Important in washington d. C. Going on tonight, i think you know what im talking about. Thank you for coming. Im Mark Loiselle at this George Mason University and we author the intelligence policy and National Security that has put on a number of these wonderful programs in the last few years. Im flattered that his turnout and look very much forward to this event. For those of you who dont know George Mason University has a short School Policy government that provides academic programs in fairfax and Arlington Virginia and we have a number of her fashion of degree programs primarily taught in arlington and Public PolicyPublic Administration interNational Security studies which has been ranked number two by u. S. News and world report nationally that we are very proud of and i think the Michael Hayden sent her center for Security Policy studies a number of other entities at the school are a very important component of the recognition we have received for being leaders in the field of security studies. Again thank you for being here. I look forward to a great event that i want to acknowledge the presence of the provost of our University David willits. [applause] several members of our board of trustees also are here tonight. Thanks to them for attending this event as well. Most importantly i want to acknowledge the presence of the founder of the Michael Hayden center and his wife janine. General Michael Hayden and janine hayden. [applause] general hate and we are really proud to have you in the schar school. Michael has been teaching for us for the past 10 years and we look forward to him coming back to the classroom and i think he is a few words that he would like to say. Thank you again for coming. I think this is going to be a really interesting debut. Im looking forward to it. Thank you again. Thank you. [applause] [applause] there we go. All right so i just want to take another brief moment and acknowledge him. This gentleman has been through a lot in last year and this is one of this firsttime speak publicly since he suffered a stroke so one more round of encouraging thought. [applause] i know we are running a little bit behind so i will shorten my comments much to the pleasure of my management at the schar school. First i want to welcome you all here. I also would like to welcome the audience that is watching right now on cspan, channel 2. We are speaking to quite a large audience and i think thats a testament to the value of the material that the schar school in the Hayden Center is bringing forward. Secondly for those of you who are social media savvy would love you to tweet along in the event and putsomethings out there that reflect the comments of some of our speakers. If you look in your program hayden 20 20 vision and then say whatever the heck you want to say about the event that would be great. Later on we are going to have a section of the audience q a encouraging his eyes as questions. You probably noticed we have microphone stands and i always on these two sides so when Margaret Brennan indicates its time to ask questions might line up at the microphone to be prepared to ask a question. We would love you to identify yourself and if you have an affiliation you are proud of. Dont make a speech. If you want to make a speech talk to us later. Lastly we are going to have a reception for all the audience members and give you a chance to talk. Those of you who arent rushing home to watch the World Series Game but please exit the back doors for the reception and let our Panel Members and guests in the front row exit through the side door and i think it will make for a more pleasant experience for everybody. The Hayden Center we inform about intelligence. General hayden through his career i think was a little worried as to how intelligence is being portrayed across the nation often in a very negative light. The Hayden Center allows him and us to better inform the American People about the incredible value of the Intelligence Committee provides the nation and i think to emphasize the men and women who workmack the Intelligence Community are your neighbors and friends and your family. They are out there to do good for the country so we hope if you walk away with anything tonight youll walk away with that impression. This year were sponsoring a series where calling 20 20 vision. General hayden and i were a bit concerned with the lack of focus on National Security issues in the campaign so far. If you are like me and im guessing most of you are like me because youre here and not watching the baseball game you have been watching the president ial debates and much of the conversation is through a wave of National Security issues in my view a president can do the most good in the most harm in the National Security arena. Domestic issues, its a battle in congress but the president has a lot of authority in National Security and he can move very quickly in that arena. And so we thought we needed to do something about that and we decided to run a series of events and where calling 20 20 vision. The first of those where having tonight is looking at intelligence and the u. S. President ial election. The conversation will be guided by Margaret Brennan the moderator of cbs news face the nation. Shes been the moderator since 2181 of the longestrunning Television Shows in america. It goes back to 1954. Take it is today one of the most highly rated shows on sunday morning. Before that she was cbs News