Speaker | Time | Text |
---|---|---|
unidentified
|
Gentleman yields. | |
Gentleman from Pennsylvania, Mr. Fitzpatrick. | ||
Thank you, Chairman Crawford. | ||
Thank you to all of our witnesses for being here. | ||
I look forward to working with each and every one of you to keep our country and our planet safe. | ||
I wanted to carry on on the topic of Section 702 reauthorization. | ||
Representative LaHood and I did a lot of work on this over the past two years. | ||
As you all know, last Congress, this committee worked in a bipartisan manner to advance the reauthorization of what... | ||
Most of us, if not all, deemed to be our country's single and most important national security tool. | ||
The result was what was titled the Reforming Intelligence and Securing America Act, which not only reauthorized Section 702, but equally important and provided necessary reforms to our intelligence community in an effort to address past abuses. | ||
This was the largest single reform of the FBI and the IC in a generation. | ||
Making sure that there are appropriate compliance guardrails that enhance accountability while still protecting the critical tools necessary for our nation's security. | ||
Just to name a few, in 2009, Section 702 protected our nation from an attack by an Al-Qaeda member who intended to detonate explosives in the Manhattan subway lines. | ||
In 2014, Section 702 helped prevent attacks by assisting in the removal of ISIS leader, Hygie Ahmad. | ||
702 is important, but we're trying to get a lot done today in a limited amount of time. | ||
The Democrats are going to come back right there. | ||
Congressman Castro called Ratcliffe, the head of the CIA, and Tulsi Gabbard liars to their face about their testimony. | ||
So there will be much more of this later. | ||
I want to go. | ||
Our crack team was able to cut Congressman Comer of Kentucky in a full lighten-up PBS. | ||
I want to go ahead and play this in its entirety. | ||
Let's go ahead and play it for the audience. | ||
Madam Chair. | ||
Mr. Ullman, I'm glad you brought up a point that's been mentioned a couple of times already at the early start of this hearing about rural and remote. | ||
And I have to tell this story. | ||
When I graduated from college with a degree in agriculture, I went back to rural Monroe County, Kentucky, and worked on a farm, my farm, for five years, full-time. | ||
To this day, but full-time, I was in a tractor sometimes 10, 12, 14 hours a day. | ||
And I listened to the radio, and the only radio station I could get that had news was public radio. | ||
So I listened to as many hours of public radio as anyone on this panel, I can assure you. | ||
And it was a great service. | ||
That was 30-some years ago. | ||
Today... In that same remote area, I mean, you've got SiriusXM, you've got podcasts, there's internet access now, there's a whole menu of media options now. | ||
But over time, and I still occasionally listen to NPR because I just want to hear what they have to say, and I don't even recognize the station anymore. | ||
It's not... | ||
I feel like it's propaganda. | ||
I feel like there's disinformation every time I listen to NPR. | ||
And a media entity like MSNBC or Huffington Post that, in my opinion, consistently spews disinformation, they can do that. | ||
They're a private company. | ||
But NPR gets federal funds. | ||
And I have a problem with that. | ||
Because if people in Alaska... | ||
If all they have is public radio, then all they know is what these headlines say. | ||
And they're wrong about COVID-19. | ||
And the headlines in the background don't have time to go over all these headlines that are wrong. | ||
About Russian collusion, wrong. | ||
Wrong. About the Hunter Biden laptop, wrong. | ||
And then there's a story about me. | ||
And part of what we went through on this committee during the Biden investigation, which... | ||
By the way, ended with Joe Biden's last act as President of the United States, pardoned his entire family preemptively for an 11-year period, which just so happened to be the 11-year period that this committee investigated the Bidens, that we had subpoenaed bank records. | ||
I don't think NPR reported about the pardons, but they reported a lot about how there was no evidence of any wrongdoing and things that just weren't true. | ||
In fact... | ||
There's a story NPR, lawmaker leading Hunter Biden House investigation, accused of owning a shell company. | ||
Well, that's me. | ||
Ms. Mayer, are you familiar with that story that NPR wrote about me at the height of the Biden investigation when you all were disputing every aspect of our investigation that is 100% factual we have? | ||
Hundreds of pages of evidence, hundreds of pages of bank records, hundreds of pages of emails. | ||
Do you remember the story that NPR wrote about me saying I had a shell company? | ||
unidentified
|
Congressman, I was not at NPR at the time, and I'm unfamiliar with the story. | |
Where do you get your sources on something like that? | ||
That's a very serious accusation because we're investigating a president and his family who had 28 shell companies. | ||
I have an LLC, had five properties in it. | ||
It's in my financial disclosure form. | ||
I've gone into great detail given lots of interviews, but people that listen to NPR, they're totally disinformed on the truth. | ||
And, you know, I have a problem with that because you get federal funds. | ||
And I do believe there was a role for public radio 30 years ago, maybe 20 years ago, maybe five years ago. | ||
But because of technology today, I don't think there's a role for public. | ||
And I think you've abused the privilege that you had with receiving federal funds. | ||
Because these headlines here are not true. | ||
This is disinformation on some huge topics. | ||
Do you want to dispute anything that I said in the remaining 30 seconds? | ||
unidentified
|
Thank you, Congressman. | |
First of all, I want to recognize your concerns. | ||
One of the first things that I did in coming in in May was to beef up our editorial standards. | ||
I directed my editor-in-chief, who, by the way... | ||
Comer nailed him right there. | ||
Let's go to the House Intel right now. | ||
unidentified
|
Back. Information shall be classified if its unauthorized disclosure could reasonably be expected to cause describable damage to national security. | |
This includes military plans. | ||
Weapon systems or operations. | ||
You don't disagree that I quoted that accurately, right? | ||
That's also an accurate quote. | ||
