{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://www.warner.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/pressreleases?ID=0E9AD76F-91B6-4322-A14D-610496D535E4", "On Senate Floor, Warner Sounds Alarm on Political Purge of FBI, Collapse of U.S. Cyber Defenses Under Trump", "2025-11-20", "2025", "2025-11", "Democrat", "Senate", "VA", "Mark R. Warner", "W000805", "www.warner.senate.gov", "warner", "https://www.warner.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/pressreleases", "scraper", "BROADCAST-QUALITY VIDEO IS AVAILABLE HERE\n\nWASHINGTON \u2013 Today, Sen. Mark R. Warner (D-VA), Vice Chairman of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, delivered a speech on the floor of the U.S. Senate warning that the United States faces a deepening threat to our security as the Trump administration continues a sweeping political purge of the FBI, dismantles America\u2019s cyber defenses, and hollow outs the institutions responsible for protecting the homeland. Today\u2019s remarks follow a September address in which Warner outlined concerns with the growing politicization of intelligence under the Trump administration.\n\nIn his speech today \u2013 \u201cA Deepening Threat: How Politicizing Intelligence Endangers Our National Security\u201d \u2013 Warner detailed how thousands of FBI agents and senior leaders have been forced out for political reasons, including the heads of the Bureau\u2019s counterterrorism, intelligence, cyber, and critical incident response units. He warned that these purges, combined with the unprecedented reassignment of 25 to 45 percent of FBI agents working counterterrorism, cyber, espionage, and child exploitation cases to President Trump\u2019s immigration roundups, have sharply reduced the Bureau\u2019s ability to prevent attacks, disrupt foreign plots, and respond to cyber intrusions.\n\n\u201cFiring agents who investigate terrorists, foreign spies, cyber hackers, and child predators does not make America safer, especially when the president\u2019s own intelligence officials warn, publicly and repeatedly, of the many threats facing our nation,\u201d said Warner today.\n\nWarner also highlighted the administration\u2019s dismantling of core cyber infrastructure beyond the FBI. More than one-third of the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) has been fired and pushed out, even as ransomware and destructive cyberattacks hit state and local governments in at least 44 states. The administration has removed the leadership of the National Security Agency and Defense Intelligence Agency, left U.S. Cyber Command without a permanent commander, and disbanded the Foreign Influence Task Force responsible for safeguarding U.S. elections from foreign interference.\n\nQuoting the intelligence community\u2019s own assessments, Warner underscored the intensifying threat environment: Beijing expanding AI-enabled malign influence operations; Moscow increasing the sophistication and volume of its disinformation and cyber activities; and Iran enhancing its capacity for aggressive cyberattacks on U.S. networks and infrastructure.\n\nWarner warned that the administration\u2019s political interference, including the gutting of the FBI\u2019s operational capabilities and the erosion of federal cyber defenses, is leaving Americans at growing risk.\n\n\u201cThe next attack will not wait for Congress to act,\u201d Warner said. \u201cAnd when it comes, the consequences will not be measured in polling numbers or election results. They will be measured in lives lost, infrastructure damaged, and national security compromised.\u201d\n\nWarner reiterated that he will return to the Senate floor in the coming weeks to continue highlighting instances of political interference across the federal government\u2019s national security apparatus and to press for urgent action to restore integrity and protect the American people.\n\nSenator Warner\u2019s remarks as prepared for delivery appear below:\n\nM. President, two months ago, I came to this floor to warn about the growing politicization of our intelligence community.\n\nI laid out, in detail, how this administration, led by Director of National Intelligence Gabbard, was dismantling the independence, integrity, and credibility of the very institutions we rely on to keep Americans safe.\n\nI had hoped that by sounding that alarm early, the administration might reconsider its actions\u2026 or at the very least, slow its march toward turning our intelligence agencies into instruments of political loyalty.