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Markwayne Mullin Grilled in Confirmation Hearing; Senate Holds Hearing on Worldwide Threats. Aired 11-11:30a ET

Aired March 18, 2026 - 11:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

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SEN. MARK WARNER (D-VA): Did you brief the president, if he starts a war of choice, that the likely result would be that Iran would strike adjacent Gulf nations and close the Strait of Hormuz?

Did you brief him on those two facts that I think have been consistently the assumptions of the intelligence community?

TULSI GABBARD, U.S. DIRECTOR OF NATIONAL INTELLIGENCE: I have not and won't divulge internal conversations. I will say that those of us within the intelligence community continue to provide the president with all of the best objective intelligence available to inform his decisions.

SEN. TOM COTTON (R-AR): Senator Collins.

SEN. SUSAN COLLINS (R-ME): Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Director Gabbard, you just testified that ISIS and al Qaeda are significantly weaker. And reflecting that view, you have devoted declining budgets, personnel and emphasis on countering terrorism.

Yet the fact is that ISIS is growing and operating in Somalia, Afghanistan, Syria, Pakistan and Iraq. Al Qaeda is surging in Afghanistan, the Arabian Peninsula and throughout Central Africa. The Houthis in Yemen and the rest of the Iranian proxies remain a serious threat.

Focusing, as you have done, on great power competitors seems to have diverted resources from the fight against terrorism, a fight that's very much still going on. As I have said repeatedly, it is terrorists who want and can kill Americans today.

We have just seen the terrorists in Michigan attacking the synagogue. In addition, it appears that a more stovepiped effort in the Intelligence Committee has returned.

How are you ensuring that Americans are safe and that you are countering counterterrorism threats to our homeland and to U.S. citizens abroad?

GABBARD: Thank you, Senator Collins, for your question and the opportunity to clarify the comments in my opening statement. My reference to the size of ISIS and al Qaeda organizationally is

smaller and weaker than it was during its peak over a decade ago. However, I completely concur with your remarks about the threat of ISIS, al Qaeda and other Islamist terrorist groups around the world and the threat that they posed to U.S. interests, service members and directly to the homeland.

Our ODNI National Counterterrorism Center has been at the forefront of ramping up and I believe is more active today than it has been certainly in a long time. We are dedicating every resource that they ask for, as well as the counterterrorism elements across the I.C. to make sure that we are never taking our eye off of this persistent threat to the American people.

The change in tactics based on the current environment is something we continue to be most concerned about. Increasingly, we are seeing less indicators of large-scale, organized, complex threats or attacks and instead efforts focused on individuals either who have been radicalized by Islamist propaganda and may not have ever had contact with ISIS or al Qaeda, for example, and others who have had contact of which we are able to have more indications of.

This remains and will be and, as we come to present our budgets to you, a foremost and primary priority. The integration across the intelligence community on the counterterrorism threat occurs every single day with our teams working very effectively together to thwart terrorist attacks, as we have over the last year.

COLLINS: Director Patel, I'm going to follow up on this issue with you.

ISIS targets potential recruits online through social media, gaming platforms, encrypted messaging apps. ISIS even facilitated a network online to smuggle illegal immigrants into the United States. Since April 2021, there have been more than 52 jihadist-inspired cases across 30 states.

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What measures are the -- is the FBI taking to prevent foreign terrorist organizations from recruiting or influencing Americans while also ensuring the protection of individuals' right to privacy?

KASH PATEL, FBI DIRECTOR: Thank you, Senator. I think you said it best. They have transferred their capabilities in terms of personal recruitments to online recruitments, which makes any terrorist organization, including ISIS, all the more powerful.

What we have done is extended and expanded resources to environments like the Threat Screening Center, which allows us to collect biometric capabilities from all over the world. We have had a double-digit increase in that and a double-digit increase in intelligence production.

But what we have also done in the C.T. space specifically is expand the number of agents and intel analysts that go online and detect, based on our biometric capabilities and intelligence that we have from the interagency.

And what that leads us to is what we saw in December of last year, Senator, where we at the FBI stopped four terrorist attacks, four in California, Texas, North Carolina, and Pennsylvania, three of which were ISIS-inspired.

We were able to detect these individuals both online and in person using our covert platforms, and we shuttered a bombing campaign in Southern California and two mass casualty events for New Year's Eve.

COLLINS: Director Gabbard, the intelligence community did not detect an extremely serious breach affecting our telecommunications industry due to the Chinese Salt Typhoon incursions for a very long time.

In addition, the Chinese Volt Typhoon threat poses a terrible threat to U.S. critical infrastructure. Specific sectors throughout the United States have been overlooked and underprotected.

What are you doing to deal with the threat to critical infrastructure, our electric grid, our communication systems, given this huge miss by our talented intelligence community?

