Friend —

When the people in our intelligence community go to work each day, they check their Republican and Democrat hats at the door. They work hard, often risking their lives, to keep our country safe. Their work has nothing to do with politics — it's about protecting the country we all love.

That's why it's so alarming to me that the President just named a partisan operative and Trump loyalist with zero intelligence experience to lead the entire intelligence community. While I am committed to working with Republicans and Democrats alike to keep Americans safe from the myriad of global threats we face, frankly I find it disturbing that this President is prioritizing personal loyalty above our national security.

Even more alarming, this latest appointment appears to be part of a pattern of the President undermining the independence and integrity of our federal law enforcement and national security institutions. And by appointing an intelligence director on an "acting" basis, the President is intentionally trying to dodge the Senate's constitutional authority to approve or disapprove of critical national security positions.

I'm proud of the fact that, as Vice Chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, we've been able to work on a bipartisan basis to focus on keeping our country safe. Whether it's investigating Russia's attack on our democracy, protecting us from terrorism, or looking ahead to future challenges we'll face from adversaries like China, America's national security is far too important to pollute with partisan politics.

The brave public servants of the intelligence community, many of whom live or work in Virginia, must be able to speak truth to power. As a leader of the Intelligence Committee, and as your Senator, I want you to know that I will keep working to protect our intelligence community from political interference and to keep our country safe from those who would do us harm.

Sincerely,
Mark Warner