Transcript:

On its website, the Office of Director of National Intelligence asserts that the intelligence community focuses on, I quote, “the missions of cyber intelligence, counterterrorism, counterproliferation, counterintelligence, and on the threats posed by state and non-state actors challenging U.S. national security and interest world wide,” unquote. That’s a concise, accurate description of the intelligence community’s mission. The IC is a sprawling group of agencies comprising tens of thousands of people that collectively wield enormous power within our government. They possess extremely sophisticated spying capabilities, and by necessity, they operate without transparency that is required of most government agencies. Naturally, this concentration of power, spying capabilities, and lack of transparency creates many opportunities for abuse. And abuses do happen, which is why this committee exists, we were created as an additional level of oversight in response to a raft of intelligence community misdeeds, detailed by the Church and Pike Committees in the 1970s. So, why do we tolerate such an agreement in a democratic republic? I believe that the American people understand the risks but they believe the risks are outweighed by the benefits the intelligence community provides, mainly information about our foreign enemies, intentions, and capabilities that will help protect the American people and defend the security of the homeland. In short, the intelligence community’s mission is to secure information and conduct actions that help deter our enemies, when that cannot be done, to help us win wars and other direct conflicts with these enemies. The IC however, seems to be increasingly focused on issues that distract from that mission, the indications ranging from trivial recruitment videos to major intelligence estimates show that an infatuation with left-wing dogma and politicized actions that have nothing to do with deterring our enemies and winning wars. We see this tendency not just in the intelligence community, but throughout the entire national security apparatus, and the military, the State Department and other bodies.

These include the proliferation of seminars given to military service members focusing on the dangers of white supremacy and systemic racism, Fox News host Tucker Carlson allegedly being caught up in NSA surveillance, the Intelligence Committees recent release of the national intelligence estimate on global warming, General Milley defending instruction on critical race theory and white rage at West Point, State Department communications touting international pronoun day, the NSA’s improper suspension of former NSA general counsel a naval officer Michael Ellis for political reasons, the FBI is provision of false information to a FISA court to spy on their political enemies, and the list goes on and on.

Meanwhile, the international threat matrix does not take time out as our national security agencies become enthralled by critical race theory and pronoun etiquette. To the contrary, we’re facing an array of pressing challenges, including but not limited to China’s increasing aggressiveness towards Taiwan alongside its systemic campaign of intellectual property theft, espionage, currency manipulation, corporate corrosion, and cyber crimes against the United States and our allies. China’s testing of hypersonic missile which, according to press reports, took the intelligence community by surprise. The continuing fallout from our withdrawal from Afghanistan, including the empowerment of the Taliban, and their longtime ties to al Qaeda. The decline in U.S. deterrence capabilities, the loss of intelligence streams, and U.S. citizens and allies who were left behind. The spread of ransomware attacks on U.S. targets, an unknown number of security threats entering America through our southern border and from refugees from Afghanistan. Continuing Russian aggression towards its neighbors. Advances in nuclear weapons programs of North Korea, Iran and other malign regimes. And I could go on with that list, but those are at the top of the list.

Unfortunately, we can’t counter hypersonic missile launch with better pronoun usage. And a deeper understanding of white rage won’t rescue Americans stranded in Afghanistan. I’d argue that woke obsessions are the proper jurisdiction of faculty lounge Marxists, not our national security agencies. The politicization of our national security apparatus is utterly destructive. It has severely eroded trust and institutions that have long received bipartisan support. This effect is predictable and inevitable, as more Americans conclude that intelligence agencies are just another weapon in domestic political battles, the less willing they are to concede these agencies, the huge power that they will. The intelligence community, the military, and other national security bodies have traditionally been colorblind meritocracies, where the most capable people move up rapidly through the ranks. The effectiveness of these organizations will unavoidably suffer when merit is devalued in favor of any other consideration. I urge all the directors here today to stay out of politics and concentrate exclusively on deterring our enemies and winning wars. As we learned in Afghanistan, America is not unbeatable. We have real enemies, and they mean to do us harm. They have no interest in global warming, or race-gender intersectionality. They closely watch us every day to find weaknesses that would enable attacks on our citizens and our homeland. Our defense against them rests to a large extent on all of you that are here today. I hope your priorities will match the urgency of this fraught moment in our nation’s history. With that I look forward to your testimony, I yield back the balance of my time.