Dan Coats: “It is clear then that we can do some things at the beginning to, hopefully, alleviate that issue.”

One of the first things you can do--at this hearing, even--is to make a strong statement of support for professionalism in the IC and pledge that you will not tolerate politics influencing the analytical process.

You'll need to demonstrate to the American people that the Intelligence Community deserves their utmost confidence as a source of truth and insight.

I believe the top of the list will be to reinforce the prime imperative for our Nation's Intelligence Community: to find the truth and to speak truth to power, without fear of political retribution.

I know others have talked about that here today, but when you and I had a chance to talk earlier in the last couple weeks, I mentioned one of my real concerns about China.