White House state Department Correspondent and before that cover Global Financial markets on bloomberg and cnbc. We have a powerhouse of until leaders. Their experience extends to the current day. I will let you read their bios in the program but i frankly think most of them dont require a lot of introduction. Im not going to spend a lot of time on introductions right now. We have john brennan former director of cia former assistant to the president for Homeland Security and counterterrorism in the longstanding 20 year career at the cia. John mclaughlin director central at taliban since with george tenet let the ic from 2000 to 2005 and incredibly trying times or nation serving as the acting director of Central Intelligence in his final months of his career and hes just a legend in the analytic trade analytic trade rev peer Michael Morell director ca from 2010 to 2013 serving prices are acting director also led the cias analytic career and service a brief for the president bush the only person with the president of the United States on 9 11 as well as with the president of the day we brought osama bin ladin to justice. Andrew mccabe Deputy Director of the fbi from 2016 to 20 teen serving as the acting director in 2017 after james comey was fired. He has had a storied career and counterterrorism let the fbi Security Branch in the Washington Field office played a Critical Role investigating the Boston Marathon bombing the attack in benghazi and the russian attack on our election in 2016. Please welcome our Panel Members are moderated to the stage and thank you. [applause] [applause] thank you all for coming out tonight and what an incredible lineup of panelists that we have here from the National Security community. We will be taking questions but im lucky that i get to sleep them off tonight. And i want to dive right in because theres there is so much a rich territory to mine here. When we look at the question of the Intelligence Community and how it impacts people with regard to election security. Can you help us at the table john brennan with the day in august of 2016 when you went to susan rice then National Security adviser and said, we have evidence that Vladimir Putin himself is directing election interference in this country. A few others to talk about what we had determined that the. In terms of the interference with the election. It was an effort to try to make sure that the president of the United States was aware of what it is that we know and what we assessed. And that the work that we need it to do, in order to try to get a better sense of what was going on. Making sure that the chief policymaker of whose country, and the information that he need it in order to safeguard one of the foundations of our democra democracy. It provides the americans to 20 representatives. The discussion that i had that small group and then to make some decisions about who else we need to breathe. The gang of eight. To make sure that our congressional leadership was unaware as well. And how we are going to ensure that we would work with our partners within the Intelligence Community. And those that have the expertise and capabilities as well is the responsible of these such is fbi and i would need to work whose effort collaboratively really and do it in a matter it was going to be apolitical. In an effort to try and ensure that the election, that went out that dive boat exploitation by the russians. And largely dead. Will is quite evident now after the molar report and other such things, that the russians did engage in a sweeping and systemic effort to try to influence election. In undermining the integrity. It was directed by len putin. Ive learned a lot of things since i left the government. I think the impact of the russians, the attempts and the impact on the boats is unavailable. It was something that we see i come in the rest of the intelligence, it did not assess and it was not ours possible the romantic, ive learned a lot about with the russians were doing in the digital environment is far is putting out these things and trying to influence the electorates receptions of the candidates in the situation of the United States. I am sure personally that is russian efforts changed the lines of at least one voter. Weather change the mind of one voter or a million voters, from what i dont know. But clearly, based on what it is that i have come to more fully appreciate especially what they have done, is far is pushing out the [applause], again, based on my intelligence background, i do think the votes were changed. How monday and which states, i dont know. And weather it mayday difference is far is the outcome, i dont know. I do know though that the russians have engaged in whose type of activity not just in the United States but abroad, and they would much prefer to shape the politics about the countries to whose insidious matter opposed to trying to use military pressure sometimes they opt with that. Place like ukraine. But they can shape the outcome of the selection in western countries, they have a toolkit of capabilities that they have leveraged. In 2016 election, they didnt do some of the things that we have seen them doing other places. I dont know weather or not that was the result of confronting them. I confronted one of my russian counterparts. In early august about it, jim and jay johnson came out with a statement in october. And president obama, embraced in wooten, so i dont know weather