Like previous years, Democrats used the recent “Signal-gate” affair to turn this week’s unclassified hearings on worldwide threats by the Senate and House intelligence committees into political circuses that did nothing to conduct critical oversight of America’s intelligence agencies.
This is why, as he did in 2019, President Trump should cancel all future open worldwide threat hearings by refusing to allow his intelligence officials to participate in them.
Worldwide threat hearings are held annually and feature top U.S. intelligence officials presenting testimony on the analysis of their agencies on a wide range of security threats facing our nation. Director of National Intelligence (DNI) Tulsi Gabbard, CIA Director John Ratcliffe, FBI Director Kash Patel, NSA Director Timothy Haugh, and DIA Director Jeffrey Kruse testified to this year’s worldwide threat hearings.
These hearings are conducted in open, unclassified hearings followed by closed, classified sessions. There has long been concern that the open hearings pose significant and unnecessary security risks because America’s top intelligence officials discuss the current work of their agencies in front of the press. Despite assurances that this testimony is unclassified, it still provides extremely useful information to America’s adversaries on the focus, scope, and emphasis of U.S. intelligence. There is no question that videos of these hearings are closely watched and studied by hostile governments and their intelligence services.
The worldwide threats hearings have also become political spectacles that members of Congress often use to undermine presidential policy and gain face time on TV to promote themselves. Instead of using these hearings to understand dire security threats, committee members sometimes give self-serving speeches, bully witnesses, and press them to contradict presidential policies. […]
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