00:00Thank you, Mr. President. I rise today to introduce the Merit Act, the Minimum Experience
00:05Requirements for Intelligence Transition Act. A lot of words, but the bill is simple. It requires
00:11anyone serving as the Director of National Intelligence, even in a temporary capacity,
00:16to have extensive national security experience. It's common sense. You don't hand the keys to
00:22America's intelligence community to someone who has no experience, regardless of party or political
00:28loyalty. The Director of National Intelligence is a powerful job, and I know because I was there at
00:34the creation. I was one of the first people at the Office of the Director of National Intelligence when
00:40it was stood up. I was seconded there as a CIA officer. I helped stand it up after Congress
00:46created it so that we never again miss a terrorist attack like we did on 9-11. The Office uses
00:53powerful
00:54tools to gather secrets from our foreign adversaries like China and Russia, from terrorist networks,
01:00from threats to our homeland. But it is that power in the wrong hands that I want to talk about
01:05today.
01:07America's national intelligence community can be used to gather information, not just from our
01:14foreign adversaries, but if turned against us, against the American people. It can be used to
01:19monitor Americans, to target political opponents, to dig through records, to punish critics, to help
01:27any president relitigate an election. Right now, that's where we are. President Trump has installed
01:34a loyalist, Bill Pulte, as the Acting Director of National Intelligence. He has zero national security
01:41experience. He's worked in the private sector and in real estate. He has never had a security clearance
01:47before this job. He has never handled classified information before this job. And now, today,
01:52at this moment, he heads up 18 different intelligence agencies in the United States.
01:58He used to be the head of federal housing. That was his job given by President Trump. And he
02:04demonstrated his character at that job. He used housing records, private housing records, to go after
02:10President Trump's enemies. Just think of what is possible with him at the top of our intelligence
02:16community. Now, President Trump placed him there to do two things. One, to focus on politicizing our
02:23elections. And second, to use the intelligence community for the goals he has. Because he is
02:29obsessed with meddling with both. You just have to use President Trump's own words to understand the
02:35story here. This isn't hyperbole. At the State of the Union, President Trump declared that the only way
02:41Democrats could win in the midterms is if they cheat. Just weeks earlier, he called for Republicans
02:48to, quote, nationalize elections in 15 states. This year alone, he has repeated claims that the
02:54elections are rigged more than 100 times. Those words have been backed up by action. He has attempted
03:01to seize ballots in Georgia, my home state of Michigan, and Arizona. He has sued 30 states in total
03:08for their voter rolls. He has pushed Congress over and over again to pass the Save America Act,
03:14which would disenfranchise millions of voters across the country. He dismantled the Election
03:19Assistance Commission, which helps every state carry out their elections. He's pushed the Postal Service
03:24to restrict mail-in voting. He has refused to rule out sending U.S. uniform troops or law enforcement
03:32to the polls to interfere in the elections come November. And he's pressed the Supreme Court to
03:38go after and gut parts of the Voting Rights Act, allowing states to silence the voters, particularly
03:44minority voters. Second, he has tried to weaponize our intelligence community. He has declassified
03:52information to support false claims about elections and sow doubt in our democracy. He's directed the CIA,
03:59the NSA, and other intelligence agencies to target his enemies. He's created a weaponization working
04:06group to implement that work. And he has sent the former director of national intelligence, Tulsi Gabbard,
04:11to raid ballots in Fulton County, Georgia, something that the intelligence community has no business doing.
04:18Now, President Trump is giving a speech tonight. Bill Pulte is now at the center of this. President Trump
04:24was very open. He tweeted about putting him in this job specifically to use the intelligence
04:29community's power to support his Trump, his false claims. Tonight in the president's address to the
04:36nation, he's expected to say how, again, our elections are being rigged and attempt to cherry pick
04:41intelligence to declassify. But let's remember, whatever he brings up, President Trump's team
04:47already saw what happened in 2020. He was the president of the United States during those elections.
04:53If his intelligence community at that time saw information, looked it over, and then decided
04:59that the election wasn't rigged, that was because that was what was presented to them as factual.
05:04You're telling me that the president now, all these years later, wants to re-litigate what he was in
05:10charge of in 2020 and choosing to do it three months before the midterm elections. Call me skeptical.
05:17And all of this is happening as Bill Pulte is right there as our acting DNI.
05:22Tulsi Gabbard going down to Georgia was not enough to soothe the president. Bill Pulte is now his yes
05:29man to do just that. He's gone from being unqualified for this role to dangerous to democracy.
05:35With the bill, we will ensure that people who serve as the acting director of national intelligence
05:42actually have some national security experience needed to do this job. They treat it responsibly,
05:48not on behalf of one party, not on behalf of one man, but on behalf of Americans to keep us
05:54safe.
05:54That is the mandate of the intelligence community. It is what we were trained to do, and I say that
05:59as a CIA
06:00officer, this president is corrupting that with his choice as DNI. Thank you, Mr. President. I yield back.
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