During a hearing before the House Intelligence Committee on Tuesday, Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.) blasted NSA leaker Edward Snowden for allegedly betraying the American people. She urged NSA Director Gen. Keith Alexander to get to the bottom of the leaks and prevent them from occurring in the future.
"It seems to me that the problem here is of an individual who worked within the system, who broke laws, and who chose to declassify highly sensitive, classified information," Bachmann said. "It seems to me, that's where our focus should be on how there could be a betrayal of trust and how a traitor could do something like this to the American people."
"It seems to me that's where our focus must be and how we can prevent something like that from ever happening again," she added.
Rep. Michele Bachmann, R-Minn., questions Deputy Attorney General James Cole; Chris Inglis, deputy director of the National Security Agency; Gen. Keith B. Alexander, director of the National Security Agency; Deputy Director of the FBI Sean Joyce, and Robert Litt, general counsel to the Office of the Director of National Intelligence; as they appear before the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence regarding NSA surveillance in Washington, Tuesday, June 18, 2013. Credit: AP
Bachmann then asked Alexander just how damaging the NSA leaks were to national security, to which he responded they caused damage that is "irreversible and significant."
Alexander also said the leaks will hurt the U.S. and its allies.
Watch the exchange below:
(H/T: Mediaite)
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