On the recordJuly 17, 2018
as my colleagues and the Presiding Officer may know, I spent many years of my life in the Navy. I spent some 23 years, starting at the age of 21, on Active and Reserve Duty in the U.S. Navy as a naval flight officer, and I spent most of those 23 years as a P-3 aircraft mission commander. I was even, for a limited period of time, the air intelligence officer for my P-3 squadron when we were deployed in Southeast Asia. I flew hundreds of missions during both the Vietnam war and the Cold War, conducting surveillance operations, gathering intelligence on the Soviets and on others who undermine and destroy the American way of life. As a Cold War warrior, watching an American President yesterday blatantly ignore attacks on a democracy and our intelligence agencies was beyond galling. It was reprehensible--reprehensible. Four days ago, Special Counsel Mueller indicted 12 Russian intelligence officers for interfering in our democratic elections in 2016. That same day, last Friday--Friday the 13th--the Director of National Intelligence, our old colleague, Dan Coats from Indiana, said that our country's digital infrastructure is literally under attack. Here is what he said: The warning signs are there. The system is blinking. It is why I believe we are at a critical point. That was on Friday the 13th. Yesterday, our President, with the entire world watching, chose to attack not the Soviets, not the Russians, but Bob Mueller.…





