OPINION:
Before I had the honor of representing my mid-Michigan community in the state legislature, I served our country as a civilian intelligence officer with the Defense Intelligence Agency.
So I know that national security deserves serious consideration as Michiganders evaluate the candidates seeking to represent us in the U.S. Senate.
Mike Rogers has spent much of his career confronting national security threats. He served as an FBI special agent before being elected to Congress, where he became chairman of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence. There, he dealt directly with terrorism, cyberwarfare, espionage and the growing challenge posed by the Chinese Communist Party.
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Modern connected vehicles contain cameras, microphones, sensors, GPS systems and sophisticated software capable of collecting enormous amounts of information. Even Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer has warned that Chinese vehicle software could gather information about Americans.
Technology has changed but the fundamental challenge has not. The threat could be sitting in your driveway right now.
Mr. Rogers understands the need to stand firm in negotiations to prevent Chinese vehicles from flooding into our nation from Canada. Allowing these heavily subsidized Chinese automobiles into the North American market threatens both American national security and the Michigan automotive supply chain.
Our next senator from Michigan will face a world in which China is challenging American economic and technological dominance, cyber threats can cripple critical infrastructure and foreign adversaries can exploit everyday technology to gather information inside our country. Just weeks ago, the FBI busted a Chinese spy in a counterintelligence operation right in Detroit.
The Michigan Senate race has also produced a debate about judgment.
Given Democratic candidate Abdul El-Sayed’s documented associations with groups labeled as terrorist organizations, such as the Muslim Brotherhood and the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), I question whether he could pass even a basic security clearance review, let alone get within a mile of the kind of classified material to which Mike Rogers had accessed in the U.S. House.
Michigan sits on the front line of many of these challenges because we build the products, technology and industrial capacity on which America depends.
Mike Rogers doesn’t need a tutorial in keeping America safe. We need him in the Senate now more than ever.
BILL G. SCHUETTE
Midland, Michigan
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