Tulsi Gabbard Asked About 'Anti-American Regimes Gaining Permanent Footholds' In Western Hemisphere

3/31/2025

At Wednesday's House Intel Committee hearing, Rep. Rick Crawford (R-AR) questioned DNI Tulsi Gabbard about threats from anti-American regimes.

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Transcript

00:00Thank you Director Gabbard. We now turn to member questions. I'll recognize

00:04myself for five minutes. I want to talk about, before I get into the threats, I

00:11want to talk about something we've talked about in this committee and in

00:16this setting before. We've had IC agency leaders commit to complying with our

00:21document requests but not follow through. I don't know if this is due to direction

00:24from previous administration or middle management obstruction, but I find it

00:28completely unacceptable. In fact, I had to subpoena the NSA in order to

00:32cooperate with our AHI investigation last year. As you all know, it's the

00:36charge of this committee to conduct rigorous oversight and part of that

00:39oversight is to occasionally requires us that we request documents from your

00:43organizations to enable our investigations. We cannot adequately do

00:47our jobs without your partnership and your cooperation. General Hawk and

00:53General Cruz, we had this conversation here before last year and I'm not

00:57satisfied with your responsiveness. Therefore, I'm going to ask that

00:59question again on the record in this open setting to each of you. Do I have

01:03your unequivocal commitment to cooperating with document or other

01:06information requests from this committee, General Hawk? You do, Chairman. Thank you,

01:12General. Director Patel? You do, Mr. Chairman. Director Gabbard? Yes, Chairman.

01:17Director Ratcliffe? Yes, you do, Chairman and Ranking Member and I want to start

01:25by saying it's good to be back. It's good to see you and as you all know, I

01:30have a special appreciation for the work that this committee does having

01:34previously been a member. I also understand the importance of the

01:37oversight role that it has and so you have my full commitment and my

01:41understanding about what your responsibilities are and my obligation

01:45to keep you fully and currently informed and I will do that. Appreciate that.

01:50General Cruz? Chairman, of course you have our continuing support on this

01:55critically important effort for the nation. Thank you. I appreciate that. I

01:58want to turn now to something that's a topic of conversation and really needs

02:03to be and that's our own neighborhood here in our Western Hemisphere. I

02:06mentioned my opening statement. I'm deeply concerned about encroachment in

02:08the Western Hemisphere, not just by China but other adversaries like Russia and

02:12Iran from Russian military cooperation with and support to Venezuela and

02:17Nicaragua, CCP-linked companies acquisition of critical assets and in

02:22Central and South America, Iran's defense agreement with Bolivia, the establishment

02:27of a technical military cooperation commission including Venezuela, Cuba,

02:31China, Russia and Iran and I could list several more alarming examples. I'm

02:35afraid we focus so much of our attention across the world that we've lost sight

02:38of our own neighborhood, leading to the anti-American regimes gaining permanent

02:43footholds within striking distance of the homeland. So Director Gabbard, to the

02:46extent that you can discuss it in this setting, what is the intelligence

02:49community's assessment of adversary encroachment in the Western Hemisphere?

02:55Thank you, Mr. Chairman. We'll be able to go into greater detail in the closed

03:00session but the intelligence community assessment reflects what you have just

03:05detailed and outlined. The continued competition, encroachment and

03:13investments that are occurring in the Western Hemisphere have rapidly

03:17increased and continue to pose a threat both to our economic interests and to

03:23our security. Every day there are new reports of further attempts, one just

03:30recently that that came up yesterday, with investments that are being made in

03:35the southeast part of the United States. Again, I'll go into this further in a

03:41closed setting but the intelligence assessments that we are receiving are

03:46being shared with senior cabinet officials, Department of Energy, Commerce,

03:52Treasury, those who are working alongside us to not only monitor but to determine

03:57the best policies that will protect our interests. Thank you. I want to turn to

04:03Director Patel real quick in the time that I have left. If you can flesh this

04:06out for me just a little bit. You indicated something that caught my

04:08attention in the proceeding yesterday and that was your involvement with the

04:12Judicial Drug Task Force that you partner with at the state level and how

04:18that has yielded positive results with regard to cartel activity. Can you

04:23put a little finer point on that to describe those partnerships in the

04:2653 seconds we have remaining? Yeah, I'll try to be brief. Mr. Chairman, Mr. Vice

04:30Chairman, thanks for having us, Ranking Member. My priorities at the FBI have

04:34been to partner with state and local law enforcement in ways that we have not

04:37done so before, particularly on information sharing and it's a two-way

04:41street. And in order for us to effectuate drug seizures and narcotics

04:45interdictions in the 50 states, we treat them as all border states because that's

04:48what's happening. We have an American citizen die of a drug overdose every

04:52seven minutes. That is wildly out of control and unacceptable. But the FBI

04:56cannot do that mandate and secure the American people from Washington, DC. So

05:00we're putting resources in the field. We were working with our partners at the

05:03state and local level and we are seeing immediate results as we are seeing in

05:07Arkansas as I outlined yesterday with hundreds of arrests, thousands of pounds

05:11of narcotics seized, dozens of weapons and multiple indictments. Thank you,

05:15Director. I'm going to yield and recognize Ranking Member

Tulsi Gabbard Asked About 'Anti-American Regimes Gaining Permanent Footholds' In Western Hemisphere

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