'A Breach Of Protocol': Ami Bera Lambasts Intelligence Leaders Over Signal Chat Leak

2 days ago

At a House Intelligence Committee hearing on Wednesday, Rep. Ami Bera (D-CA) spoke about the leaking of a Signal chat about bombing the Houthis.

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00:00You know, I associate myself with the comments of my colleague, Congressman Crow.

00:06I'm deeply disappointed in how we're handling this breach of protocol and so forth.

00:12You know, every year at the beginning of Congress, we take an oath to office.

00:19You know, this is an awesome responsibility to be a member of Congress, to protect our country.

00:24We have no greater responsibility than to protect our homeland.

00:28And, you know, when I walk into this committee and the honor of being on this committee,

00:32I don't see Democrats and Republicans. I see folks that every day want to do the same thing.

00:37But as Congressman Crow suggested, the mark of leadership, and we all are leaders in this room,

00:44is to accept responsibility when mistakes happen.

00:48And that signal chat was a mistake.

00:50I'm not here to impugn your character.

00:53You were all nominated by the president. You were all confirmed by the president.

00:57But we have an awesome responsibility, an incredible responsibility to the American people.

01:03And then given that we are the United States of America, we have a responsibility to the world.

01:08And this really was a breach of protocol.

01:11I'll take you at your word that we are going to do a full investigation of it.

01:15Our responsibility as oversight is to understand this breach, understand who leaked information,

01:23understand how that happened, and then hold those responsible.

01:28You know, I 100% agree with the chairman in his opening statement.

01:32He said where trust is breached, those responsible need to be held accountable.

01:37So do I have, you know, Director Gabbard, we served together, we came into Congress together.

01:43Do I have your word when this investigation is fully completed, we will get the full breadth of the investigation?

01:53Thank you, Congressman. That would be my intent.

01:56I will caveat that by saying that this is being conducted by the National Security Council.

02:01I've not gotten any indication that they would try to withhold that, but I can't speak for them.

02:08I also, you know, I see way too much politics when it comes to our national security and our national defense.

02:16We've got to keep politics out of this.

02:18We're not Democrats or Republicans. We're Americans.

02:21We're tasked with the responsibility of keeping our country safe.

02:28Director Gabbard, you have an awesome responsibility here to advise the president, to collate all the information,

02:34everything that I see is providing, and provide that best advice and guidance to the president of the United States.

02:41We have to keep politics out of this.

02:44Even if the president disagrees with this, if it goes against his personal wishes,

02:49if he's considering an order that potentially is unconstitutional or illegal or compromises our security,

02:57I want your word that you will always provide and give that honest advice to the president, even if it will make him angry.

03:04Thank you, Congressman. I appreciate the question because, as you said, I do take this responsibility very seriously.

03:11And it was my commitment to the president, to the Senate, the American people, that as the director of national intelligence,

03:18I will ensure to provide the president and all of you as policymakers with that unbiased, relevant, and timely intelligence.

03:26And to your specific question, the answer is yes.

03:30I will inform the president of that accurate, timely, unbiased intelligence reporting,

03:36whether it is something that agrees with an assumption or a view or an objective or not.

03:42That's my responsibility to him and to the American people.

03:45Great. I would just offer advice.

03:50In your role, what you do on your personal devices versus your official devices,

03:55you're speaking to the public, and I would just offer, as I conduct myself,

04:00what I say personally is always going to be considered Congressman Barra saying it.

04:05General Hawk, I've appreciated working with you and have a deep concern about our cyber vulnerabilities.

04:12And we will go into some of this in the closed session.

04:17But Salt Typhoon is something we take very seriously as well as Vault Typhoon and the compromises.

04:26Can you just briefly give us an update of where we are with those two?

04:31So, Congressman, we share your concern in terms of the overall ensuring that we can protect the critical infrastructure of the United States.

04:40The area that we have been deeply focused on is our ability to partner with industry.

04:46Ninety-nine percent of our critical infrastructure is controlled by our industry.

04:51So our ability to bring government information to be able to understand what threats look like

04:55and the origin of those threats help inform how industry can defend that

05:00and also create the necessary equipment to ensure that we're secure.

05:06That partnership continues to grow, and that's really one of our key priorities.

05:10And I'll be able to go in closed session into more detail about the specific actions we've done together

05:15as an interagency with our industry teammates.

05:18Great. Thank you. I yield back.

05:20Gentleman yields. Gentleman from Pennsylvania, General Perry.

'A Breach Of Protocol': Ami Bera Lambasts Intelligence Leaders Over Signal Chat Leak

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