Brian fitzpatrick, representing the eighth district. You are replacing your brother. Why did you decide to run . Rep. Fitzpatrick it was a tough decision. Years. N fbi agent for 14 i knew it was an open seat. I knew my brother was going to be honoring his work for term limits, which is something i believe in. It was something i thought long and hard about, just like anybody making a monumental step like that. , given that once you leave the bureau, temperately typically you cannot get back. Its not a reversible decision. Job i loved and i got to travel the world and work with amazing people. It was really difficult, especially stepping forth in an uncertainty. I live in a pretty tough district , a swing district. There was no guarantee as to the outcome would be. It was a risk, but it was one with taking for me, because like everyone else, i love my country and i wanted to do what i could to offer a different perspective. A lot of people that run for office, particularly for congress, are coming up through the political system, whether state or local. I was coming from a different place , being the fbi. I thought it was a unique perspective to bring. An outsiders perspective, one that is not political or ideological, but one that is based on facts and data and evidence. Personally, i think we need more of that in congress. People who can shun ideology and focus on making decisions based on data regardless of party affiliation. What advice did your brother give you . Rep. Fitzpatrick he gave me a lot of advice. Hes indispensable as a resource. Hes done such a great job representing the people of that district. People always refer to him. He was a county commissioner before he ran for congress. Throughout his term in congress aople referred to him as washingtonbased county commissioner, meaning that he never really lost his roots in that district. The best advice he gave me was as soon as those are gone done in d. C. , get on the amtrak and go back to your district. They are the ones you want to be with. You dont want to spend any more time than you need to hear. What were your years like in the fbi . Rep. Fitzpatrick i started in manhattan. That was my first assignment out of the academy. I was there for about seven years working political corruption. D. C. To bei came to a supervisor in the political corruption unit. Once here, my role spread more international because i stepped into the International Corruption role. I got to travel to several places across the country. My last and mystic assignment was out west, where i was also a political corruption supervisor. It has mainly been corruption, but everybody in the bureau at some point works counterterrorism, counterintelligence, Cyber Security matters, because that is the priority. Anytime a case comes up, San Bernardino being an example, it is all hands on deck. Or something in manhattan like bernie madoff. Areatter whether you assigned to whitecollar crime, everybodys working those cases. Its a team environment. You were working those highprofile cases. Were also a special assistant u. S. Attorney. What did you do . Rep. Fitzpatrick i prosecuted gun and drug crimes. One of the many fascinating agent isout being an you have the opportunity to cross designate as a special assistant u. S. Attorney. I had the chance to do that in the Eastern District of virginia, agent and my hometownf philadelphia, where high had incidentally clerked for a federal judge in the past. What did that entail . Rep. Fitzpatrick prosecuting cases in federal court. It gave me the chance to sit on the other side of the deck. As agents, we were collecting facts and giving it to prosecutors. In that case i was on the other side, presenting the case in court. Also you served as an interrogator of al qaeda in iraq. What were you doing . Rep. Fitzpatrick another detail for the bureau. In iraq, id killed with the Counterterrorism Division i detailed with the Counterterrorism Division. Particularly during iraqi freedom there was a need to call on the agency and bureau to work with foreign Law Enforcement overseas to kind of help in the intelligence process. The military folks would go out operations their outside of the their operations. They would bring detainees back and try to get information. Can you tell us about the interrogation you did . Rep. Fitzpatrick it was a detail between three and four months. It was basically part of a rotation that many agents cycle through throughout the course of several years. What do you think all that experience how does it help you in this job you are doing today . Rep. Fitzpatrick perspective. A couple things. I think being an outsider and working for an agency like that, theres not many people in that organization that are political. I think thats probably the biggest benefit. When you approach a job like this, one of the club qualities i think are needed in congress are people who quit put their Country First party and ideology second. It shouldnt be present at all, quite frankly. If you have more people like who take theople problem solvers perspective and are willing to work across the aisle and actually