:

"President Trump just said in the interview that, you know, a blank check, in his interview with Time magazine, I believe, you know, a blank check isn't, you know, just isn't a strategy. This just, kind of, forever war that we seem to be backing into. What does success look like in line with our interests? How do we end the war? Who's at the table? How do we drive, you know, all sides to the table, and what's the framework for an agreement? Those are things that we're thinking through with his fantastic team that he's assembling."

Brennan then asked Waltz about if the president-elect intends to keep the 900 U.S. troops there, with Waltz answering:

"Our number one interest is keeping a lid on ISIS. We cannot have an explosion of ISIS back into a caliphate that threatens Iraq, threatens Jordan, threatens Turkey and Europe, inspires attacks in the United States, like we saw in 2014. President Trump cleaned it up then with his team. 1000s of ISIS fighters are in prison camps. We're in consultation with the Israelis as well. They're importantly taking down Assad's chemical stockpiles, as well as other things we don't want falling into the hands of anybody. And you know, the other piece there that he asked for in the first term, and that we need to see is, again, Europe, who was hit so badly by ISIS attacks, taking a greater role in keeping ISIS contained. So those are all conversations that we're having, again, in consultation with the current administration, and we'll see moving forward."

To watch more of Brennan's interview with Waltz, click here.