\n\nBut instead, the situation has grown only more dangerous.\n\nAnd I want to say at the outset: this will not be the last time I come to this floor on this issue.\n\nI intend to continue making these speeches\u2026 for as long as it takes\u2026 because the stakes for our national security are too high to let this pattern go unchallenged.\n\nSince my remarks in September, we\u2019ve seen not restraint, but an escalation\u2026 an escalation of political retaliation, of the hollowing out of expertise, and of the outright manipulation of intelligence. We are watching, in real time, an administration strip away the guardrails that have protected this country for generations.\n\nI have had the distinct privilege of representing the people of Virginia in this body since 2009. And in nearly 17 years, one of the most consequential responsibilities I\u2019ve held has been serving on the Senate Intelligence Committee\u2026 first as a junior member and then, for the last eight years, as Chairman or Vice Chairman.\n\nI always tell our new members that getting a seat on the Committee is a double-edged sword.\n\nOn the one hand, you get access to things that no other Senators see\u2026 you see capabilities that would astonish even the most seasoned spy-novel reader among us.\n\nBut the other edge is harder: you also see the full scope of the threats facing the United States\u2026 daily reports about terrorist plots, cyber-attacks, hostile foreign services targeting our citizens and institutions.\n\nAnd once you\u2019ve seen that picture clearly, you don\u2019t sleep quite so easily at night.\n\nIt\u2019s precisely because those threats are real, persistent, and in many cases, growing, that I\u2019m so deeply concerned about the Trump administration\u2019s reckless actions \u2013 actions that have left our country more vulnerable than at any point in recent memory.\n\nJust last month, FBI Director Kash Patel testified before the Senate Judiciary Committee that the FBI has experienced a 300percent increase in terrorist cases opened this year alone\u2026 on top of a 30percent increase in foreign espionage cases.\n\nAt the Senate Intelligence Committee\u2019s Annual Threat Assessment hearing, Director Gabbard reiterated that foreign terrorists remain intent on striking the United States and our citizens\u2026 that a range of cyber and intelligence actors continue to target our critical infrastructure\u2026 and that state adversaries possess weapons capable of hitting U.S. territory and disabling vital U.S. systems. Indeed, in an interview earlier this month, Director Gabbard repeated that \u201cterrorism continues to pose the greatest \u2013 both short- and long-term \u2013 threat to the American people.\u201d\n\nWhatever one thinks of the individuals delivering them, the assessments themselves leave no ambiguity about the dangers confronting the United States.\n\nAnd yet, in spite of those clear and present threats, the Trump administration has chosen a course of action that weakens our defenses and leaves Americans more vulnerable to the very risks its own officials have publicly described.\n\nSince Inauguration Day, the president and his hand-picked FBI Director, Kash Patel, have forced out thousands of experienced agents for reasons that appear more political than professional, like refusing to lie about who won the 2020 election, or for prosecuting the violent criminals who attacked Capitol Police officers on January 6, or simply for being friendly with someone critical of the president.\n\nAlarming court filings suggest that even Director Patel has privately acknowledged that many of these actions may be illegal\u2026 yet justified them by saying that his position depended on carrying them out.\n\nThe list of those purged reads like a Who\u2019s Who of the Bureau\u2019s most decorated public servants:\n\nThose agents forced out include the former Acting Director of the FBI, Brian Driscoll, who rose through the FBI ranks in some of its most elite units, including the FBI\u2019s Hostage Rescue Team\u2026 where in 2015 he supported U.S. Special Operations in rescuing an American humanitarian aid worker, Kayla Mueller, from ISIS. Special Agent Driscoll would later rise to be the Head of FBI\u2019s Critical Incident Response Group, the FBI\u2019s elite team in charge of dealing with terrorists, child abductors, bomb threats, and hostage situations. For his service, Agent Driscoll was awarded the FBI Medal of Valor and the Shield of Bravery\u2026 only to have Director Patel fire him because he would not purge agents the president deemed politically disloyal.