GABBARD: Thank you, Senator Collins, for the question.

Working with our partners at NSA and others to detect these threats and how they may be evolving or developing is something we're continuing to work on. Building strong partnerships with the private sector, whether it be in the telecom industry, the financial sector, the health care sector, the energy sector, is something that I'm rebuilding.

We have seen some of these ongoing relationships falter over previous years. I have personally been astounded by some of the conversations I have had with leaders from these industries who are just as concerned as we are about these threats to our critical infrastructure, and yet don't feel that they have the connectivity or the information to be able to secure their own infrastructure.

So, in short, building those stronger partnerships, integrating and being able to share information intelligence where we can is critical for us to be able to secure our country from these threats.

COTTON: Thank you, Senator Collins.

Senator Wyden.

SEN. RON WYDEN (D-OR): Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Director Gabbard, last year, your...

WOLF BLITZER, CNN HOST: All right, we're going to continue to monitor this important Senate Intelligence Committee hearing with the director of national intelligence, Tulsi Gabbard, and other senior intelligence officials.

I want to bring in retired U.S. Air Force Colonel Cedric Leighton now. What stood out, Colonel Leighton, to you so far from what we heard?

She outlined about maybe a dozen threats, worldwide threats, facing the U.S. right now.

COL. CEDRIC LEIGHTON (RET.), CNN MILITARY ANALYST: Yes, that's right, Wolf.

One of the things that I noticed was that, when Director Gabbard started with her testimony, she talked about how congruent the intelligence community assessment was with the national security strategy, which was released by the Trump administration earlier this year.

The key thing about that, though, is that national security strategy itself is really not a well-organized document. And what it does do is, it kind of focuses on the Western Hemisphere and on the homeland, as she correctly pointed out.

But the fact of the matter is that, from an intelligence perspective, you really have to look at the entire world. And as the testimony unfolded and her statement continued, the list of things that she talked about, everything from cyberattacks to space attacks, the potential for them to -- terrorism activities by ISIS and al Qaeda and other groups, all of that was very similar in terms of the breadth of the discussion.

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It was very similar to something that you would have heard from an intelligence threat assessment a year or two ago. So, in essence, what we're seeing is, the way she's presented it, not much has changed.

But, in fact, we all know that many things have changed, in particular because of Operation Epic Fury, the attack on Iran. That has changed a lot of what that assessment should be. And it is interesting to look at the types of questions that we have seen from Senator Collins, for example, talking a lot about Volt Typhoon, which was the Chinese attack on the telecommunications sector that was undetected.

And the way Director Gabbard talked about it was that she was revitalizing the private partnerships, public-private partnerships that had fallen by the wayside. The fact of the matter is, in this particular situation, those private-public partnerships have actually been decimated in part by the activities of the Trump administration and the decimation of things like CISA, the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency.

So, Wolf, there are a lot of aspects here where the threats are real, they're evolving. Some of them have not really been addressed in what we have heard so far, but there are certain threads there where you can take this back several years, where the threats have evolved and gotten much more serious, including in the nuclear realm.

BLITZER: Good point.

And I just want to quickly point out one thing that she said that jumped out at me, I want to quickly get your thought before we move on to some of the other major subjects that came up during this important hearing.

She spoke about the fact that Russia, China, North Korea and Pakistan all have nuclear weapons capability and that they are all expanding their nuclear payload capability for their missiles potentially, potentially that could hit the United States.

How serious of a threat is that right now to the U.S.?

LEIGHTON: I think it's a very serious threat.

And the problem that you have is, how quickly are -- assessing, how quickly are these countries going to develop these kinds of capabilities? So she spoke about a timeline in the 2030s and where a lot of these countries would have the ability potentially to use missiles that would have that intercontinental range.

And what stood out to me was the fact that Pakistan was mentioned in this capacity. That's probably the first time that Pakistan has been mentioned that directly in a public forum. And that, of course, is a key element to this.

And then it begs the question, is there going to be some kind of a realignment between the relationship that we have with Pakistan right now and the relationship, let's say, with India, which, of course, those two countries are major rivals?

And that, I think, Wolf is going to perhaps guide a lot more of the discussion when it comes to that intercontinental ballistic missile threat. And it also means that the arms control regime that has existed up until basically this past year with things like New START that we had with the Russians, that agreement, that, of course, has not been renewed.

And that means that this threat, the fact that there's no diplomatic solution to this means that the threat is basically not only continuing, but evolving and becoming more dangerous.

BLITZER: Yes, it jumped out of me as well. Good point -- Pamela.

PAMELA BROWN, CNN HOST: Yes.

