Richardson also said it directly to President Roosevelt, around this time in 1940. A few weeks later, White House leaks suggested Richardson will be replaced.
But if you look carefully at the sequence of events leading up to Richardson's firing, one thing that stands out is Richardson's later announcement that he intended to put Pearl Harbor on a war-defensive footing.
His intention was to put the entire fleet on a war-defensive footing not just the ships at Pearl Harbor. Pearl Harbor is the center of the fleet so it of course becomes the central element of this order. It would curtail the training and put the entire fleet on a more defensive footing. This would also include the Asiatic Fleet which was the small force based in the Philippines and any forces on the West Coast.
A key point to this though in the sequence of things is a shift brought on by events in November. It made the entire naval staff and the Joint Board for that matter take a second look at their current war planning (You think Richardson hates War Plan Orange now, wait a month). As things stand right now, there is no reason to think the Pearl is not completely secure.