Rep. Mike Waltz, R-Fla., told Newsmax on Thursday that the "alarm bells" of an attack on U.S. soil are "blinking red" with an open border and the unknown whereabouts of some 300 foreigners on the terror watchlist.
Waltz, a member of the House Armed Services and Intelligence committees, joined "Rob Schmitt Tonight" to address FBI Director Christopher Wray's warning to Congress earlier Thursday of an organized attack in the U.S. akin to the recent massacre in Russia.
"I wasn't in the hearing, but I would have loved to have asked [Wray] the last time he talked to [Homeland Secretary Alejandro] Mayorkas? And the last time he talked to the president? And tell him, use your executive authority, as President [Donald] Trump did, and close the darn border, period," Waltz told Schmitt. "But it's still wide open. And just by point of comparison, under the last administration, the Trump administration, there were 12 that we knew of on the terrorist watchlist. Now, we have over 300. And nobody knows where they are.
"The FBI is trying to hunt them down, and I think, frankly, Wray is covering his rear end by coming to Congress and saying, 'Hey, I warned you,'" he added.
At a budget hearing on Capitol Hill, Wray told lawmakers that he "would be hard-pressed to think of a time where so many threats to our public safety and national security were so elevated all at once."
Waltz agreed.
"Look, Americans need to be vigilant," Waltz said "The alarm bells are blinking red. I'm also on the intelligence committee, and I fear that it's just a matter of when, not if."
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Mark Swanson ✉
Mark Swanson, a Newsmax writer and editor, has nearly three decades of experience covering news, culture and politics.
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