Can I show you the, I'd like to show you the text that Secretary Hegseth actually published to the world. | ||
Now, Lieutenant General Cruz, as Ranking Member Himes said, it says, time now, weather is favorable. | ||
Just confirmed with CENTCOM we are a go for mission launch. | ||
Then it says at 1215 Eastern, F-18s launch first strike package. | ||
F-18s are military systems, correct? | ||
Weapon systems. | ||
They are. | ||
Okay. 1345, trigger-based F-18 first strike window starts. | ||
Target terrorist is at his known location, so should be on time. | ||
Also, strike drones launch MQ-9s. | ||
MQ-9s is a weapon system, correct? | ||
They are. | ||
Okay. I think... | ||
Applying the executive order as well as the DOD manual to this fact pattern, we clearly have weapon systems that have been identified. | ||
That is classified information. | ||
Now, the reason why it's important that this information not be disclosed is that we don't want the adversaries to know what's about to happen. | ||
Right, sir? | ||
Well, I would draw a... | ||
Small distinction there. | ||
You referenced and asked if that platform, those two platforms, are weapons systems. | ||
They are, but those terms are used all across the globe in a lot of contexts. | ||
So it's really about how they're used in the context of this particular document. | ||
I just want to clarify that the use of those... | ||
I understand. | ||
In this situation, those are operational details. | ||
They are operational details, but again, as you quoted the DOD instruction, it's about operations. | ||
So as you further go down into what are the operational details, I think as we had a discussion yesterday, the important aspect, I think all of us are very familiar. | ||
This is classified information. | ||
This is classified information. | ||
It's a weapon system, as well as sequence of strikes, as well as details about the operations. | ||
And so I think that just... | ||
Piggybacking off of what some other members have said, using the DOD's manual, as well as the executive order in operation today with the Trump administration, this text message is clearly classified information. | ||
Secretary Hegseth has disclosed military plans as well as classified information. | ||
He needs to resign immediately. | ||
He needs to resign immediately, and a full investigation needs to be undertaken with regard to... | ||
I'd like to turn my attention to another topic. | ||
Director Patel, according to the DOJ, in 2022, the FBI-led Joint Terrorism Task Force, JTTF, in my hometown of Chicago valiantly led efforts to prevent a plot to attack Naval Station Great Lakes in Illinois. | ||
You don't dispute that, do you, sir? | ||
I'm not familiar with it, but I don't dispute what you're telling me. | ||
unidentified
|
Thank you. | |
A memo obtained by ABC7 News of Chicago said that this task force will now be, quote, actively supporting, close, quote, the Department of Homeland Security and its immigration enforcement. | ||
You don't dispute that either, do you? | ||
I'm just not familiar with it, sir. | ||
unidentified
|
Okay. Sir, I just have to say, the DOJ has now tasked JTTFs to shift some resources to immigration enforcement efforts. | |
I don't say this lightly. | ||
If there's a terrorist attack anywhere in the country, including in Chicago, and it was because the JTTFs in part shifted resources, they'll be held to pay. | ||
Thank you, sir. | ||
Gentleman's time has expired. | ||
Gentleman from Georgia, Mr. Scott. | ||
unidentified
|
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. | |
Director Gabbard, was the target terrorist named in the text, or was it simply referred to as target terrorist? | ||
The target was not named. | ||
unidentified
|
Thank you. | |
Was the location named? | ||
Congressman, no. | ||
No locations were named. | ||
unidentified
|
Thank you. | |
Director Patel, there was a specific accusation made about how close we are working with Mexico currently. | ||
My understanding, and I want to congratulate you on this, and I think it shows a shift of focus at the FBI since you've taken over to what it should have been doing all along, which is chasing the ten most wanted that are threatening our country. | ||
My understanding is that two of the three were actually arrested in Mexico and are being extradited back to the United States. | ||
Is that correct? | ||
Yes, sir. | ||
We have been working. | ||
One of the first meetings I took as FBI director was my counterpart, Secretary Farouk, in Mexico. | ||
And subsequent to that, we have extradited or expelled from Mexico two top ten of the FBI's most wanted list and 33 other criminals. | ||
unidentified
|
Well, it sounds to me like we're working closer with them today than we have in the last several years, and that the focus of the FBI has shifted to actually protecting American citizens instead of arresting pro-life protesters. | |
There's Kash Patel. | ||
So we're trying to juggle two things today. | ||
Right there, you saw the Democratic representative from Illinois call for the immediate firing of Pete Hexeth, that Pete Hexeth would not... | ||
Resign as Secretary of Defense. | ||
Well, that's not going to happen. | ||
So it's going to be more fireworks. | ||
We're going to take a short commercial break. | ||
I want to thank Real America's Voice for letting us go for an hour and 15 minutes commercial free. | ||
I also want to thank our sponsors, particularly Birch Gold. | ||
Take your phone out now and text ABANDON at 989898 to get the ultimate guide to investing in gold and precious metals in the era of Trump. | ||
And folks, trust me, it's going to get a little turbulent. | ||
Federal courts are jumping into this situation on these text messages. | ||
The results of all this are a bunch of dead bad guys in the southern tip of the Arabian Peninsula. | ||
But, of course, the Democrats are going to make a firestorm out of all of it. | ||
Tulsi Gabbard is tripling down. | ||
Ratcliffe is doubling down. | ||
The administration, I think, looks like they're finally going to the mattresses on this and daring the House intelligence, Senate intelligence. | ||
To do something about it. | ||
Only thing that's an issue right now is Wobbly Rhino Republicans. | ||
Short commercial break. | ||
Back to the House Intelligence and MTG's Doge hearing on PBS. | ||
in a moment. | ||
unidentified
|
In America's heart. | |
Thank you. | ||
First minute, is we put out cybersecurity advisories on a whole host of systems. | ||