\n\nThey include Bobby Wells, who joined the FBI shortly after 9/11 and spent decades in counterterrorism. He eventually became the Head of the FBI\u2019s Counterterrorism Division, leading efforts against Al Qa\u2019ida, ISIS, and other global terrorist networks. Notably, he helped bring to justice the mastermind of the Kabul International Airport bombing that killed 13 American service members \u2013 an accomplishment publicly touted by the president \u2013 only to have the president fire him shortly thereafter.\n\nThey include Michael Nordwall, the Head of the FBI\u2019s Criminal Cyber Response Branch, who led efforts to combat ransomware attacks, online fraud, and sophisticated cyber intrusions targeting critical U.S. infrastructure.\n\nThey include Ryan Young, the Head of FBI\u2019s Intelligence Division\u2026 overseeing the collection and analysis of intelligence on domestic and foreign threats, ensuring that field offices had the situational awareness to prevent attacks.\n\nOther senior agents forced out include dozens of heads of FBI field offices nationwide, from Washington, D.C., to Miami, New Orleans, Las Vegas, and Seattle.\n\nAmong them was Special Agent Jacqueline Maguire, the lead investigator into the five hijackers of American Airlines Flight 77, whose expertise was critical to understanding 9/11 and preventing further attacks.\n\nAnd most recently, they include Steven Palmer, a 27-year veteran of the FBI and the third head of the FBI\u2019s elite Critical Incident Response Group to be fired in just three months. As head of the Critical Incident Response Group, he led teams tasked with responding to terrorist attacks, mass shootings, hostage crises, and high-risk national security incidents\u2026 work that requires split-second decision-making under extreme pressure. He was fired not for failing in his duties, not for misconduct, and not for political disagreements about law enforcement policy.\n\nHe was fired because the American people learned that Director Patel had been using the FBI\u2019s $60 million jet, at $20,000 per flight, to go on dates with his girlfriend. To make matters worse, recent reporting indicates that Patel has now also pulled agents off of an FBI SWAT team to provide a personal security detail for his girlfriend\u2026 an unprecedented use of some of one our nation\u2019s most elite units, ordinarily assigned to deal with terrorism, hostage situations, or mass shootings.\n\nThousands of FBI agents\u2026 all forced out, not because they failed to do their jobs, but because they refused to bend the knee to partisan politics.\n\nAnd as if that weren\u2019t alarming enough, in recent months the FBI has reassigned between 25 and 45 percent of its agents who handle counterterrorism, cyber, espionage, child sexual abuse, and other critical missions\u2026 to immigration enforcement.\n\nData reveals a 33 percent decrease in the hours spent on child exploitation cases, compared to previous years.\n\nFiring agents who investigate terrorists, foreign spies, cyber hackers, and child predators does not make America safer, especially when the president\u2019s own intelligence officials warn, publicly and repeatedly, of the many threats facing our nation.\n\nJust this summer, the ODNI issued a bulletin warning of Al Qa-ida and ISIS plots targeting the homeland. And just last month, the FBI disrupted ISIS terrorist plots in Michigan and New Jersey that may have been aimed at Halloween festivities.\n\nI shudder to think what would have happened had the FBI missed these plots\u2026 had semi-automatic rifles been unleashed on young children trick-or-treating.\n\nThe FBI Agents Association, which represents over 90percent of all active FBI agents, issued a sobering warning earlier this month that Director Patel, quote, \u201cdisregarded the law and launched a campaign of erratic and arbitrary retribution\u201d and that his actions, quote, \u201cmake the American public less safe.\u201d\n\nUnfortunately, this political purge of our country\u2019s defenses is not limited to the FBI.\n\nSince April, the National Security Agency \u2013 the agency in charge of spying on the communications of our adversaries \u2013 has been without a permanent Director or Deputy Director after President Trump fired General Tim Haugh and his Deputy, Wendy Noble, at the behest of conspiracy theorist Laura Loomer.