Transcript:
Megyn Kelly: Joining us now, Pete Hoekstra, former Chairman of the House Intelligence Committee and Senior Fellow at the Investigative Project on Terrorism. Great to see you, sir. So, your thoughts on whether this guys is likely linked to others who may have helped him in this regard.
Pete Hoekstra: Well it's unclear as to whether he was linked to others here in the United States. I think one of the real things we've got to be taking a look at who he was linked to in Pakistan and in Afghanistan and to do that we need strong relationships with the intelligence communities in those two countries because they are the ones who are going to have the eyes and ears into the Taliban, into al-Qaeda and into ISIS, and they're the ones that, you know, can give us a tip that says 'hey we're hearing from our sources. There's an American who is learning bomb-making skills, he's been there for two weeks and he's heading back to the United States in March.' That's the kind of information –
Kelly: Then he comes back, then he comes back and it's not like he wasn't – he was questioned by customs and border patrol when he came back over. He had been over there for a year at one point. And yet there is no screening, and even if there was we've seen some of the screening: 'Are you a terrorist?' That's helpful. So you can understand America's frustration where they're like 'the guy wasn't [unintelligible] repeatedly, more and more devout, he was becoming angry, he was openly talking about hating American culture, his dad said he was a terrorist—okay I get that he recanted—that doesn't happen to the average person, and they're saying 'we love our FBI, but we have to hold them to some higher standards.
Hoekstra: Well what we also do know, Megyn is that in the last number of years they – the FBI and other law enforcement agencies – they've kind of become politically correct. Organizations that used to go in and train the FBI and other local law enforcement about the things to look for when you are trying to determine whether someone may have radical jihadist tendencies. That training in many cases has been eliminated because it was politically incorrect and uncomfortable and we don't want to be perceived as targeting Muslims or, you know, folks from the Middle East or from Pakistan of Afghanistan. These organizations—or this training has been purged from the FBI.
Kelly: And so you've got a combination of, you know you and General Hayden who of course he was running the NSA program where they were allowed to listen in only on a phone call that was between an American and a suspected terrorist. It's not just any American. And nine times out of ten they weren't listening to anybody they were basically just collecting so-called meta-data. Anyways that program, he's suggesting something like it, something that will let us get more up into their business would be helpful, and you're saying that we've disarmed in the fight the a large extent. So where does that leave us because I understand we've got Donald Trump, we've got Hillary Clinton, but I mean do you actually see a difference in the country's safety depending on what happens here on November 8th.
Hoekstra: Oh absolutely. I mean, you know, domestically we have disarmed. We should rearm. Internationally, you know, take a look at our intelligence capability in places like Libya and in Egypt. Six years ago these two countries were a rich source of intelligence. Throughout northern Africa and into the Middle East – Egypt and Libya had fantastic intelligence organizations. When America partnered with radical jihadists, the Muslim Brotherhood, to overthrow Mubarak and to overthrow Gaddafi, we lost those two entire intelligence networks. We are now basically blind in northern Africa. We see less into the Middle East and other people who in the past have partnered with us on intelligence capabilities are much more hesitant to partner with us. So we have disarmed domestically, and we have gone blind internationally in some key, key locations.
Kelly: Former Congressman Pete Hoekstra, good to see you. Thank you, sir.
Hoekstra: Good, thank you.