Chad Robichaux and Rep. Eli Crane discussed concerns about national security vulnerabilities, citing reported numbers of known or suspected terrorists in the United States and the potential risks posed by emerging drone technology ahead of major international events.
During the exchange, Robichaux referenced the large number of migrants who have entered the country in recent years and questioned how many potential threats may be present.
“Particularly when you had this, like we talked about whatever number is 50 million, whatever open borders, we don’t know who came where they are. And I know you’ve said before that there’s a document 18,000,” Robichaux said.
Crane clarified that the figure did not originate from him but from Joe Kent, who previously served at the National Counterterrorism Center.
“Well, it didn’t, that info didn’t come from me. That came from Joe Kent. He was, you know, over at the National Counterterrorism Center. He came right before Homeland Security, right across the hall, and he told us, everybody, Democrats and Republicans, that, according to their analysis, they had 18,000 known or suspected terrorists in the country,” Crane said.
Crane said he followed up directly with Kent regarding the classification of those individuals.
“And so I actually asked them to come to my office a few days later, and I said, Hey, is that number so high because the president declared these cartels terrorist organizations. And he said, No. He said, You know, that’s not, that’s not. We’re not talking about we’re not talking about cartel members. We’re talking about al Qaeda ISIS and other affiliated groups.”
Robichaux then raised concerns about critical infrastructure vulnerabilities, particularly the U.S. power grid.
“And then we look at things like taking the fact, things like how vulnerable a grid is, things. I mean, I’m on the board for Center for Security Policy, and get to see the grid analysis, and it’s terrifying. I interviewed Tommy Waller on this show. And you when you get a vulnerable grid like we have, and then 18,000 minimum that we know of terrorists in this country.”
Crane pointed to upcoming large-scale international events as potential targets.
“We got the Olympics coming up. We’ve got FIFA World Cup coming up, massive events. And anybody that knows anything about terrorists knows that not only they do, they want their attacks to be as violent and brutal as possible, but they want, they want to get the biggest bang for their buck, as far as PR and media. So they, they’ll often, they’ll often target events like that that are going to have cameras from all over the world on them.”
Robichaux asked what steps could be taken to address what he described as an internal threat.
“Yeah, yeah. We are definitely in a vulnerable state. How do we, you know, from sitting where you sit, and see, seeing what you do, what’s going on here in DC, how can we turn that around to secure this nation, like, what has to happen to secure us from that, that internal threat?”
Crane responded that public complacency is a significant obstacle.
“Well, unfortunately, and I hate to say it, but a lot of a lot of times in the United States, we’ve had it so good for so long here that people get very complacent. And you almost have to have, you know, you almost have to have like, a 911 type attack before people wake up and are like, Oh my god, what have we been doing?”
He said he has served on a Homeland Security task force focused on security planning for the Olympics and the FIFA World Cup and identified drone attacks as a primary concern.
“And this is something that I’ve seen, you know, with being on a task force in Homeland Security for FIFA and the Olympics and how to secure those events, one of our biggest concerns has been drone attacks for a long time, right? The whole drone warfare situation over in Europe and how quickly technology is coming online, you see the cartels starting to use drones.”
Crane warned about the possibility of coordinated drone swarms targeting large crowds.
“You know, it’s just a matter of time before you get some of these homegrown terrorists, or some of the some of the guys that, you know, Director Kent’s talking about in the country now that get it, get a drone swarm. Yeah, drone swarm going, you know, for one of these stadiums where you got, you know, you know, close to 100,000 people in the stadium, 1000s of people outside the stadium. And, you know, it’s like, it’s hard for it’s hard for us to even get members of Congress to pay attention to it and be willing to do something about it.”
Robichaux pointed to the increasing sophistication of drone displays in public celebrations.
“I mean, if you look at Fourth of July, have you seen these, these displays, like these drone displays on Fourth of July and things, I mean, they could make a giant like, mural in the sky moving. Yeah, imagine, you know, you put an attack into a program like that, yeah? How do you swat them out of the sky? How do you stop something like that? I don’t know that we can.”
Crane said technology exists to detect and intercept drones but highlighted legal and jurisdictional barriers.
“We actually have some pretty cool technologies. The biggest problem up here in Washington, DC is to give state and locals the authorities to mitigate them, right? Because you can a lot of our radar systems can tell that they’re inbound and incoming.”
He described observing a drone interdiction while attending the Army-Navy game.
“I was at the Army Navy game a couple weeks ago with Director current from the Secret Service, and while I was in the command post, they had a drone that they were interdicting and landing at another site.”
Crane said detection capabilities are in place, but authorities to act remain limited.
“A lot of the radar systems and sensors that are deployed can tell you that they’re coming or they’re inbound, but even having the authorities, you know, is it to interdict them and take them down? That’s a tough thing. So just getting members of Congress educated on, you know, that threat and how it’s a new threat that most of our security systems aren’t designed to deal with, and, you know, don’t have the authorities to even. Deal with them if they know they’re coming. That’s a big part of it.”
WATCH: