One of the worst fights a President (or incoming President) can pick, is one with his intelligence community. Donald Trump, reacting to stories about the CIA’s claims of Russian interference in the presidential election, decided to blast the CIA, taking the news as a political attack, as opposed to showing concern for the Russian government hacking into US based systems.
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Using liberal talking points to dismiss the CIA’s findings before taking office is a dangerous precedent. He will be taking office while ISIS is still a threat and when information gathered by the intelligence community will be critical to the decisions he makes. Mike Pompeo, Trump’s choice to head the CIA, now has a big mess to clean up the moment he takes over the role as CIA Director.
As for Russia’s intent, I spoke briefly with somebody more versed on these matters than I, and this person said they doubt agents at the CIA concluded anything. This person believes it was a political figure at the CIA who reached the conclusion Russia wanted Trump to win.
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All that said, Trump as the leader of the Republican Party, should not be spitting in the face of the CIA. He should have gathered together Paul Ryan and Mitch McConnell, call a press conference and say one of the first orders of business for the new Congress would to be to hold hearings to investigate Russian hacking and to see how far it went. If Trump doesn’t do it, and Congress fails to do so, they’ll be just as culpable as Trump for allowing Russia to attempt to cause chaos in our Presidential election and get away with it.
Trump’s most important role as Commander-In-Chief of the United States of America is to defend the country. By smearing the CIA, Trump immediately weakened our ability to publicly push back against countries like Russia and China, who are no doubt continuing to attempt (and succeed) in hacking government systems, providing them with information that puts the country at risk.
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—-> Trump Throwing The Intelligence Community Under The Bus Is Inexcusable | RedState https://t.co/RScRnPCeLF
— Jay Caruso (@JayCaruso) December 10, 2016
Liberals: I suddenly love the CIA
Trumpers: I suddenly hate the CIA
Conservatives: I respect the difficult work CIA does and always have— Tom Nichols (@RadioFreeTom) December 10, 2016
Redstate appears to have gone “Red” in the ’50s sense of the word.
The CIA has been deeply sympathetic to the leftist drift in politics as long as it has existed.
I cheer Trump’s willingness to dismiss their tendentious propaganda.
Regardless it wasn’t a good move for Trump to do this in public. It shows how he isn’t ready for prime time. He has no clue as to what being POTUS entails or how to conduct himself. He can be pro-active and accomplish the same things without causing chaos and endangering our national security. He is like a bull moose in a china shop and I can guarantee you stuff is going to get broken.
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