The following is a transcript of an interview with House Intelligence Committee chair Rep. Mike Turner that aired on March 3, 2024.
MARGARET BRENNAN: And we’re back with the Chair of the House Intelligence Committee, Republican Mike Turner. Good to have you here in person. A lot to get to but I want to just button up on the border because you’ve been warning, and you have on this program, of your concern of the national security emergency and the risk of terrorism–
REP. MIKE TURNER: Absolutely.
MARGARET BRENNAN: –Because of the porous border. Mr. Trump has described the border as a Biden conspiracy to overthrow the United States of the mer- of America. Do you think that’s the case? And if so, doesn’t that argue for Congress taking up the bipartisan bill in the Senate?
REP. MIKE TURNER: Well, this is what I think. So the FBI director, Director Wray, has himself personally stated that we are at the highest threat since 9/11 for a terrorist attack within the United States. And he cites the open border for that. Now, we know that the Biden administration, this didn’t just happen to them, that President Biden took a number of executive actions, over 50, that have resulted in the current situation that we have. It represents a national security threat, and it needs to be fixed.
(CROSSTALK)
MARGARET BRENNAN: But Congress writes laws.
REP. MIKE TURNER: The law that came out of the Senate–
MARGARET BRENNAN: You guys control the funding.
REP. MIKE TURNER: –The law that came out of the Senate would not have fixed this. In fact, it would have allowed a sig- you know thousands of people to come across the border illegally. And I think that’s probably where most members in- in Congress fell off, you know, away from this bipartisan deal is that we would, in fact, be sanctioning what the administration was doing and allowing people to come across the border. The border needs to be- to be closed, we need to get back to legal immigration, we need to reform our legal–
MARGARET BRENNAN: Yeah.
REP. MIKE TURNER: –Immigration processes. And, and it represents a national security threat as you said.
MARGARET BRENNAN: Well, it would have given more authority to a future president as well. But I want to move on to a number of different topics, because there are a lot of crises right now. In the Middle East, do you support the administration’s decision to carry out these air drops of food aid into Gaza and potentially create a maritime corridor?
REP. MIKE TURNER: Well, I think it’s- I think it’s essential that aid get into Gaza. Now I was just briefed by the CIA Director Burns Friday, personally. He is the one who is conducting the- the ceasefire negotiations and he believes that we’re close. And I think that’s going to- that is very, very important to accomplish. One, because there are hostages that are still being held as a result of Hamas and the murderous onslaught of October 7. But also because of the desperate need for aid to get into–
MARGARET BRENNAN: Yeah.
REP. MIKE TURNER: –To Gaza. What’s unfortunately, is the Palestinians are being held hostage by Hamas. They’re down in bunkers, cowardly not responding to the conflict that they began, while their people are starving, shows exactly that Hamas is really all about Iran, and not about the Palestinians.
MARGARET BRENNAN: On Friday, President Biden twice mistakenly referred to Gaza as Ukraine. But in his remarks, what stood out to me was this.
(START SOUND ON TAPE)
PRESIDENT JOE BIDEN: We’re going to insist that Israel facilitate more trucks and more routes to get more and more people the help they need. No excuses, because the truth is, aid flowing to Gaza is nowhere nearly enough.
(END SOUND ON TAPE)
MARGARET BRENNAN: It’s the most direct I’ve ever heard him say Israel’s responsible for a large part of this holdup. Should there be consequences for Israel standing in the way of that aid?
REP. MIKE TURNER: Well, I think, as Director Burns is- is negotiating, we’re really close to a ceasefire. That is going to resolve this issue. It’s going to open up the aid corridors. And certainly, I think in- in any conflict, both sides need to be held accountable. And I think certainly there are going to be questions as to what Israel’s- has done and and the manner in which it has operated. But it doesn’t take away from the issue that the Palestinians are in a crisis because of Hamas. And the the fact that Hamas, in attacking Israel and in the manner in which they have hidden during this conflict, have allowed the- the condition of the Palestinians to be in this state, certainly says a lot about Hamas.
MARGARET BRENNAN: Yeah.
REP. MIKE TURNER: And this, and I have to give Director Burns tremendous amount of credit. He’s doing an excellent job. And I think he’s going to be successful.
MARGARET BRENNAN: We’ll watch those developments as we get closer to the beginning of Ramadan. You raised public concern, that got a lot of attention last month, that led to the White House declassifying intelligence that Russia’s pursuing an anti satellite capability, serious concern. They said it would violate a treaty that bans weapons of mass destruction in space. Did your disclosure make a difference here? Do you think the administration is now dealing with it?
REP. MIKE TURNER: Right, and I, I did not do this alone, let’s be clear, my committee 23 to one, voted to disclose this information to Congress, cause that’s kind of our- our responsibilities when we have something that’s critical. And as oversight of the administration when we believe that they’re not taking action to notify Congress of- of this. And I do think they were sleepwalking into an international crisis. And I do think that as a result of the fact that we notified the rest of Congress, we did hold the administrat- account- administration accountable and they’re taking action. I, from what I understand, there was conflict with the administration as to what to do. I think Jake Sullivan here needs a tremendous amount of credit for moving on this and recognizing it’s important. I can’t confirm or deny exactly what this is cause they haven’t declassified it all. But, you know, assuming if you take the news reports to be, you know, hypothetically accurate. Jim Himes, my ranking member has, has said this. If this- if this is true, this would be the equivalent to a Cuban Missile Crisis in space. Well, unfortunately, we don’t have John F. Kennedy as- as president. And we need an administration that acts, and that understands that that this is a huge national security, international security threat.
MARGARET BRENNAN: Wouldn’t it also argue for the Republican controlled Congress to greenlight this aid to Ukraine that the speaker has still not set a date for voting on? I know you support this.
REP. MIKE TURNER: Yes, I absolutely do. We have to–
MARGARET BRENNAN: –Do you have a date?
REP. MIKE TURNER: We have to support Ukraine. The speaker does support Ukraine. And I do think that that probably the most important development that occurred last week, was the Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries came forward and said that the Democrats will not join with the small number of Republicans I frequently refer to as the chaos caucus, who who say to the speaker that we will- we will remove the speaker, if he moves forward on Ukraine, moves forward on spending bills. They cannot do that without Democrats’ support. He said Democrats will not support that. We’re- as long as we’re moving forward bipartisan bills, that includes funding the government, that includes Ukraine, that includes Israel. I believe, it’s a result of that step, that Speaker Johnson now has the leeway and the flexibility to work through Congress and the appropriations committee. I think it’s going to be moving quickly. We’re gonna get our appropriations–
MARGARET BRENNAN: –They run out of ammunition in April.
REP. MIKE TURNER: They’re not completely out of ammunition. So I’ve been to, I was in Kyiv, last month and met with Zelenskyy, also at the Munich Security Conference, and certainly, you know, spoke to our military. And they are rationing but they are not out. This is critical.
MARGARET BRENNAN: Yeah.
REP. MIKE TURNER: We have to support them now or they will lose. And I think the Speaker sees that emergency. Hakeem Jeffries sees that emergency and I think we’re gonna see bills hit the floor.
MARGARET BRENNAN: We’ll stay tuned for when that happens. Mike Turner, thank you for joining us. We’ll be right back with a lot more Face the Nation.