Protecting Intelligence from Politics; Senator Mark Warner Speaks
Sponsored by the Michael V. Hayden Center for Intelligence, Policy, and International Security
The Hayden Center at the Schar School of Policy and Government is a premier destination for thought leadership on intelligence and national security—where experts, scholars, and practitioners come together to illuminate the vital intersection of intelligence and American policy.
“This is a very important and vital conversation to have…Senator Mark Warner, the Vice Chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee took to the floor of the Senate [on September 18 2025] to address his colleagues on his grave concerns about the Intelligence Community, specifically regarding mismanagement, politicization and interference with oversight—and the increased risk that this brings to every American.”
—Larry Pfeiffer, Director of the Hayden Center
Founded in 2016, The Steady State is a nonpartisan, nonprofit 501(c)(4) organization of more than 300 former senior national security professionals. Our membership includes former officials from the CIA, FBI, Department of State, Department of Defense and Department of Homeland Security. Drawing on deep expertise across national security disciplines including intelligence, diplomacy, military affairs and law, we advocate for constitutional democracy, the rule of law and the preservation of America’s national security institutions.
Political pressures on the US intelligence agencies to produce analyses to please White House policymakers are, of course, not new. They come with the territory. As a (non-partisan) staff investigator for the House intelligence committee in the mid-1970s, I saw how the CIA came under pressures from Lyndon Johnson’s White House, and also Richard Nixon’s, to produce politically pleasing analyses related to the Vietnam War. But LBJ and Nixon never broke the Agency’s dedication to speaking truth to power. What Senator Warner is seeing these days is a political determination —- again originating in the White House —- to destroy America’s tradition of speaking truth to power. And this time, it may succeed.