At today's Senate Armed Services Committee hearing, Sen. Joni Ernst (R-IA) questioned DNI Avril Haines about reports that President Biden wants to bring in more Gaza refugees.
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NewsTranscript
00:00Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
00:01Thank you, Senator King.
00:02Senator Arnz, please.
00:03Yes, thank you, Mr. Chair, and thank you both for testifying in front of us today.
00:09Director Haynes, of course, we're here to talk about global threats.
00:12We've heard about China, Russia, and so forth, but earlier this week, the press reported
00:18an effort that would bring one of our global threats here to our homeland.
00:22A recent poll found that 71 percent of Gazans viewed Hamas' brutal attack on Israel, including
00:30the rape of innocent women, their murder of children, and their murder of and capture
00:36of Americans as, quote, the correct decision.
00:41Do you believe that welcoming a significant number of Gazans who likely are harboring
00:46these views into the United States, do you believe that that would threaten the safety
00:52of Americans?
00:53I mean, I obviously think it is outrageous to think that Hamas' attack on Israel was
01:03anything other than a terrorist attack that was utterly brutal and depraved, and I don't
01:11have enough information to understand, you know, when we analyze threats and where the
01:16threats come from and how they develop, that is something we do with great care and deliberation,
01:21and if you pointed us to here's the, you know, individuals that we're concerned about, then
01:26we obviously would do an assessment for you.
01:28So just broadly, though, 71 percent in this poll of those in Gaza support what Hamas did,
01:38and yet our president is considering an action to bring Gazan refugees to our homeland.
01:46So I know you've spent your career working in the intelligence field, but given this
01:53poll, which I would assume is factual, can you tell me for certain that this proposed
02:02action by the president of the United States won't put our citizens at risk here in the
02:08United States?
02:11I'm unfamiliar with the poll, but I can tell you that the process for bringing individuals
02:15into the United States includes a very significant vetting process.
02:19That would be the kind of process I would expect would occur, and so therefore that
02:23would mitigate against any concern or risk that we would have.
02:27Okay.
02:29I know that we have tried to do vetting on Afghans and other refugees as they come in.
02:35Many times that has not been successful.
02:38I'm adamantly opposed to what the president is attempting to do.
02:43So you're serving by law as the head of the intelligence community, and so you're saying
02:51basically under oath that you're really unaware of any risk that that might pose to our citizens.
02:57Sorry.
02:58What I'm saying is that if there's a process for bringing people into the United States,
03:05I'm familiar with that process, and that process is intended to mitigate against any risk of
03:10security, and that's something that I would feel confident about.
03:13Okay.
03:14Thank you.
03:15I'd like to pivot now to Hamas's backers, the Iranian mullahs.
03:22Iran is currently enjoying a golden era of oil profits.
03:26We've seen over $80 billion in oil revenues, enabling Iran to give pay raises and recruitment
03:34bonuses to its proxies, and you've discussed some of those proxies earlier, and these revenues
03:41come from sanctioned transactions, but the enforcement of the sanctions remains nonexistent.
03:49Do you agree, yes or no, that the decision not to enforce sanctions has directly led
03:54to the death of U.S. citizens?
03:59I couldn't make a sweeping statement like that, I'm afraid.
04:04I think it's no question that Iran continues to benefit from oil sales and that they look
04:10for ways to get around sanctions, and that's something we've seen them engage in and that
04:16they are also, as you say, funding and assisting various groups in the region.
04:23I think it's also the case that, frankly, the Iranian economy is in deep trouble right
04:28now and is actually suffering significantly.
04:30It's been one of the challenges that they're facing, but beyond that, unless I'm faced
04:35with a particular scenario that we can assess for you, then we would obviously do that.
04:41Well, what I would say is that they do back Hamas.
04:44We know that.
04:45They back Hamas, and I wouldn't even say they're trying to get around sanctions because we
04:50just don't enforce them.
04:53There's open trade of Iranian oil.
04:56We, as the United States, have these sanctions.
04:59We don't enforce them.
05:01A good deal of their profits, of course, will go to support these proxies.
05:06Hamas has killed Americans.
05:08They killed Americans on October 7th.
05:11They have held eight Americans, three we know are confirmed dead.
05:17They're still holding five.
05:19I would say that, just in my mind, my estimation is that, yes, they are using the profits to
05:26kill Americans.
05:27They have done it already.
05:30I would like to see additional enforcement of these sanctions, not your area, but certainly
05:37it all ties together.
05:39I look forward to visiting more about this, maybe in a closed session, but we have got
05:46to do better.
05:48I'm just using this time to make a statement, too, that I disagree wholeheartedly with what
05:53the president is trying to do by taking people out of Gaza and bringing them to the United
05:58States.
05:59I have seen failures in the vetting process before.
06:02I certainly don't want to see those failures repeated.
06:06So I appreciate your time today.
06:08Thank you.