What was also interesting to me was those countries you just pointed out, she laid out a threat that is more imminent to the United States than Iran, because she mentioned -- and she had said this in her prior projections -- that should they pursue the capability of an ICBM, an intercontinental ballistic missile, which is a delivery system for a nuclear warhead, should they decide to pursue that, it could happen before 2035.

So I thought that was really notable too. And on the domestic front, Tulsi Gabbard, the director of national intelligence, was also pressed by Senator Warner, Evan, on what she was doing in Fulton County, Georgia. And she tried to correct the record, saying, I wasn't participating or

engaged in the FBI activities. I didn't know what was in the warrant. I was just there to observe.

But is that a distinction without a difference?

EVAN PEREZ, CNN SENIOR JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: Yes, I mean, it is.

One of the things that she's also saying is that she was there at the request of the president. Now, one of the things that we have noticed in doing reporting on this is that they have been very inconsistent is exactly what she was doing there and why she was there.

The president himself, when asked by reporters, said that he had nothing to do with it. He said that the attorney general, Pam Bondi, had requested Gabbard to be there. You heard just a minute ago Gabbard say that the president told her to be there.

So we can't get a straight answer. By the way, we asked Bondi that very question a couple of weeks ago at a press conference, and she declined to really go into it.

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So we still don't know why she was there. We don't know what exactly role -- her role is. When asked the question today, she said that her role as the DNI does include oversight of some of the FBI's authorities.

But I can tell you that, talking to people at the FBI, that there was a lot of concern as to why she was there. They didn't know what she was doing there. We know that there were officials there who were making sure that the boxes were loaded onto trucks and sent to Winchester, Virginia, which is where the FBI has an evidence facility.

We don't know what comes of this, right, because we don't know whether there is an actual proof or evidence of some kind of wrongdoing. This is a criminal investigation that is being done. From the warrant that we have seen made public by the courts, the FBI seems to be relying on the conspiracy theories of someone who is working for the White House who has claimed that the 2020 election is stolen, but has really offered no evidence of that.

So it's not clear where this is going and why, again, DNI, Gabbard was actually there. We know one of the things that she was looking forward to doing was, she wanted to do a press conference, and that was shut down very quickly by the Justice Department.

BROWN: I remember that, because I was hearing from sources on the ground in Georgia saying she might hold a press conference.

PEREZ: Right. And we saw her poking her head out from behind a door, sort of like "Simpsons."

BROWN: An ominous picture.

(LAUGHTER)

BETH SANNER, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY ANALYST: Can I just add really quickly, there is a big battle going on between the ODNI and the FBI in terms of who is actually going to be in charge of counterintelligence for the United States.

And what this means is who gets to access information about U.S. citizens. And this press within ODNI to declare -- this is the president -- these terrorist designations include left-wing groups that are American citizens.

PEREZ: Yes.

SANNER: Gabbard lost that battle in the national defense authorization.

PEREZ: And Joe Kent. Joe Kent was part of that effort as well.

SANNER: Exactly.

And now this oversight of C.I., of counterintelligence, is going to be moved lock, stock, and barrel over to the FBI as a result of the latest legislation. So she has less and less authority, and, in my view, she has no authority.

BROWN: All right, I'm going to jump in because Senator Cornyn of Texas is asking about Jo Kent, the national security official who resigned from the administration yesterday.

JOHN RATCLIFFE, CIA DIRECTOR: Senator, no, in fact, intelligence reflects the contrary.

SEN. JOHN CORNYN (R-TX): So, you disagree with Mr. Kent?

RATCLIFFE: I do.

CORNYN: I would think any fair-minded assessment of the situation, even based on open-sources, would reflect the danger Iran poses, the regime poses to the United States.

Isn't it true they have basically been at war with the West since 1979 during the Iranian Revolution and have American blood on their hands?

RATCLIFFE: That's absolutely correct. I think Iran has been a constant threat to the United States for an extended period of time and posed an immediate threat at this time.

CORNYN: The threat assessment says that al Qaeda and ISIS maintain the intent to launch operations targeting the U.S., but it's most likely to occur through U.S.-based lone offenders.

I want to ask you, Director Patel, it seems like there's been a raft of incidents recently. On March the 1, in Austin, Texas, where I live, a lone gunman wearing a sweatshirt saying "Property of Allah' and who the T-shirt he wore underneath had an Iranian flag killed three innocent people and injured 12 more. And then we know, in Virginia, the Old Dominion shooting, somebody who

unbelievably was sentenced to 11 years in federal prison for attempting to support ISIS, but then was released, only to commit another terrorist attack. We all are familiar with what's happened in Michigan, in New York.

And I applaud the important role that the FBI has played in stopping some terrorist attacks, but obviously the FBI can't be everywhere all the time.

Would you please talk about the -- your cooperation and collaboration with Homeland Security Investigations in countering terrorist attacks against the United States?