On the Signal app that was included in that advisory, right? | ||
What we've done is we've put out an advisory on how to use the Signal app and other encrypted applications because we do encourage our employees and their families to use encrypted applications. | ||
Because there's risk to that app? | ||
There are. | ||
Okay. General Cruz, DOD... | ||
Also issued a warning about vulnerabilities to the Signal app recently, correct? | ||
That's correct. | ||
Director Gabbard, you were on the Signal text chain in question, correct? | ||
Yes. As was Mr. Witkoff, the administration's lead negotiator with the Russians, correct? | ||
Yes. And at the time, Mr. Witkoff was actually in Russia during this chat discussion, was he not? | ||
I was not aware of that. | ||
unidentified
|
Was he on his personal phone at the time? | |
I don't know. | ||
unidentified
|
Well, it's my understanding that he was indeed in Russia. | |
Director Gabbert, you were also traveling during this discussion, correct? | ||
Yes. And where were you? | ||
I was traveling through the Asia-Pacific region. | ||
I don't recall which country I was in at that time. | ||
unidentified
|
You don't remember the country? | |
I'd have to go back and look at the schedule. | ||
unidentified
|
Director Gabbard, I want to direct your attention again to the text chain where it says, just confirmed with CENTCOM, we are a go for mission launch. | |
Does that indicate to you that there is about to be a military operation? | ||
Yes. Director Gabbard, earlier in this hearing... | ||
We heard about the DOD's classification standards. | ||
I want to now turn my attention to your classification standards. | ||
You're the Director of National Intelligence. | ||
The Office of the Director of National Intelligence Classification Guide says, quote, information providing indication or advance warning that the U.S. or its allies are preparing for an attack, end quote, is to be classified as top secret. | ||
Are you familiar with that? | ||
Yes. Director Gabbard, have the Houthis indicated an ability to shoot down American aircraft? | ||
Yes. They have in fact done so, haven't they? | ||
Yes. Including MQ-9 Reapers, haven't they? | ||
That's correct. | ||
unidentified
|
And that was one of the systems used in the attack recently that's the subject of this discussion, is it not? | |
Correct. General Cruz, are you familiar with this system? | ||
I'm not wearing my glasses at the moment, but... | ||
Well, I'll help you out. | ||
This is an SA-3 anti-aircraft system. | ||
Correct. Are you familiar with this next system? | ||
I am. | ||
What is it? | ||
Amen. | ||
I'm going to have to ask you that. | ||
It's an SA-6. | ||
I'm going to guess that... | ||
This is also an advanced anti-aircraft system, is it not? | ||
It was used widely in the Balkans in the 90s, correct? | ||
And the Houthis also have this system, don't they? | ||
They certainly do. | ||
And they've employed it against our aircraft, have they not? | ||
They have attempted to, correct. | ||
I spent my life in service to this country. | ||
I deployed three times to combat in service to this nation. | ||
I learned in that time in service that responsibility is core to leadership. | ||
You accept responsibility when things go wrong. | ||
You admit mistakes. | ||
You set the standard from the very top. | ||
It is completely outrageous to me. | ||
Completely outrageous to me that administration officials come before us today with impunity. | ||
No acceptance of responsibility. | ||
Excuse after excuse after excuse. | ||
Well, we send our men and women downrange to do incredibly difficult, incredibly dangerous things on our behalf. | ||
And yet, nobody is willing to come to us and say this was wrong. | ||
This was a breach of security and we won't do it again. | ||
It is outrageous and it is a leadership failure and that's why Secretary Hegseth, who undoubtedly transmitted classified, sensitive, operational Information via this chain must resign immediately. | ||
There can be no fixes. | ||
There can be no corrections until there is accountability. | ||
And I'm calling on the administration to move forward with accountability. | ||
I yield back. | ||
Gentleman yields. | ||
Gentleman from Texas, Mr. Crenshaw. | ||
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. | ||
Thank you all for being here. | ||
Good to see many of you again. | ||
Thank you for enduring two long days. | ||
I will note I always use fire emojis when I see terrorists getting killed. | ||
I want to talk about cartels. | ||
This is a subject that is near and dear to my heart. | ||
I've been investigating it thoroughly for the last couple of years. | ||
And I'm glad to see that it's mentioned in all of your opening statements. | ||
We're going to shift back to the dough-sharing. | ||
Crockett of Texas is up. | ||
Let's hear her. | ||
unidentified
|
Ms. Karger, what about you? | |
I agree. | ||
I think it's important for us to report on the important news of the day. | ||
So let's talk about the critical role of public media. | ||
During his first term, President Trump's own Department of Homeland Security highlighted the importance of public broadcasting's role in public safety. | ||
In 2018, his administration stated, quote, PBS and local public television stations play a crucial role in protecting communities by delivering essential information to individuals and first responders. | ||
These benefits are all made possible by public broadcasting stations. | ||
Reliability and role across America and are especially vital in rural and underserved areas. | ||
Madam Chairwoman, I would ask unanimous consent. | ||
I seek unanimous consent to enter into the record. | ||
Without objection, so ordered. | ||
unidentified
|
And Madam Chair, I also seek unanimous consent to enter into the record the 2019 report titled Modernizing the Nation's Public Alert and Warning System from Trump's... | |
Without objection, so ordered. | ||
unidentified
|
In the report, FEMA encouraged, quote, the use of public broadcast capabilities to expand alert, warning, and communication capabilities to fill gaps in rural and underserved areas. | |
Mr. Ullman. | ||
What's a more significant domestic threat reporting the murder of George Floyd or dismantling most of America's emergency communication systems? | ||
Can you please repeat the question for me, Congresswoman? | ||
Which one is more of a threat, reporting the murder of George Floyd or dismantling most of America's emergency communication systems? | ||
Dismantling the emergency systems. | ||
