Slotkin: National security officials should not be 'guided by politics'

Source: ABC News

November 17, 2024, 11:07 AM


Sen.-elect Elissa Slotkin, D-Mich., expressed concern Sunday that some of President-elect Donald Trump's selections of national security Cabinet positions could be beholden to his political preferences rather than an objective interpreting of intelligence.

Slotkin, a current U.S. representative and former CIA officer and Pentagon official, told "This Week" co-anchor Martha Raddatz that selections like Fox News host Pete Hegseth for Defense secretary and former Democratic Rep. Tulsi Gabbard to head national intelligence should tell Trump precisely what they're seeing in the world rather than what they think the incoming president "wants to hear."

"I just need to know that the people who are in these jobs are not going to be guided by politics and what someone tells them they think they should be seeing in the intelligence or in the defense picture, but what is actually the truth on the ground," Slotkin said.

"Speaking truth to power is one of the most important things the intelligence community does, and if you have someone in there who feels more beholden to telling the president what he wants to hear, I got a real problem with that."

Read more: https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/slotkin-national-security-officials-guided-politics/story?id=115933937