PATEL: Thank you, Senator.

Absolutely. It is essential that the FBI cooperates with the entire interagency, but, as to your question about DHS specifically, what we have stood up around the country are 59 Homeland Security task forces in 59 separate locations.

CORNYN: These are Joint Terrorism Task Forces?

PATEL: Essentially, the JTTF model was expanded. So, the FBI owns 56 Joint Terrorism Task Forces in each of our field offices.

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On top of that, we have 59 HSTFs, which are co-led by the FBI and DHS. And what that allows us to do is things like we did down in New Orleans just over the holiday period, where we served for a six-week period of time and where we dropped the murder rate by double-digit points.

And, also, it was the first time that Mardi Gras in its entire history had not one homicide. So when you bring the powers of the Homeland Security folks, DHS and the FBI together, this is the purpose of it, to get after not just the terrorism threat, but the violence and the criminal activity in our cities.

And that's why we're in 59 cities across the country. And it's working in places like Memphis and every other city we have it.

CORNYN: Are you aware of the fact that Homeland Security Investigation is a major directorate within Immigration and Customs Enforcement?

PATEL: Yes, sir. Yes, sir.

CORNYN: And are you aware that Senate Democrats have uniformly voted not to fund the Department of Homeland Security, including Homeland Security Investigations, TSA, FEMA, and other functions of the Department of Homeland Security?

PATEL: Senator, I'm aware that employees of DHS are one month without pay. CORNYN: They're not being paid, right?

PATEL: Yes, sir.

CORNYN: And we're all seeing what's happening at airports, where people are having to wait hours at a time because of the fact that these TSA agents are overburdened.

But what I wanted to focus on with you is, is the refusal to fund the functions of the Department of Homeland Security, including Homeland Security Investigations, making Americans less safe?

PATEL: Absolutely.

CORNYN: So give us an example of some of the cooperation that you all have engaged in with -- the FBI has engaged in with the Homeland Security Investigations?

I'm looking at an article here that talks about the 190,000 Afghan nationals that were admitted to the United States literally unvetted. And there are examples of individuals within that 190,000 who committed to terrorist attacks against the United States and against American citizens.

Is that the sort of thing that you are investigating with HSI?

PATEL: Senator, that's one of the many things we're investigating with HSI, DHS, CBP, ICE.

CORNYN: Give me some other examples of the collaboration on what other topics, including in addition to terrorism attacks?

PATEL: What we're allowed to do with our DHS partners, Senator, is enable their massive work force to supplement ours. And what they're allowed to do is share intelligence on what you just -- things that you just talked about, about the 100-plus-thousand illegals that came in from Afghanistan during the Afghanistan withdrawal.

Unfortunately, they weren't vetted thoroughly. So what we're doing is going back with our DHS partners and vetting absolutely every single one of them to the best that we can. But, unfortunately, we're not able to go out into the country and find every single one of these individuals.

But we need more than 12,000 FBI agents to do that job, which is why we are utilizing the 100,000 or so 1811's at the Department of Homeland Security to give us the information they have from their immigration records, from their travel records, from their travel logs overseas and within the country.

And what we're able to do is remove these individuals off the streets in every single state across the country, to include violent gang members, to include Tren de Aragua, to include ISIS-affiliated individuals, to include al Qaeda-related affiliated individuals.

And, hopefully, we do it before and not after, like the tragedy that we witnessed in Washington, D.C., where an individual from Afghanistan was allowed to enter into our country and shot multiple members of our uniformed military service.

CORNYN: Thank you.

Senator King.

SEN. ANGUS KING (I-ME): Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

I do need to point out, in response to some of the previous comments...

BLITZER: All right, we're going to continue to monitor this important hearing before the Senate Intelligence Committee, worldwide threats facing the United States. We're going to go right back to the hearing after a short break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[11:29:05]

BLITZER: Lots of activity right now up on Capitol Hill, the Senate Homeland Security Committee holding a confirmation hearing for Senator Markwayne Mullin to replace Kristi Noem as the secretary of homeland security.

CNN correspondent Priscilla Alvarez has been monitoring that Q&A.

What have we heard so far? Some drama, I take it.

PRISCILLA ALVAREZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, this has certainly been a tense hearing.

Look, the administration has made clear that they still intend on executing an aggressive immigration agenda even after the ouster of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem.

However, it comes down to how will the department be handled and how they will move forward with that after the intense scrutiny over Noem in recent months.

And that is what Senator Markwayne Mullin has had to answer to over the course of the last hour-and-a-half or two hours at this point, now, on one of those issues being administrative warrants. Recall that the administration had taken a different interpretation on how those are used to enter private property, which is usually reserved only for judicial warrants.