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Ratcliffe and Patel Testify at the Senate Intelligence Worldwide Threats Hearing, Mar. 18, 2026

March 18, 2026 · PBS NewsHour · 2:24:33

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What happened

The Senate Select Committee on Intelligence held its annual Worldwide Threats hearing on March 18, 2026, with Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard, CIA Director John Ratcliffe, FBI Director Kash Patel, Acting National Security Agency Director Lt. Gen. William Hartman, and Defense Intelligence Agency Director Lt. Gen. James Adams testifying, according to Lawfare’s summary of the hearing. PBS NewsHour carried the hearing live in full. The committee questioned the intelligence leaders on the ongoing war in Iran, the Russia-Ukraine war, cyber threats posed by China and Russia, and foreign threats to U.S. elections, according to Lawfare.

Iran dominated the sharpest exchanges. Asked by Senator John Cornyn whether anything indicated Iran had ceased its nuclear ambitions after the previous year’s strikes, Ratcliffe answered, “No,” adding, “In fact, the intelligence reflects the contrary,” as CNN reported from the hearing. Ratcliffe also disagreed with the assessment of the recently resigned head of the National Counterterrorism Center, Joe Kent, that Iran did not represent an imminent threat; Ratcliffe stated that Iran has been a constant threat since 1979 and poses an immediate threat, according to the hearing record summarized by Small Wars Journal. Directors Gabbard and Ratcliffe told the committee they had provided constant intelligence briefings to the President, and confirmed Iran had plans to hit U.S. interests and energy sites in the region. Patel described the FBI’s use of commercially available information consistent with the Constitution and the Electronic Communications Privacy Act, and highlighted 59 Homeland Security Task Forces nationwide co-led by the FBI and the Department of Homeland Security. Democratic senators pressed the panel on the intelligence community’s priorities, including Director Gabbard’s presence at an FBI operation at a Georgia elections office in January and cited reductions in cyber and counterterrorism resources, according to CNN’s takeaways from the hearing.

Why it matters

This is Ratcliffe’s second annual threats hearing as CIA Director and the fullest public statement of the intelligence community’s position during the Iran war: his on-the-record judgment that Iran’s nuclear ambitions continued, contradicting a resigned senior counterterrorism official, is the kind of dated, attributed assessment the scoreboard exists to check against later evidence. Patel’s testimony likewise puts the FBI’s data practices and its joint-task-force expansion on the public record.

Scoreboard watch

This hearing is a scoreboard candidate: Director Ratcliffe’s March 18, 2026 statements that the intelligence reflects Iran had not ceased its nuclear ambitions and that Iran poses an immediate threat, each as stated at the hearing, to be checked against the administration’s subsequent public assessments.

Sources: Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, Worldwide Threats hearing, March 18, 2026 (full hearing as carried by PBS NewsHour, embedded above); Lawfare No Bull, March 2026, summary of the hearing; CNN, March 18, 2026, takeaways from the testimony; Small Wars Journal, March 2026, hearing notes. All figures and characterizations as stated by the witnesses and committee members at the hearing.