Connecticut representative on Tulsi Gabbard’s nomination and China interference
(CBS, KYMA, KECY) - Represenative Jim Himes (D-Conn.) spoke to Margaret Brennan on Face the Nation Sunday on Tulsi Gabbard's nomination for Director of National Intelligence (DNI).
When asked if experience is necessary, and if she's fit for the job, Himes said:
"Of course, it's necessary. You know, it's a little bit like our obsession right now with the Ethics Committee report on Matt Gaetz. You know...I mean, how is it that this is what we're focusing on? Matt Gaetz is, by any standard, completely unqualified to be the Attorney General, and yet we're sort of focused on this, you know, cherry on the cupcake of the ethics report. You know, it sort of reminds me of Al Capone in 1931. Al Capone is convicted of a couple of counts of tax evasion. Now, he was a killer and a rum runner and a mafioso, and yet he was convicted of tax evasion. This is what the conversation we're having about Matt Gaetz. You know, well, what about this ethics report? So, these people are manifestly unqualified, and, you know, they're not prepared to run the very complicated organizations they've been asked to run."
However, when Brennan asked if he trusts John Ratcliffe, who was selected to run the CIA, to "appropriately handle sensitive intelligence information," Himes said:
"I do...ust to be balanced here, since I was pretty strong in my opinions about the Attorney General and the DNI nomination, I actually had a really good day when Marco Rubio was nominated for Secretary of State, when John Ratcliffe was nominated for CIA and when Mike Waltz was nominated to be national security advisor. I would even add the nominee for the Southern District of New York, Jay Clayton. Those are good nominations, not necessarily the nominations I would have made if I were president. But these are serious people with real experience. They're not social media personalities. They haven't built their careers on lies and conspiracy. So look, some of these nominations I think are quite solid, and John Ratcliffe falls in that category for me."
During the interview, Brennan and Himes talked about interference from China regarding the "pervasive hacking of U.S. telecom companies that allowed them to steal customer call record data, compromise private communications of those involved in government and copy information related to law enforcement actions."
Brennan asked Himes if he knows if the hackers have been kicked out of U.S. infrastructure, or if China's still embeded, Himes answered saying:
"That's not a question I can answer with an awful lot of specificity, but the fact that we obviously know about these hacks means that those particular hacks probably have been addressed in one way or another. But one thing I can say with great confidence, having worked in the intelligence world for some time now, is that, I promise you, they are out there in ways that we don't know about. So, my hope is that the President made it very clear that this kind of behavior is not tolerable, and that he backs that up, and quite frankly, that Donald Trump, the next president, backs that up with action. You know, as Teddy Roosevelt said, the big stick, right? We're pretty good at hacking networks too, and I think it's really important for the Chinese to understand that we're not just going to name and shame the hackers and complain about it. But that we are going to go into their networks and give as good as we got. I suspect that in this realm, they need to see that we are capable of inflicting a lot of damage if they continue their present behavior."
To watch more of Brennan's interview with Himes, click here.
