Transcription
opportunity. Finally, to hear from you in your own words. Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman. Before I begin, I too would like to start by offering my prayers and condolences to those who were killed in last night's horrific crash.
Senator Warner, Senator Moran, our condolences and prayers are with you and all of your constituents. Again, Chairman Cotton, Vice Chairman Warner, and all of the members of the committee, it's an honor to be here before you today. I've appreciated the opportunity to meet with so many of you and address your questions and concerns before today's hearing.
I know they've gone, but I'm grateful to Senators Burr and Ernst for their trust and their confidence in taking time to join us here today. To my husband, Abraham, my family, friends, fellow veterans, Medal of Honor recipients, and Patriots, thank you for your love and support.
I'm honored and grateful to President Trump for his trust and confidence in nominating me to serve our country as the Director of National Intelligence at a time when trust in the intelligence community, unfortunately, is at an all-time low. Chuck Schumer admitted a few years ago, quote, "You take on the intelligence community, they have six ways from Sunday at getting back at you."
For too long, faulty, inadequate, or weaponized intelligence have led to costly failures and the undermining of our national security and god-given freedoms enshrined in the Constitution. The most obvious example of one of these failures is our invasion of Iraq based on a complete failure of intelligence. This disastrous decision led to the deaths of tens of thousands of American soldiers and millions of people in the Middle East, mass migration, destabilization, and undermining of the security and stability of our European allies.
The rise of ISIS, strengthening of al-Qaeda, and other Islamist jihadist groups, and strengthening Iran. Here are just a few other examples. The American people elected Donald Trump as their president, not once, but twice, and yet the FBI and intelligence agencies were politicized by his opponents to undermine his presidency and falsely portray him as a puppet of Putin.
Title I of FISA was used illegally to obtain a warrant to spy on Trump campaign adviser Carter Page, using a Clinton dossier as their so-called evidence. Biden campaign adviser Tony Blinken was the impetus for the 51 former senior intelligence officials labeling Hunter Biden's laptop as disinformation, specifically to help Biden win the election.
Former DNI James Clapper in 2013 denied the existence of programs that facilitated the mass collection of millions of Americans' phone and internet records, yet was never held accountable. Under John Brennan's leadership, the CIA abused its power to spy on Congress to dodge oversight, lied about doing so, yet has never been held responsible.
Under Biden, the FBI abused its power for political reasons to try to surveil Catholics who attend traditional Latin Mass, labeling them as quote-unquote radical traditionalist Catholics. Personally, just 24 hours after I criticized Kamala Harris and her nomination, I was placed on a secret domestic terror watch list called Quiet Skies.
Sadly, there are more examples. The bottom line is this: this must end. President Trump's re-election is a clear mandate from the American people to break this cycle of failure and the weaponization and politicization of the intelligence community and begin to restore trust in those who've been charged with the critical task of securing our nation.
If confirmed as DNI, I will do my very best to fulfill this mandate and bring leadership to the intelligence community with a laser-like focus on our essential mission: security and freedom of the American people. As the president's principal intelligence advisor, I'll begin by leading by example, checking my own personal views at the door and committing to delivering intelligence that is collected, analyzed, and reported without bias, prejudice, or political agenda.
Because of the horrific terrorist attack on September 11th, I volunteered to deploy to Iraq in 2005, where I served in a medical unit. After nearly 22 years in uniform with three combat deployments to the Middle East and Africa, I'm now a lieutenant colonel in the U.S. Army Reserve, where I command soldiers in Oklahoma, Missouri, and Arkansas.
I served in Congress for eight years on the Homeland Security, Foreign Affairs, and Armed Services committees. My experience in the military and in the halls of Congress has given me a deep understanding of the complex challenges that our nation faces. In both roles, I engaged with world leaders and was privy to highly classified intelligence.
So, I know firsthand how essential accurate, unbiased, and timely intelligence is to the president, to Congress, and to our warfighters. The heavy cost of intelligence failures and abuses is clear. Senator Collins, you led the creation of ODNI specifically to address those intelligence failures of 9/11 and Iraq's so-called WMDs. The need for the ODNI under strong leadership still exists today.
If confirmed, I'll bring fresh eyes to leading the intelligence community, and my Day 1 priorities will be to assess the global threat environment, identify where gaps exist in our integrated intelligence elements, increase information sharing, and ensure that unbiased, apolitical, objective collection and analysis to support the president and policymakers' decision-making occurs.
I'll work to end the politicization of the intelligence community and ensure there is a clear mission focus in the IC on its core mission of this unbiased, apolitical collection and analysis of intelligence to secure our nation. I'll work towards transparency and accountability; this is a national security imperative.
And I'll work to assess and address effectiveness across ODNI to ensure the focus of personnel and resources is on our core mission of national security. Now, in my meetings that I've had with many of you, you expressed bipartisan frustration about recent intelligence failures as well as the lack of responsiveness to your requests for information.
Whether it's the surprise October 7th Hamas terrorist attack, the sudden takeover of Syria by Islamist extremists, failures to identify the source of COVID, anomalous health incidents, UAPs, drones, and more, if confirmed, I look forward to working with you to address these issues.
Ensuring the safety, security, and freedom of the American people is a mandate of leadership that rises above partisan commitment to the president, to you, and to the American people. This I will do: my very best to find the truth, no matter where it leads, and share that truth with President Trump, his advisors, and you in Congress, providing you with that unbiased, timely, and accurate intelligence as you make the tough decisions that impact the safety, security, and freedom of the American people.
Now, before I close, I want to warn the American people who are watching at home. You may hear lies and smears in this hearing that will challenge my loyalty to and my love for our country. Those who oppose me claim I am loyal to something or someone other than God, my own conscience, and the Constitution of the United States.
They label me as being Trump's puppet, Putin's puppet, Assad's puppet, a guru's puppet, Modi's puppet, not recognizing that I am being the puppet of five different puppet masters. The same tactic was used against President Trump and failed. The American people elected President Trump with a decisive victory and mandate for change.
The fact is, what truly unsettles my opponents is that I refuse to be their puppet. I have no love for Assad or Gaddafi or any dictator. I just hate al-Qaeda, who cozy up to Islamist extremists, minimizing them to so-called rebels, as Jake Sullivan said to Hillary Clinton, quote, "in Syria."
Well, Syria is now controlled by an al-Qaeda offshoot, HTS, led by an Islamist jihadist who was responsible for the killing of many American service members. Democrat senators in the past resorted to anti-Christian bigotry against some of President Trump's judicial nominees like Amy Coney Barrett and Brian Buescher.
I condemn those actions as a Democrat in Congress at the time, as religious bigotry must be thoroughly condemned by all of us, no matter the religion. Unfortunately, there are some Democrat senators who still don't understand the principle of freedom of religion and Article 6 of the Constitution, quote, "No religious test shall ever be required as a qualification to any office or public trust under the United States."
Unfortunately, they are once again using the religious bigotry card, but this time trying to ferment religious bigotry against Hindus and Hinduism. If anyone is sincerely interested in knowing more about my own personal spiritual path of Hinduism, I welcome you to go to my account on XR. I'll share more on this topic.
If confirmed as Director of National Intelligence, I will continue to live by the oath that I have sworn at least eight times in my life, both in uniform and as a member of Congress. I will support the freedoms enshrined in the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic. And I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same.
Thank you very much for your time. I look forward to your questions. Thank you, Ms. Gabbert. A few reminders before we begin our five-minute round of questioning.