\n\nSame for the Defense Intelligence Agency, whose director, General Jeff Kruse, was fired after DIA provided a fact-based assessment that contradicted the president\u2019s false televised claim that U.S. strikes had \u201cobliterated\u201d Iran\u2019s nuclear program.\n\nThis pattern of reckless firings has extended to nearly every corner of our national security enterprise.\n\nHundreds of workers who are responsible for maintaining our country\u2019s nuclear weapons\u2026 fired.\n\nStaff managing foreign assistance programs ranging from the detention of ISIS terrorists in Syria to air defense support for Ukraine\u2026 fired.\n\nHundreds of analysts monitoring China and Russia\u2026 fired\u2026 including a 29-year veteran of the CIA who supported President Trump\u2019s Alaska Summit with President Putin\u2026 whose undercover identity was publicly and incompetently disclosed by DNI Tulsi Gabbard.\n\nMore than one-third of CISA \u2013 the agency Congress established for the explicit purpose of protecting our critical infrastructure like water, power, and our elections \u2013 fired\u2026 even as major cyberattacks hit state and local governments in at least 44 states, including a massive ransomware attack on Nevada\u2019s online government systems in August, a ransomware attack in July on local government networks in St. Paul, Minnesota, and a cyberattack on city systems in Mission, Texas in February.\n\nThe irony is stark: despite persistent efforts by China, Russia, Iran, and other adversaries, the 2020 presidential election was one of the most secure in history, thanks in large part to steps taken during the Trump administration\u2019s first term to safeguard our critical infrastructure.\n\nYet now, much of that hard-won protection has been dismantled, leaving Americans more vulnerable than ever.\n\nCyber Command, which under General Paul Nakasone disrupted Russian troll farms in 2017, lacks a permanent Commander. The Foreign Influence Task Force \u2013 stood up by President Trump in his first term to share information with state and local partners about foreign interference in our elections \u2013 has been disbanded entirely.\n\nAnd all the while, the administration\u2019s own intelligence reporting warns \u2013 and I quote:\n\n\u201cBeijing will continue to expand its coercive and subversive malign influence activities to weaken the United States\u2026[and] is likely to feel emboldened to use malign influence more regularly in coming years, particularly as it fields AI to improve its capabilities.\u201d\n\n\u201cMoscow\u2019s malign influence activities will continue for the foreseeable future and will almost certainly increase in sophistication and volume.\u201d\n\n\u201cIran\u2019s growing expertise and willingness to conduct aggressive cyber operations make it a major threat to the security of U.S. networks and data.\u201d\n\nThe pattern is unmistakable: political loyalty is now valued over competence, and the very institutions created to protect Americans are being dismantled before our eyes.\n\nWe can no longer pretend that politics and national security are separate. Every day we allow this purge to continue is a day we leave Americans more exposed \u2013 in their homes, on their streets, and online.\n\nThe next attack will not wait for Congress to act. The next threat will not ask permission. And when it comes, the consequences will not be measured in polling numbers or election results. They will be measured in lives lost, infrastructure damaged, and national security compromised.\n\nThis is the moment to stand up. To defend our intelligence agencies, to protect our agents, and to safeguard the American people. If we fail to act now, we will bear the cost later\u2026 a cost that could be catastrophic.\n\nThank you. I yield the floor.\n\n###", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-04-06T19:52:45Z"]], "columns": ["url", "title", "date", "year", "month", "party", "chamber", "state", "member_name", "bioguide_id", "domain", "scraper", "source", "date_source", "text", "has_text", "collected_at", "updated_at"], "primary_keys": ["url"], "primary_key_values": ["https://www.warner.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/pressreleases?ID=0E9AD76F-91B6-4322-A14D-610496D535E4"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 1.5063611790537834, "source": "dwillis/congress-press", "source_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press", "license": "MIT", "license_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press/blob/main/LICENSE"}