Bush Homeland Security secretary hospitalized

Former Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge (R) underwent an emergency heart operation on Thursday, a spokesperson told The Associated Press. 

Ridge, the 72-year-old former Republican governor of Pennsylvania, reportedly called for medical attention from his hotel room on Thursday morning, where he was staying for the annual Republican Governor’s Association conference in Austin, Texas. 

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The governor was rushed to a medical center at the nearby University of Texas medical center in Austin, where doctors performed a cardiac catheterization that left him in critical condition, spokesman Steve Aaron told the AP. 

Ridge, a U.S. Army Veteran who served in Vietnam, left his Pennsylvania office to join the Bush administration as the nation’s first secretary for the newly-created Department of Homeland Security after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. 

On Friday, Ridge spoke out against President Trump’s proposed border wall with Mexico, saying there is “no need” for a wall along the Southern border and that there are other ways to step up security with our neighbor.