'That's Ridiculous': Joaquin Castro Tells Intelligence Leaders To Their Faces That They Lied

3/26/2025

At a House Intelligence Committee hearing on Wednesday, Rep. Joaquin Castro (D-TX) spoke about the leaked war plans on a Signal chat.

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Transcript

00:00Mr. Castro. Thank you, Chairman. Tulsi, you and I came into the Congress together in 2013,

00:07and Cash, you and I, I was serving on the Intelligence Committee when you worked on

00:10the Intelligence Committee, and John, you and I are both from Texas, and we both served together

00:15on the Intelligence Committee. Y'all, the idea that this information, if it was presented to

00:22our committee, would not be classified, y'all know is a lie. That's ridiculous. I've seen things,

00:29much less sensitive, be presented to us with high classification, and to say that it isn't

00:36is a lie to the country. I want to ask the generals now. The NSA is principally in charge

00:43of intercepting things like signals intelligence from other countries. General, I want to ask you,

00:50if your organization, your agency, intercepted something like this from Russia or China or some

00:56other country, would you consider this classified information?

01:02Representative, we would be classifying based off of our sources and methods,

01:06so those would be the things that, in terms of how we process, how we would be able to obtain

01:12the information, and how we'd report it, we would classify based off of our source and method.

01:16So, if you knew that the Secretary of Defense and the National Security Advisor of Russia or China

01:22and the head of the foreign ministry and all of the folks who are associated with that signal chain,

01:29if you intercepted that information, General, would you consider it classified?

01:34So, it would be classified based off of our collection.

01:37So, the NSA would classify it?

01:39Based off of the protection of our own source and method,

01:44not necessarily based off the content, but how we collected that information.

01:48But it would be classified?

01:52Well, we certainly wouldn't be collecting on a U.S. person conversation.

01:56No, I understand. I'm saying if you did your job and collected it from

02:02the Russian foreign ministry and the National Security Advisor and the Secretary of Defense

02:08and the President's chief advisor, there is no way, no way, having sat on this committee for nine

02:14years, that somebody would come in with that information and give us something that says,

02:20unclassified, you can walk out of this room with this information and give it to whomever you want.

02:26You know, with all respect, you and I worked on the committee at the same time.

02:31Tulsi, you and I came in together.

02:33I've never had an issue of beef with you.

02:35John, you and I are both from Texas.

02:37Y'all know that's a lie.

02:38It's a lie to the country.

02:41I want to ask about the Alien Enemies Act really quick while I have time.

02:46The President has used the Alien Enemies Act, a wartime authority last used to detain German

02:51and Japanese nationals during World War II, to summarily deport people accused of being

02:56members of the Venezuelan gang Tren de Agua.

03:00To invoke this law, the President must demonstrate that the United States is under invasion by a

03:04foreign nation or government.

03:07They have alleged that we are under invasion by the Venezuelan government.

03:11The idea that we are at war with Venezuela would come as a surprise to most Americans.

03:16The unclassified version of the annual threat assessment the intelligence community just

03:20released makes no mention of any invasion or war that we are fighting with the nation

03:26of Venezuela.

03:27You would think our nation being at war would merit at least a small reference in this threat

03:32assessment.

03:34Director Ratcliffe, does the intelligence community assess that we are currently at

03:38war or being invaded by the nation of Venezuela?

03:43We have no assessment that says that.

03:46In invoking the law, the President alleged that Tren de Agua is, quote, undertaking hostile

03:51actions against the U.S. at the direction, clandestine or otherwise, of the Maduro regime

03:58in Venezuela.

04:00Director Gabbard, does the intelligence community assess that the Venezuelan government is

04:04directing Tren de Agua's hostile actions against the United States?

04:09There are varied assessments that came from different intelligence community elements.

04:18I'll defer to Director Patel to speak specifically to the FBI assessment.

04:26But let me ask you, so you're saying there are conflicting assessments that have come

04:30from the IC?

04:31That's correct.

04:32Okay, thank you.

04:34We'll take it up in closed session.

04:36All right.

04:39You know, your threat assessment makes issue of – highlights fentanyl trafficking as

04:46a top threat to the United States, yet support for law enforcement cooperation with Mexico

04:52has been put on hold and there has been a threat of invasion to Mexico by the United

04:57States.

04:58You assess that Russia's advanced cyber capabilities make it a persistent counterintelligence

05:02cyber threat, yet the administration shut down the unit at the Cybersecurity Infrastructure

05:06Agency tasked with stopping Russian cyber attacks.

05:10There are so many other ways that the actions of this administration have contradicted this

05:15threat assessment, and the administration is making the world and the United States

05:19more dangerous.

05:20I yield back.

05:21The gentleman yields.

'That's Ridiculous': Joaquin Castro Tells Intelligence Leaders To Their Faces That They Lied

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