00:09Mr. Planke, I have a couple of fairly straightforward yes or no questions.
00:15Was the 2020 election rigged and stolen?
00:21Senator, thank you for your question.
00:24It's pretty much a yes or no question.
00:27Thank you for your question, Senator.
00:30I have not reviewed any of the cybersecurity of the 2020 election.
00:34Don't have an opinion on whether the 2020 election was rigged and stolen?
00:41Senator, my opinion on the election as an American private citizen is probably not really relevant.
00:48But the Electoral College did confirm President Joe Biden and swore him into office.
00:55Well, let me ask you, were there, quote, widespread election malfeasance and serious vulnerabilities with the voting machines and, quote, that changed the election outcome?
01:08Senator, as you know, elections are state-run entities.
01:12And many different sectors of the state across the 50 states of the United States pursue different methods to secure their own elections.
01:23Mr. Planke, my time is limited.
01:25So I'm just going to say to you, there ought to be no hesitation in your answer to these questions.
01:31The agency that you've been nominated to lead, CISA, the Cybersecurity Infrastructure Security Agency, along with the entire national security and intelligence community, agreed that the election was secure.
01:50You're undermining the confidence of the nation in the election apparatus at a time when that credibility is as important as ever, when you're about to lead an agency that has responsibility for that security.
02:10The state and election officers across the country ran audits and examinations and, on a bipartisan basis, affirmed that President Trump lost the election.
02:22He won the next election.
02:24The answer to my questions is no.
02:29The 2020 election was not rigged and stolen.
02:34There were no widespread election malfeasance and serious vulnerabilities.
02:37Even though President Trump said there were.
02:40Now, I know it is a contentious topic.
02:45But your role in that agency is to be above politics.
02:53If you can't tell us with conviction and conscience that those elections were secure, I have very serious doubts about your ability to lead this agency.
03:06Let me ask you, if President Trump comes to you and he demands that CISA falsely claim that the 2026 or 2028 elections were rigged, what will you do?
03:23Senator, as a cybersecurity professional, these are state-run elections.
03:29I have not reviewed the cybersecurity posture of all 50 states.
03:33With all due respect, sir.
03:34That's like a doctor who's diagnosing somebody over the television because they saw him on the news.
03:40No, it's like a doctor who has a patient come to him and is responsible for doing the diagnosis.
03:49It may be a second opinion, but it actually is the determinative opinion because you are the head of the federal agency that oversees the security of our election system for the entire nation.
04:05And you're telling me, in effect, you're just going to dodge, you're going to jump ship, you're going to evade that responsibility.
04:15I think that answer is completely unsatisfactory.
04:19Senator, I did not say that I would dodge or abate any of my responsibility.
04:24I would remind you, Senator, that CISA is a consent-based cybersecurity agency, and cybersecurity, CISA is postured to respond and support every state across the United States.
04:40And we will gladly and do our due diligence to support those states across the United States.
04:44You seem not to understand the responsibility of CISA.
04:48CISA, people turn to this agency for unbiased, objective, science-evidence-based expert information.
05:00And you're, in effect, saying that if President Trump comes to you and he says, I want you to say this election was rigged, you're going to yield to him.
05:12You know, when we talk about elections and whether or not they're rigged or not, I don't think one party or another is particularly immune to this.
05:23There are still people who believe that the Daily Machine and the Mafia conspired in Cook County in 1960.
05:30There's some evidence of it.
05:32You know, it's a longtime American tradition, you know, for both parties to question the other party in elections.
05:37I will say that in 2016, when Donald Trump won the first time, you know, Hillary Clinton, to this day, says that he was an illegitimate president.
05:48Jimmy Carter said he was illegitimate.
05:50From the very beginning, they tried to delegitimize Trump.
05:54So I would say it's no different.
05:57And, in fact, if we're going to criticize Donald Trump for questioning the 2020 election,
06:00we should be equally critical of Hillary Clinton for questioning the 2016 election.
06:05The quotes are legion.
06:07I mean, dozens and dozens of quotes, dozens and dozens of interviews.
06:12Hillary Clinton, to this day, is unrepentant in this.
06:15But it's worse than that.
06:16That's just sort of an opinion.
06:17What they ended up doing is using the apparatus of government to try to delegitimize Trump.
06:23They used the apparatus of government to spread something that was a falsehood,
06:27that the Russians got the election for Donald Trump.
06:29He wasn't deserving.
06:31The people didn't vote for him.
06:33The Russians did this.
06:35But it turns out that all of the intelligence reports saying the Russians, of course they try to meddle.
06:40They meddle every time in all of our elections.
06:42But it was judged to be insignificant and not consequential until it wasn't.
06:48Until all of a sudden someone at the top of the intelligence community decided,
06:53oh, well, yeah, we think Donald Trump's illegitimate.
06:56We're going to spread this throughout government.
06:58And there basically was a conspiracy using government and using the power of the intel agencies.
07:04So for people who complained, Donald Trump complained about the 2020 election, my goodness.
07:09The Obama administration planted misinformation throughout government purposely.
07:16They planted it in lots of different places.
07:19At one point, John Brennan is asked the question by the analyst that he has selected,
07:24this information, sir, this dossier, this Steele dossier is opposition research and it is unchecked.
07:34It is unverified.
07:36And Brennan's flippant response was, yeah, it sure sounds like it could be true.
07:40Sure rings true.
07:42This is the head of the CIA saying this.
07:44They got together and really cooked up something to delegitimize.
07:49So I really am not that interested in hearing, oh, Donald Trump says it.
07:53Will you admit the election wasn't rigged?
07:55There's a great book on this.
07:57It's called Rigged by Molly Hemingway.
07:59And in it, she goes through in great detail the Democrats' disregard.
08:04You know, does anybody remember the Democrats voted against seating electors?
08:08You know, the whole January 6th stuff, they say, oh, this is unprecedented.
08:12Republicans aren't seating the electors.
08:14Now, look, I voted to seat the electors.
08:16I thought the argument wasn't a valid argument.
08:18But the thing is, Democrats, including one of the ones who worked, Raskin, to impeach the president,
08:25he voted not to seat the electors in 2016 because he thought the election was rigged.
08:29So for goodness sakes, let's put this to rest.
08:32Both parties have accused each other of malfeasance.
08:35Both parties have accused the elections of being rigged.
08:38And let's just try to move forward.
08:39Mr. Chairman, with all due respect, nothing you've said absolves this witness of a responsibility
08:45to answer these basic questions about the core responsibility of the agency he's been nominated to lead.
08:55The system has nothing to do with the elections.
08:57The system has nothing to do with the state-run elections.