And isn't it true that in Barrow, Alaska, is the only... | ||
I'm sorry. | ||
And isn't it true that KBRWAM in Borough, Alaska is the only broadcast service available in an area of more than 90,000 square miles? | ||
unidentified
|
That is correct. | |
It's also the North Slope where the majority of all the oil production that comes from Alaska takes place. | ||
Thank you so much. | ||
And isn't it true that without these stations broadcast... | ||
Americans in rural communities would lack access to life-saving information and public safety alerts. | ||
That is correct. | ||
So in your opinion, would eliminating funding for stations in rural America like WNGH, Channel 18, and the Chairwoman's District hurt Americans? | ||
It would hurt Americans, yes. | ||
In fact, Georgia Public Broadcasting serves as the official distributor of evacuation route information during state-ordered evacuations. | ||
And the chairwoman is here advocating to strip their funding. | ||
Look, the Doge agenda isn't about government efficiency. | ||
It's about breeding corruption at the expense of the safety of the American people, particularly Americans living in rural or remote parts of the country. | ||
They don't care about public safety. | ||
They don't care about emergency management. | ||
and they don't care about free speech, all of which are harming American people. | ||
In fact, I'm going to skip off real quick because they have tried to come for you, Ms. | ||
Mayor, and I just want to clarify, you did not work for NPR when those statements were made, That is correct, Madam Chair. | ||
Free speech is not about whatever it is that y'all want somebody to say. | ||
And the idea that you want to shut down everybody that is not Fox News is bullshit. | ||
We need to stop playing because that's what y'all are doing in here. | ||
You don't want to hear the opinions of anybody else. | ||
And the Constitution states Congress shall make no law respecting or establishing of religion or prohibiting the free exercise thereof or abridging. | ||
The gentlewoman's time has expired. | ||
The gentlewoman's time has expired. | ||
unidentified
|
Madam Chairwoman, can I put something into the record? | |
You may miss consent, please. | ||
Without objection, so ordered. | ||
unidentified
|
Thank you. | |
I'd like to... | ||
Put under this NPR article, what Biden preemptive pardons for family members could mean for presidential powers. | ||
Without objection, so ordered. | ||
I now recognize the gentleman from Ohio, Jim Jordan, for five minutes. | ||
Thank you, Madam Chair. | ||
Ms. Maher, who is Uri Berliner? | ||
unidentified
|
Mr. Berliner is a former senior editor. | |
That's all? | ||
unidentified
|
A former senior business editor for NPR. | |
How long do you work at NPR? | ||
unidentified
|
I believe he was there just over 25 years. | |
25 years? | ||
Award-winning journalist? | ||
unidentified
|
Did he win any awards? | |
Peabody Award? | ||
That's pretty important, isn't it? | ||
unidentified
|
That is, absolutely. | |
So pretty distinguished journalist, right? | ||
Certainly. And he wrote a long story about what you do at NPR. | ||
Is NPR biased? | ||
unidentified
|
Congressman, I have never seen any instance of political bias determining editorial decisions, no. | |
Well, Mr. Berliner, in his story last year, wrote, In the D.C. area, editorial positions at NPR, he said he found 87 registered Democrats, zero Republicans. | ||
Is that accurate? | ||
unidentified
|
We do not track the numbers or the voter registration, but I find that... | |
Was award-winning journalist who worked 25 years at NPR, Mr. Berliner, was he lying when he wrote that? | ||
unidentified
|
I am not presuming such. | |
I just don't have... | ||
We don't track that information about our journalists. | ||
87 to zero? | ||
And you're not biased? | ||
unidentified
|
I think that is concerning if those numbers are accurate. | |
It's concerning. | ||
I mean, it wasn't 44-43. | ||
It wasn't 60-27. | ||
It wasn't 70-17. | ||
It wasn't even 80-7. | ||
It was 87 Democrats, zero Republicans. | ||
And you say NPR is not biased. | ||
How about the big stories over the last few years? | ||
According to Mr. Berliner, again, he wrote... | ||
On the Trump-Russia story, he wrote, At NPR, we hitched our wagon to Trump's most visible antagonist, Representative Adam Schiff. | ||
He said they interviewed him 25 times. | ||
Is that accurate? | ||
unidentified
|
I was not there at the time, but those numbers sound accurate. | |
Those sound accurate. | ||
But then he said when the Mueller report came out, and they said, Mueller said, Robert Mueller said he found no evidence of collusion. | ||
He said, Russiagate faded from our programming. | ||
Is that accurate? | ||
unidentified
|
Again, I was not there at the time. | |
I couldn't say. | ||
You couldn't say? | ||
unidentified
|
I was not at NPR at the time. | |
You didn't prepare for that? | ||
You knew we were going to ask you about this guy, didn't you? | ||
It's come up like 6,000 times already in the hearing. | ||
unidentified
|
I just couldn't say whether it faded from our coverage. | |
How about this story? | ||
October 2020, the New York Post had the Hunter Biden laptop story, and one of those editors, I guess one of those 87 Democrat editors... | ||
Said this, we don't want to waste our time on stories that are not really stories. | ||
We don't want to waste the listeners' and readers' time on stories that are just pure distractions. | ||
Was that a pure distraction story? | ||
unidentified
|
Our current editorial leadership believes that that was a mistake, as do I. Yeah, the whole country knows that was a mistake. | |
Definitely impacted the election, or I think it certainly impacted the election. | ||
How about the COVID origin story? | ||
That's a pretty big story too, right? | ||
Mr. Berliner said, we became fervent members of the team Natural Origin, even declaring that the lab leak was debunked by scientists. | ||
Turns out, though, the lab leak is what most people think actually caused the COVID virus. | ||
unidentified
|
Sorry, sir. | |
Is there a question there? | ||
There is. | ||
You guys were 0 for 3. On the three of the biggest stories in the last five years, you guys were 0 for 3, and yet you maintain that NPR is not biased? | ||
unidentified
|
Congressman, I do not believe we are politically biased. | |
No, we are a nonpartisan organization. | ||
Nonpartisan organization. | ||
What's happened to your listeners over the last five years? | ||
Went up, down, or stayed the same? | ||
unidentified
|
It has gone up and down and is now going back up. | |
Well, I thought five years ago it was at $60 million. | ||
And you said in your opening statement, I think, $43 million. | ||
unidentified
|
That's correct. | |
So $43 million now and it was at $60 million five years ago. | ||
I can do some math. | ||
That looks like it went down. | ||
unidentified
|
And is now going back up. | |
Is now going back up? | ||
unidentified
|
Yes, it is. | |
How much has it went back up? | ||
unidentified
|
It's gone up a couple of millions over the past years. | |
Oh, so you went from $60 million to $41 million. | ||
Now you're back up to $43 million. | ||
unidentified
|
In a year's time, I'm very proud of that growth, sir. | |
Okay, you're proud of that growth. | ||
Okay. But over five years, it's went down $18 million. | ||
unidentified
|
That is correct, sir. | |
Okay. Should taxpayers subsidize NPR? | ||
unidentified
|
I believe that taxpayers... | |
Subsidize local stations, sir. | ||
That is the vast majority. | ||
I thought you said you got $11 million from Corporation of Public Broadcasting, which is taxpayer funding, directly to you, right? | ||
unidentified
|
That is to support the public. | |
And then local stations get it from the Corporation of Public Broadcasting, right? | ||
They get taxpayer money. | ||
unidentified
|
$100 million that goes to the local stations. | |
$100 million goes to local stations. | ||
And then those local stations buy back programming content from you. | ||
So that money goes to local stations, comes back to you. | ||
It gets routed through the local station. | ||
It's all taxpayer money. | ||
unidentified
|
Those fees are actually based on private donations rather than on federal funding. | |
Well, we all know money is fungible, so some of it gets put in there. | ||
unidentified
|
Certainly. We could agree that money is fungible. | |
More money for less listeners. | ||
You fired the guy who pointed all this out, who said that you were so biased to the left that you lost listeners, which is exactly happening, and you're here maintaining that, oh, you need to continue to get taxpayer money. | ||
unidentified
|
I did not fire Mr. Berliner, sir. | |
Okay, the guy that left after all that. | ||
Understand, understand. | ||
Are you fundraising off today's hearing? | ||
unidentified
|
Sir, I believe that there was a message that went out earlier today letting people know we were coming in. | |
Yes. Yeah, and at the bottom of the message it said, donate now, right? | ||
unidentified
|
I don't recall the exact language. | |
I can show it to you. | ||
Right there it is. | ||
Donate now. | ||
I mean, I'm not against fundraising. | ||
We all do it. | ||
I mean, I get it. | ||
But I assume this fundraising is probably going to all the left listeners who are subsidized content by the taxpayers, and that's the rub. | ||
The gentleman's time has expired. | ||
That's the rub. | ||
I now recognize Ms. Randall from Washington for five minutes. | ||
unidentified
|
Thank you so much. | |
I'm new to Congress. | ||
This is my first term, and I came from a legislative body that... | ||
Okay, I'm bored already, lady. | ||
In these hearings, you've got to cut to the chase. | ||
Don't give me your backstory. | ||
We're going to go back to Intel in a second. | ||
I want to make sure we highlight something for the audience. | ||
This audience was name-checked. | ||
By the ranking member. | ||
The ranking member is always the senior member of the minority. | ||
This would be the Democrats. | ||
Congressman Himes of Connecticut. | ||
And he is a player in Democratic circles, and particularly Intel. | ||
He name-checked this audience at the beginning because they fear the Warren Posse. | ||
They understand the Warren Posse can put their shoulder to the wheel and make things happen. | ||
I want to make sure you get the Bill Blaster app. | ||
You get Article 3. There's a lot going on today. | ||
One thing is very evident. | ||
I'm going to go back to the intelligence in a minute. | ||
That's very evident today. | ||
They are targeting Pete Hegseth. | ||
They are targeting the Secretary of Defense. | ||
The Democrats have made a decision. | ||
It's not Waltz that's the target. | ||
They want to go after, because they understand how hard it is to get confirmed. | ||
They're going after Pete Hegseth. | ||
It's quite evident by Castro's Questions, by other questions that are being asked, by what they're putting up on the charts of the text messages. | ||
They're very much focused on Pete Hexeth, what he said, and I think three of them have already called for either Secretary of Defense Hexeth's resignation or to be fired. | ||
The Armed Services Committee of the Senate, which is chaired by Republicans, is talking about Wicker. | ||
In his ranking member, Jack Reed, who was on Intelligence yesterday, Jack Reed is no friend of the administration. | ||
They're talking about having an investigation, and here he's quote-unquote bipartisan. | ||
Armed Services is basically the main committee in dealing with the Pentagon. | ||
That's the Committee of Jurisdiction is what it's called in the Congress, Committee of Jurisdiction. | ||
If he's investigating that, the target right now, I believe, is Pete Hegseth. | ||
And as you remember, The effort it took for us to get Pete Hegseth confirmed. | ||
Let's go to the Intelligence Committee. | ||
You just heard PBS Jim Jordan laying up PBS that outrages that American taxpayers underwrite a Marxist thing. | ||
Let's go to the Intelligence. | ||
unidentified
|
Back to it. | |
The United States of America, and if not, what should we be doing about it? | ||
Thank you for your question, Congressman. | ||
I'm not fully aware and up to date on the specific example that you've mentioned, and I'll go and look into that and get back to you further. | ||
Absolutely. I look forward to having the conversation with you. | ||
Broadly, this is obviously a concern, that any of these activities occurring near or around any of our military sites creates that potential national security risk and the potential for foreign intelligence collection. | ||
I'm hoping it's a priority for everybody on the dais there. | ||
It is a priority, I think, for the American people, certainly for me. | ||
I want to move on in the time remaining with a related topic, which is the hundreds of incidents by predominantly Chinese students, oftentimes called gate crasher. | ||
So this includes the two gentlemen in uniform on the dais. | ||
