Rep. Himes on Democrats Going on Offense
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How are Democrats responding to Trump allies in Congress?
We're seeing Democrats on the House Intelligence Committee fighting back. An incredible explosive hearing yesterday where Democratic members were not taking the BS peddled by the Trump regime officials who were testifying. Let me show you what went down. The ranking member of the House Intelligence Committee, Congress member Himes, said the following to Tulsi Gabbard, Director of National Intelligence. Let's play it.
You, on March 15th, as DNI, retweeted a post from Ian Miles Chong, who is listed on RT, that's Russia Today's website, as, quote, a political and cultural commentator who has contributed content to RT since at least 2022. Director Gabbard, do you think that it's responsible for you as head of the intelligence community and the principal's presidential intelligence advisor to retweet posts from individuals affiliated with Russian state media?
That retweet came from my personal account, and I would have to go back to look at the substance of the tweet.
Can I, just so that we don't have a lack of confusion amongst our allies and enemies and us, can I act perhaps that you not think that you should be saying one thing on your personal account than you say officially?
I maintain my First Amendment rights to be able to express my own personal views on different issues. Thank you. I yield back.
What? The director of national intelligence saying that she wants to use her First Amendment rights to repost Russian propaganda? Great questioning there by Congressman Himes. Then you had Democratic Congressmember Castro say the following. Let's play it.
Thank you, Chairman. Tulsi, you and I came into the Congress together in 2013. And Cash, you and I, I was serving on the Intelligence Committee when you worked on the Intelligence Committee. And John, you and I are both from Texas, and we both served together on the Intelligence Committee. Y'all, the idea that this information, if it was presented to our committee, would not be classified, y'all know is a lie. That's ridiculous. I've seen things much less sensitive be presented to us with high classification. And to say that it isn't is a lie to the country.
Then Congressman Roger Krishnamoorthy, let's play it.
Terrorist is at his known location, so should be on time. Also, strike drones launch MQ-9s. MQ-9s is a weapon system, correct?
They are.
Okay. I think Applying the executive order as well as the DOD manual to this fact pattern, we clearly have weapon systems that have been identified. That is classified information. Now, the reason why it's important that this information not be disclosed is that we don't want the adversaries to know what's about to happen. Right, sir?
Well, I would draw a small distinction there. You referenced and asked if that platform, those two platforms are weapon systems. They are, but those terms are used all across the globe in a lot of contexts. So it's really about how they're used in the context of this particular document. I just want to clarify that the use of those.
I understand. In this situation, those are operational details.
They are operational details. But again, as you quoted the DOD instruction, it's about operations. So as you further go down into what are the operational details, I think as we had a discussion yesterday, the important aspect, I think all of us are very familiar.
This is classified information. This is classified information. It's a weapon system as well as sequence of strikes as well as details about the operations.
Let's bring in Congress member Jim Himes, ranking member of the House Intelligence Committee. I guess, first off, it is classified information, correct? As the ranking member, this was classified information that was leaked.
What questions did Congressman Himes pose to the Director of National Intelligence?
Well, it absolutely should have been classified information, right? I mean, there's no doubt about that. Whether it was actually classified, I suppose it's something that they would like to argue about. By the way, if it wasn't classified, that's a whole other scandal because the timing and nature of an attack on a foreign country, you know, not a hard one, as Raja so ably pointed out.
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