CNN "The Lead with Jake Tapper" - Transcript Interview with Elissa Slotkin
Interview
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Congresswoman, thanks for joining us.
So, just so our viewers understand, you've been in the CIA. You've also worked in the NSC, the National Security Council, under both about Presidents Bush and President Obama. So, you have some experience gleaning information, reading intelligence.
What did you learn from this briefing?
REP. ELISSA SLOTKIN (D-MI): Yes, well, we had a conversation in the Situation Room. A lot of the conversation was about the veracity of the reporting, right? And hearing from some of the senior staff at the White House on, you know, their concerns about some of the intelligence. What bothered me about that is we didn't have any representatives from the CIA, from the NSA, from any of the big intelligence communities there to speak to that very issue. It was just senior staff of the president.
So, they talked about the veracity of the reporting and then, you know, what I spent my time asking about was, I get it, that there might be questions with the intelligence, that's fair. As a CIA analyst, that happens.
But I just imagine myself as a staffer in the White House under Bush, under Obama, if something like this had come across my desk, I think either of the national security advisers, either of the chiefs of staff that I worked for would have said, you know what, we just need to alert the president.
And that goes twice as -- you know, it's twice as important if you think about the fact that between March 30th and June 3rd, the president spoke to Vladimir Putin five times on the phone. So, to staff a phone call, to get the president prepped, I just couldn't understand and asked this question to the senior staff, how could you not have at least just flagged it for him and said, Mr. President, we're looking into this but we want you to know?
TAPPER: So, just to bring people up to speed, based on my reporting, what seems to be going on here in terms of agencies having different views of the reliability of this intelligence, it seems like this came from human intelligence, which is something that a lot of spy agencies use as opposed to signals intelligence, which is picking up communications electronically.
[16:25:03]
The National Security Agency focuses on SIGINT or signals intelligence, as opposed to human intelligence.
I know you can't disclose what the -- what the argument is here, but how common are these kinds of disputes within the larger intelligence community?
SLOTKIN: They do happen. And I -- actually, I want to say, it's actually a good thing that there's debate, right? I mean, I became an Iraq analyst right after some of the failed assessments of what weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. So, I was trained that it's important that people speak up if they don't believe the intelligence is really strong. And agencies should meter that out, like have that debate, get together and figure it out.
So, I don't -- it's not rare. I mean, it does happen from time to time. But then that's a signal, and especially with something that involves our troops, the safety of our troops, I would expect that everybody would just jump on the opportunity to say, OK, let's dig into this. What more do we need to find out? How do we get that information?
To find out if this is really true. Because if it's true and there's a bounty on the heads of U.S. soldiers in Afghanistan, you know, my stepdaughter's in the Army, she could easily go to Afghanistan in the next year. Like I want to know they're doing everything they can to run this down one way or another.
TAPPER: Well, do you have any confidence that they are running it down? Do you be -- do you believe the intel? And if it is true, what do you think the U.S. should do?
SLOTKIN: I think there -- I think it's fair to say that there were questions and that certainly going back a few months in the story, there were real debates in the intelligence community. And I believe that. But I think it's also important that they just do the work of digging into it and figuring it out.
Now, obviously, now that this story is everywhere, there's a lot of discussion about what's ahead and how do we make sure we learn more now. I'm glad that's happening. What I want to hear, I guess, as the step mom of an Army officer is I want to hear that the president say himself that if this is true, then I'm not going to let it stand. That I'm not going to, as commander-in-chief, just stand by while Russia targets our troops and pays for blood on their hands. So, that I still want to hear. And I get that they're being pressured
and so now he's being briefed and all that stuff. I want to hear a clear signal from the commander-in-chief so that people in the military know that he has their back.
TAPPER: Congresswoman Elissa Slotkin, thank you so much for your time today. We appreciate it.
SLOTKIN: Thank you.
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