I'm going to kind of point to three events that happened just last year, one in Grayling, Michigan. | ||
Five Chinese students are charged for lying and concealing evidence. | ||
One in the University of Minnesota, where a drone flew over Newport News and took pictures of classified information regarding ships and classified systems. | ||
And then one at the University of Florida regarding the illicit acquisition and shipment of toxins, biomedical drugs, and research supplies to China. | ||
In these cases, or most of these cases, We encounter these people, and then we release these people. | ||
As a matter of fact, in the case of Florida, apparently she found out that criminal charges were being prepared, and she dropped out of school, and her whereabouts remain unknown at this point. | ||
What should be our posture? | ||
Because we're trying to follow up after the fact. | ||
We're encountering these people, whether they're gatecratchers or whether we catch them conducting this illicit activity. | ||
We try and prosecute. | ||
That takes a lot of man hours, as you know, Director Patel. | ||
Is this the best policy or is there something better that we can do? | ||
I mean, the Immigration Nationality Act of 1952 gives the Secretary of State the authority to revoke visas. | ||
But should these people be allowed to come to this country in the first place is the question. | ||
And what should our posture be? | ||
unidentified
|
Anybody? In terms of... | |
The visa issue, I know that the administration is working on a policy, but to directly answer your question, anybody who utilizes the student visa program to come to this country to conduct criminal activity should never be allowed in this country. | ||
And anyone that's doing it here in the United States of America from an FBI standpoint will be vigorously investigated and will use the expulsion or criminal process on them. | ||
I yield, Mr. Chairman. | ||
unidentified
|
Gentleman yields. | |
Ms. Plaskett. | ||
Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman, and good morning to the witnesses. | ||
You know, first let me say that we do have to, in this committee, try as much as possible to remain nonpartisan as opposed to bipartisan. | ||
I can recall being that way when I was counsel on the House Ethics Committee, and it's a really hard, it's a hard position to take. | ||
But I'm really struck by the fact that in December of 2023, many people made Secretary Lloyd Austin Go through the stages of the cross in self-flagellation and mea culpas for not informing the president that he was having a surgery. | ||
And now how we're treating Secretary Hedgepeth as if he is untouchable. | ||
Mike Waltz, when he was a member of Congress, went in the Committee on Armed Services to talk and slammed Austin for holding himself to a different standard than the American people. | ||
And yet we are not doing this across the board. | ||
And that's disappointing, at the very least. | ||
Very disappointing. | ||
Director Gabber, thank you for your testimony. | ||
And one of the things that I... | ||
I believe I heard you say was that when there was a discussion by DOGE as to the cuts to foreign aid, that there had not been a request for an intelligence and national security or an intelligence assessment of the impact of those cuts. | ||
Was that your testimony a little earlier? | ||
Congresswoman, I have not seen any kind of actual official assessment. | ||
Either within the intelligence community or outside of it on what the effects of those cuts to USAID programs has been. | ||
unidentified
|
But it was not requested by DOGE of you or of any of the areas in which you have oversight over? | |
I'm not aware of any requests. | ||
unidentified
|
Okay, great. | |
Thank you. | ||
I know that there has been some open source reporting on what the effect of those cuts are. | ||
I mean, when we think about... | ||
Several examples. | ||
Kenya, our strongest regional ally in the Horn of Africa, and a key partner with us in the fight against terrorist group Al-Shabaab. | ||
And, you know, according to the Washington Post... | ||
That's not definitive, and we can talk about this in closed session. | ||
Some Kenyan journalists are now being trained by Beijing, mirroring the U.S. programs that have been cut by the administration. | ||
Director Gabber, is letting China-trained Kenyan journalists going to make Kenya more or less receptive to American requests of the Kenyan government, do you believe? | ||
As you said, Congresswoman, our relationship with Kenya has been very longstanding. | ||
unidentified
|
So do cuts of ours to train journalists in Kenya make them more or less, and Beijing having that, make them more or less? | |
Clearly there is strategic competition taking place. | ||
I'll withhold my personal view to look at an official assessment. | ||
unidentified
|
Well, I was asking for your director view, not your personal view. | |
And then... | ||
Additionally, we have ended Voice of America, which provided accurate, unbiased news, in our opinion. | ||
Meanwhile, St. Petersburg University has announced that it's opened 11 Russian language centers across Africa that pay special attention to the promotion of traditional Russian spiritual and moral values. | ||
Director Gaber, is Russia a friend or a foe? | ||
Are they our friend or our adversary? | ||
They are an adversary. | ||
unidentified
|
Thank you. | |
I believe that this reckless cuts make terrorism and our influence in Africa, which is on the front lines of terrorism, a real threat to us, and we need to be careful of it. | ||
Director Patel, one of the benefits of being here kind of in the middle is I get to hear other people's testimony and the questions that are asked. | ||
I know that... | ||
Mr. Carson asked you questions specifically about the counterterrorism division. | ||
And we know that there has been some open source reporting that says that individuals within that division have been removed or been moved, not necessarily fired, but moved. | ||
Do you know if that is correct? | ||
I don't have any personal information on that, but people within the CTD component, which is a large component of the FBI, move all the time. | ||
unidentified
|
And have they been moved? | |
Are you able to get that information to us, whether they have or have not been moved? | ||
I'll go back to my team and see who has been moved. | ||
If you have a particular interest, we'll share it with you. | ||
unidentified
|
Of course we have an interest in counterterrorism division and movement of individuals within that. | |