do that as a strength, and not something to be criticized, i think thats a good thing. We you have people coming out of organizations like the one i did, i think its the biggest benefit. It has trained me over 14 years to base decisions on data and else. G its not about talking points. Its not about who comes up with an idea. Its about right and wrong. Solutions to problems that make sense. What committees are you serving on and what are your priorities . Rep. Fitzpatrick home and security and foreign affairs. My subcommittee is Cyber Security. I cover north africa in the middle east as well as eurasia threats. Ing as far as priorities go, we are early on. Cyber security is a big threat. I talk about that a lot. You hear a lot about the threats of physical violence. Those are the ones people typically fear, but our cyber border is very weak,. A lot of people dont realize the significance. Of the threat that poses to the nation. We talk a lot about how we live in the glasshouse when it comes to Cyber Security. We stand a lot to lose unlike countries like north korea. Vulnerabilities are significant. If anyone were able to infiltrate our infrastructure grid, they could really hurt our democracy. It could threaten the whole host of other things like transportation. It is something we need to focus on. I was happy that chairman assigned me to that subcommittee because i think its the most Significant NationalSecurity Threat we face. Tell us about your district and this piece of art behind you. Rep. Fitzpatrick my district is a piece of montgomery county. Right behind me, a company a toy that many of us are familiar with. It is in hatfield, pennsylvania. They loaned this to my brother when he was here. My brother was asking me when he was on his way out if i wanted anything. I said this was an interesting conversation piece, maybe we could keep that if we could get it here in one piece. They did a good job. I think theres only three pieces that came off. I dont know where they went. Seems to be standing still. [laughter] why do you think you and your brother answered the call to serve our government . Rep. Fitzpatrick i dont know. He would have to ask him what led him to do it. He loves this community. He serves as a county commissioner for 10 years and did a really good job at it. Our congressmen had moved on, and mike was asked to step up. For me, its a matter of loving your country and offering a perspective. You never know what the outcome is. All you do if you put your ideas forward. You put it in the hands of the voters and live with the result. Thats what our country is about. Thats how i viewed my role stepping forth. It wasnt like i had this mission in life to be a u. S. Congressman. It was more about offering that choice to the voters and speaking about issues i thought were really important. Once you do that, you live with the result and you are ok as a person. Thank you very much for your time. Rep. Fitzpatrick appreciate it. President trump announced today that he selected Lieutenant General h. R. Mcmaster as his next National Security adviser. General mcmaster is currently director of the Army Capabilities center at fort eustis, virginia. Heres the announcement from maralago, florida. are you ready . We are ready. I just wanted to announce. We have been working all weekend, very diligently, very hard. General h. R. Mcmaster will become the advisor. Security he then when of tremendous talent and tremendous experience. A lot overnd read the last few days. He is highly respected by everybody in the military. We are very honored to have him. He also is known for a long time who il keith kellogg, also have gotten to know. Hes a terrific man. They will be working together. Event to be chief of staff. I think that combination will be very special. I met with many other people. Tremendous respect for the people i met with. I will ben bolton, asking to work with us in a somewhat different capacity. John is a terrific guy with really we had really good meetings with him. He knows a lot. A good number of ideas that i agree with. We will be talking to john bolton in a different capacity. I will be talking to some of the other generals. I really gained a lot of respect for them. I think with that, i would like to ask hr to say a couple of words. Then i was see you back in washington. We are leaving back now for washington and the white house. Mr. Moyar thank you very much. Thank youcmaster very much. Im grateful for the opportunity. Im looking forward to joining the National Security team. Thank you very much. President trump you are going to do a great job. Mr. President , thank you for the opportunity to continue to serve. Im very honored by it. Im honored to serve alongside h. R. Mcmaster as well. Hes a great statesman. Thank you. President trump thank you. This is a great team. Honored. Ry, very our country is lucky to have two people like this. Frankly, after having met so many of the people in the military, we are lucky to have all of them. Thank you all very much. I will see you back in washington. We are leaving now. That announcement from the maralago resort in palm