or not that is confrontation we had with russians, persuaded them from doing more things. People said that we did it try to solve russians. We did. And may be impacted the things he did have residents from a standpoint of the russians decided not to go into greater extent of business. Micro, we were together at cbs 2 as well, facebook sick today, then removed three russian that influence networks on a site that were aimed at african countries. In the networks were linked to a name that you know well. It was the same russian who was indicted by the United States and linked to some of what john brennan was just recalling from bunny 16. Some of the fact they are continuing to use the same tools, the same individual, that they are in russia and completely undeterred. I think its fair to see, for sauls great to be here. Whose is my fifth if it. Everyone it is been a pleasure and its great to see general hayden. Things fair to see that the russians in general have not been detoured. Its not only in africa, that they are continuing to use social media to try to influence populations to think and react to certain way. To raise debates in a wide cleavage is, they are still doing it here. Is we speak right now. Not only had they not stopped but we know from public testimony by the director of National Intelligence last january that others have seen the benefits of whose. Kinkos mentioned the chinese, red onions, north koreans, and he said and others. I know how carefully is right. I know that and others actually means something. There are other countries that he did not want to mention there also doing whose. Id be interested to know who they are. Probably some of our allies actually. Not only have the russians not been to george, because they havent been detoured, is now spreading becoming a larger problem. Whose is the new tool. It is a wellknown rival enemy to the United States. Why has there been more adaptation by the Intelligence Community to be able to figure out how that works. I think people are working on how to battle it. What we dont know, and with the Intelligence Community will talk about cant talk about it, is that they may or may not be doing offensively. Subpoint a part of the Cyber Operations that you just dont talk about publicly. But im quite sure that her Intelligence Community has brought relaxed about whose. And they are pillaged vigilant. The bigger problem is weather the u. S. Government is a whole can coordinate it in the absence of a cybersecurity coordinator, the white house, weather the u. S. Government can coordinate all the tools at its disposal to about the tack and combat what the russians will attempt to do. And while it is true, is john said, we cannot determine at whose. With confidence what effect they may have had, if you look at volume one of the molar report, which is very interesting. It is a gold mine. And you look the four states were pivotal in the outcome of the election, take michigan mr. Trump one in michigan by about 11000 volts at a roughly 45 billion that were cast. You cant be certain of that margin came from russian influence but we know from the bull report that evidently briefed the former russian Intelligence Officer on data on those for scream states. So it isnt much of a leap to see, whose could have had an impact. There were similar marches in pennsylvania and minnesota and wisconsin which also briefed and former Intelligence Officer russian. You are looking at someone who came from within the fbi and how to protect against the kind of inflows that was described here the debate in whose country often focuses on Weather Congress should pass laws to try to crack down on whose. It doesnt seem to be going anywhere. There isnt a lot of room for that. What can we do short of that legislatively give the fbi portals. When i talk to a lot of people from the obama administration, they have frustrations that when it came to recognition of patterns speaking to states in particular, was pushed back against the federal government trying to advise and how to protect against interference. Sure there is an easy answered to what tools or capabilities should the fbi have to do that work. More efficiently and more effectively. It is a pit beyond the scope of the traditional things of that. No question about that. Theres no question that should involve the legislative approach, we did encounter that sort of pushback and resistance that you refer to. But those are very broad kind of states rights issues that quite frankly, thats argue meant that the bureau has brought going to be able to settle in statebystate approach. We need a more consistent and cohesive approach to election securities at large. That involves not just cybersecurity, but in terms of all of the processes involved, and setting them up and registering voters and maintaining that information, and of course the electoral process rights. Swell place to respond to threats is they are perceived in cyberspace by her intel colleagues or hair in the ground is that information comes through us through informants and other means. But the kind of prophylactic measures try to get the states all on an even footing in terms of the approach election securities cybersecurity, that goes far beyond the bureau capabilities. During regular microphone. It was just cutting in and out. Jeff and mike. I just want to add one point to what john and john said about rove there at the restaurant influence. We will never know. Bu