Because one of the other things I'm concerned about is you have stated, I believe in other areas, that the disbandment of certain sections of the FBI related to intel and breaking up components. | ||
Can you explain to us how you intend to do that or what you would like to do and why? | ||
My intention is to reprioritize counterintelligence authorities and cyber capabilities to focus on violent crime and national security, and that's what I'm doing. | ||
unidentified
|
The gentleman's time has expired. | |
Thank you. | ||
The gentleman from Missouri, Madam Ambassador, Ms. Wagner. | ||
I thank you, Mr. Chairman, and I thank all of you for being here and for your continued service to our country. | ||
Let's go back to the PBS. | ||
We've got a minute. | ||
We've got Tim Burchett. | ||
Let's hear Burchett. | ||
The gentleman from California, Mr. Khanna, for five minutes. | ||
unidentified
|
Thank you, Madam Chair, and thank you for allowing me to wave on to the committee. | |
Mr. Gonzalez, I read with interest your testimony. | ||
It was so angry. | ||
So I thought I'd try to lighten things up a little bit. | ||
Who are three of your favorite characters on Daniel Tiger, or what episodes are your favorites? | ||
Representative Kana, thank you very much for the opportunity to lighten up. | ||
Again, I think I've taken a time machine here. | ||
Sesame Street went to HBO. | ||
Daniel Tiger, do you have some favorite characters? | ||
Oh, the owl? | ||
Ro Khanna, our favorite Democrat populist, though, trying to lighten it up. | ||
We're not looking to lighten it up today. | ||
Let's go back to this. | ||
I tell you what, we've got to take a break. | ||
We are going to take a break here. | ||
Right there, you just saw it once again. | ||
That's the non-voting member from the Virgin Islands. | ||
Very smart. | ||
She's on MSNBC a lot. | ||
She does not actually get a vote on the committee. | ||
So she's a non-voting member of Congress from the Virgin Islands. | ||
Even she's thrown in, she is a Democrat, but she's thrown in, you see the targeting of Pete Hegseth. | ||
Let this be a lesson for the rest of the day. | ||
Pete Hegseth, by the way, has put out a, both Pete and Waltz have both put out tweets, and they're hunkering down. | ||
No war plans, no classified information, no locations, no names of everything. | ||
We'll put them up after we come back from a break. | ||
I want to thank Real America's Voice for our coverage this morning. | ||
Virtually commercial-free for two hours, we wanted you to get a full flavor of particularly House intel as they come in for a kill shot on Director Ratcliffe of the CIA and Tulsi Gabbard, DNI. | ||
They're trying to take this situation of this reporter, Goldberg, who released this right before the committee started. | ||
As you can tell, this whole thing's a setup. | ||
Honestly, I think it would have been smart to just cancel these hearings and say we're going to have them in 30 days. | ||
The major threats are not going to go away. | ||
The report to take some of the steam off of this. | ||
It's a setup. | ||
An ambush. | ||
Complete total ambush. | ||
Total ambush. | ||
And you've seen it live for the last two days. | ||
So you see it with your own eyes and you see how the Democrats come in. | ||
The White House is hunkered down. | ||
Waltz is hunkered down. | ||
Pete Hegseth is in the Pacific. | ||
Talking to the Indo-Pacific Command is hunkered down. | ||
We're going to take a short commercial break. | ||
We'll return in the war room in just a moment. | ||
As I said earlier, I was not involved with that portion of the chat, so it did not come to my recollection yesterday. | ||
unidentified
|
Thank you. | |
So I take that as you stand by your... | ||
Do not recall yesterday's stance when you were asked those questions. | ||
You've been in office 43 days. | ||
Director Radcliffe has been in office 62 days. | ||
This was considered the first major military operation using lethal force of the Trump administration. | ||
This was probably the first time that you've been involved with a discussion like this on a thread. | ||
It was not discussing, you were not on a group chat discussing where we're going to go for lunch. | ||
You were discussing putting men and women of the armed services in harm's way. | ||
That's a major decision. | ||
And when did that happen? | ||
Ten days ago? | ||
Okay, I'll answer that. | ||
It happened ten days ago. | ||
Here's the point. | ||
Something of this magnitude. | ||
It's something that you would not forget. | ||
It's something that most people, if you're taking this job so seriously, that you would not forget. | ||
I mean, since I've been on this committee, there's been days that I have woken up in the middle of the night from the things I've learned in SCIF. | ||
So deciding to use military force is something hard to imagine. | ||
So the do not recall doesn't pass the smell test. | ||
It makes it unbelievable that that was the case. | ||
So that's what the American people don't understand. | ||
And I know a lot of folks in this administration were saying that they're going to take on the establishment and drain the swamp, but you have become that swamp in a matter of days, not weeks or months, days. | ||
So one of the things we're going to look into is what actually occurred. | ||
Because the American people deserve a full accounting. | ||
Additionally, the main person who was involved in this thread that a lot of people want to talk to is Secretary of Defense Hegseth. | ||
And a lot of questions were brought up regarding his drinking habits and his confirmation hearing. | ||
To your knowledge, do you know whether Pete Hegseth had been drinking before he leaked classified information? | ||
I don't have any knowledge of Secretary Hegseth's personal habits. | ||
unidentified
|
Director Radcliffe, same question. | |
Yes or no? | ||
You know, no, I'm going to answer that. | ||
I think that's an offensive line of questioning. | ||
The answer is no. | ||
I find it interesting that you want to... | ||
Hey, I yield back. | ||
This is my time. | ||
You asked me a question, do you want an answer? | ||
No, listen, it's a yes or no. | ||
You don't want to focus on the good work that the CIA is doing, that the intelligence community... | ||
Director, I reclaim my time. | ||
Director, I reclaim my time. | ||
I have... | ||
Huge respect for the CIA. | ||
Huge respect for men and women in uniform. | ||
But this was a question that's on the top of minds of every American. | ||
