This week, Subcommittee on Border Security and Enforcement Chairman Michael Guest (R-MS) appeared on SiriusXM POTUS’s “The Julie Mason Show” to discuss the upcoming annual Worldwide Threats hearing of the House Committee on Homeland Security. The hearing will feature testimony from Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, National Counterterrorism Center Director Joseph Kent, and FBI National Security Branch Operations Director Michael Glasheen.
Chairman Guest addressed the nation’s responsibility to protect both citizens and visitors as the United States prepares to host major global events such as the FIFA World Cup in 2026 and the Olympics in 2028. He noted that these large-scale events present unique security challenges.
“We’ve got several large events that will be taking place in the United States. The World Cup, which will take place across approximately a dozen different U.S. cities next year. We have the Olympics, which will take place in Los Angeles. We have the 250th anniversary of the founding of this great nation, which will take place across the country in every community. So, I think one of the things we want to hear from these witnesses is what do they perceive as the biggest threats… What do they need to make sure they have the ability to keep all Americans safe. This is a great opportunity to talk about the successes of ‘25 but to also look ahead at the challenges of ‘26 and beyond.”
Guest emphasized vigilance amid ongoing security concerns: “We have to remain ever vigilant. We can never let our guard down. We have to be successful 100 percent of the time. And there are going to be several large, targeted events where we’re going to have people not just from across the country but across the globe… It is our responsibility to make sure that we are protecting those individuals.”
He also discussed cybersecurity threats: “Something else I’m sure that we will dive into during the hearing is something that I think a lot of us are now very familiar with which are cyberattacks, cyber threats, which we see often offensive operations by nation states, by criminal organizations, by terrorist organizations who are seeking to steal our data to cause chaos within our systems… We’ll talk about what’s happening within CISA, the organization that helps police that, and about what we see particularly on the cyber front going forward.”
Reflecting on DHS history since its creation after September 11 attacks, Guest said: “I still remember 9/11, where we had four airliners, which were hijacked, three of which successfully reached their targets and that was kind of the birth of the Department of Homeland Security. That’s when our nation really said that we needed to take a new approach to combat these threats. We were able to put many of these federal organizations under a single command structure so that we can better share information and better be able to use resources and look they’ve been incredibly successful. We’ve not had another 9/11 type of attack since then.”
He added: “We have the fewest number of border encounters that we have seen in the last 50 years… I do believe [DHS] has been incredibly successful and we want to make sure they have the resources they need to do their job.”
