House Intel. Chair: We’re ‘Probably Not in the Best Position’ on Counterintel. Threats

On Thursday’s broadcast of the Fox Business Network’s “Mornings with Maria,” House Intelligence Committee Chairman Rep. Rick Crawford (R-AR) said that “we’re probably not in the best position that we need to be in” when it comes to counterintelligence threats from countries like China.

Guest host Cheryl Casone asked, [relevant exchange begins around 8:10] “What are the biggest threats facing us right now?”

Crawford answered, “Well, we tend to look at this as a sort of a counterterrorism type deal. And while that’s important and that continues, what we have sort of taken our eye off the ball on that is we’ve discussed today this great power adversary that is China, China is everpresent. And, around the globe, they’re exporting their ability to work in our open society, as well as Russia. And so, I think that what we need to do, is to make sure that we are not sort of lapsing into a pre-9/11 posture, as it applies to our counterintelligence capabilities here at home to protect the homeland and recognizing, at the same time, that, not only do we have to manage counterterrorism threats, but we also have to manage counterintelligence threats as they appear here at home. And I think that we have — we’re probably not in the best position that we need to be in. We’re hoping to change that.”

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