He stood in front of a podium in Europe holding a drink. | ||
So, of course, we want to know if his performance is compromised. | ||
If you or people were asking if General Austin was compromised because of a heart issue, Was his performance compromised because of a successful strike? | ||
You want to talk about accepting responsibility? | ||
Do you think you should accept responsibility for a successful strike to make Americans safer? | ||
I reclaim my time. | ||
So here's the thing. | ||
This is serious. | ||
We've been briefed in this committee about using signal. | ||
One of the things they basically said, the most secure phone call, the least secure text messaging. | ||
And we know that your people, Russians, Chinese, are on your phone. | ||
Gentlemen, time's expired. | ||
Gentleman from Virginia, Mr. Klein. | ||
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. | ||
I'm going to give the director the ability to respond without being interrupted by his questioner. | ||
I appreciate that, Congressman. | ||
I guess... | ||
You know, just a general reflection here, again, that for the last two days, members of the intelligence community have been asking questions about a signal messaging group and not asking questions from Democrats either in the Senate or the House. | ||
On China, Russia, Iran, and the real threats that are going on to the United States. | ||
And you can say that you care about the good work that agencies are doing like the CIA and that you care about 140 stars on the wall. | ||
But no one's asked me about my second day on the job here where I lit the fuse that led to a foreign government participating with us to capture one of the... | ||
Senior planners of the Abbey Gate bombing that killed 13 Americans. | ||
And in the process, we worked with a government that previously hadn't, that hadn't cooperated with us on counterterrorism matters. | ||
Or the fact no one has focused on that within an hour of that taking place, I was on the phone with Director Patel and a few hours later with Attorney General Bondi working together, the IC and the FBI working together. | ||
to bring this person home in less than a week, unprecedented success for the intelligence community and the law enforcement community. | ||
Exactly representative of the kind of work that we should be doing and the kind of work that an oversight committee should be asking about. | ||
But instead, we're getting questions about whether or not someone has drinking habits Absolutely. Director, I want to thank you and all the people who work with you and all the witnesses. | ||
The men and women, the brave men and women who are putting their lives on the line each and every day for this country and to the military as well. | ||
Let me have it because we're going to run out of time here. | ||
That's Ben Klein that we had on TV on the show yesterday to highlight this. | ||
Right there, that is Congressman Jimmy Gonzalez previously. | ||
He's from Chinatown and Boyle Heights. | ||
Folks in L.A. know that's the... | ||
I guess not inner-city L.A., but the famous Boyle Heights and Chinatown. | ||
Jimmy Gonzalez, and I told you they're targeting Pete Hexas. | ||
Congressman Gonzalez asked, had Pete Hexas been drinking while he was on that text chamber, which means that Pete Hexas was drinking on the job because that was during a strike. | ||
And you saw finally with Ratcliffe, and I really appreciate the director of the CIA finally had enough. | ||
That hit Ratcliffe's tripwire after two days. | ||
He fired back hard. | ||
I think the administration should understand this afternoon. | ||
I don't think Mike Waltz is the target. | ||
It's clearly Pete Hegseth. | ||
This audience doesn't need to be reminded of the effort this audience put in on that Fixed Bayonets Thursday when everybody had to get up on it to save Pete Hegseth's nomination when they were trying to run Pete Hegseth out of town for these allegations that came from, I don't know, various women about drinking and other issues. | ||
Pete Hex has done a terrific job so far as Secretary of Defense. | ||
He's out in the Indo-Pacific command right now, gave an amazing talk yesterday to everybody to get him motivated about the threat of the Chinese Communist Party. | ||
As Captain Fennell tells us, and he's correct, keep the main thing the main thing, and Pete Hex is doing this. | ||
Okay, we're going to turn over to the Charlie Kirk show now on Real America's Voice. | ||
Charlie is going to pick up with his coverage. | ||
We're going to be back at 5 to 7. We've got a lot more that you didn't hear in the PBS. | ||
They're trying to defund NPR and PBS. | ||
Outrageous responses, I think, from PBS's management today, trying to essentially just kick the can down the road. | ||
We'll get more of that. | ||
Also, much more coming out of Intel. | ||
Pete Hexas just put up a tweet. | ||
He's hunkering down. | ||
Mike Waltz put up a tweet. | ||
He's hunkering down. | ||
They're going to the mattresses on this. | ||
They're just not going to sit there and be punching bags for these radical Democrats. | ||
The courts are also involved. | ||
We told you that's going to happen. | ||
So, so much going on. | ||
We're going to be back at 5 o'clock tonight. | ||
We're going to turn you over to Charlie Kirk. | ||
Jack Posobiec will follow after that. | ||
Gruber, Eric Bolling will be back at 5 o'clock. | ||
I want to thank our sponsors, particularly Birch Gold. | ||
Make sure you go to birchgold.com. | ||
And this is heating up right now everything about the reconciliation bill, the taxes, the budget, all of it. | ||
Make sure you go to birchgold.com slash Bannon, end of the dollar empire. | ||
Most importantly, get to Philip Patrick and the team. | ||
Ask them, hey, you know what the price of gold is? | ||
It's over $3,000. | ||
How to get there and where it's going, what are the forces driving that? | ||
That's what you need to know. | ||
We're not here to give you a fish. | ||
We're here to help teach you how to fish. | ||
Converging factors so that you can use your own human agency. | ||
And by the way, couldn't have been a better compliment at the top of Vice Chairman Himes saying the War Room Posse, when they get involved, things happen. | ||
And folks, we're going to have to get involved in this. | ||
We're also going to have a live report from Florida, six issues down there. | ||
Also from Wisconsin. | ||
And talk about Pennsylvania lost the Senate seat last night. | ||
All at 5 o'clock tonight. |