CNN, ADRIENNE VOGT

Virginia Democratic Rep. Abigail Spanberger, a former CIA officer, says she is concerned about threats to national security beyond Inauguration Day.

“The real issue that I think we need to focus on as an American people is that there is a violent and extreme ideology that has taken hold, that has been given safe harbor, if you will, in the political space. And we saw the results of what happens when that is able to fester and come to the forefront. We saw those results on Jan. 6,” Spanberger said on CNN’s “New Day.”

She said insurrectionists like those in the mob that stormed the Capitol “are not just going away.”

Spanberger said lawmakers who continued to refuse to accept the results of the presidential election over the past two months allowed lies around the election to “fester.”

“Every step along the way, when they had the ability to tell the truth to their constituents, when they had the ability to say there was no steal…they didn’t do it,” she said.

“Bit by bit, this is the problem — is when we have people in positions of leadership, who do not use their voice, this is what happens. We allow people the space to fester and foster these conspiracy theories that there was some steal that they need to rise up to,” she added.