Two influential Republican senators on Sunday admonished President Trump for squabbling with his top intelligence officials – with one calling it “troubling to all of us.” “There’s an awful lot, there’s so much tradition, and history and complexity to some of these foreign policy issues, you have to rely on people who have been working these issues for decades,” Sen. Ron Johnson of Wisconsin said on “Fox News Sunday.” “It’s just imperative that you actually listen to, for example, the CIA chief, the director of national intelligence,” Johnson, the chairman of the Homeland Security Committee, continued. “These people have the real knowledge and you have to listen to them.” Sen. Richard Shelby, the chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee, agreed that the president must respect the experience of his intelligence chiefs. “These are professional people. The president’s briefed every day … [Read more...] about Top GOP senators slam Trump over fight with intelligence officials
National Security
Democrats, Republicans and intel officials rip Trump for dissing latest report
Top Democratic lawmakers, national security experts and other analysts ripped President Trump on Wednesday after he mocked his own top intelligence officials for contradicting his foreign policy opinions — telling them they “should go back to school.” “The President has a dangerous habit of undermining the intelligence community to fit his alternate reality. People risk their lives for the intelligence he just tosses aside on Twitter,” tweeted Virginia Sen. Mark Warner, the ranking Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee. “It is a credit to our intelligence agencies that they continue to provide rigorous and realistic analyses of the threats we face. It’s deeply dangerous that the White House isn’t listening,” added Rep. Adam Schiff, chair of the House Intelligence Committee. House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer called Trump’s denial dangerous. “On almost every national security challenge the president is in denial or … [Read more...] about Democrats, Republicans and intel officials rip Trump for dissing latest report
Trump Again Attacks Intelligence Officials After They Contradict His False Claims
POLITICS 01/30/2019 11:57 am ET The leaders of top national intelligence agencies released their annual report on worldwide security threats, challenging many of Trump's false talking points. By Marina Fang President Donald Trump on Wednesday unleashed a stream of insults at the nation’s intelligence officials after they published a report directly contradicting some of his most frequent false claims about foreign policy. Trump, who has regularly undermined and questioned the work of institutions and officials in his own administration, referred to “the Intelligence people” as “extremely passive and naive” and suggested they “should go back to school.” The Intelligence people seem to be extremely passive and naive when it comes to the dangers of Iran. They are wrong! When I became President Iran was making trouble all over the Middle East, and beyond. Since ending the terrible Iran Nuclear Deal, they are MUCH different, … [Read more...] about Trump Again Attacks Intelligence Officials After They Contradict His False Claims
Intel officials reveal the greatest threats to US national security
Russia and China remain the greatest threats to US security, ISIS has not been defeated and North Korea is unlikely to abandon its nuclear weapons program, the nation’s top intelligence official said Tuesday. Russia and China are locked in “a race for technological and military superiority” over the US, Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats told the Senate Intelligence Committee during a grim update on world threats with CIA Director Gina Haspel, FBI Director Christopher Wray and other top intel officials. The two adversaries “are more aligned than at any point since the mid-1950s,” Coats said, a stark reference to the Cold War era. More broadly, the intelligence report on which Coats based his testimony, the Worldwide Threat Assessment, predicted that security threats to the US and its allies this year would expand and diversify, driven in part by China and Russia. Coats also told the committee that Russia and perhaps other countries were likely to … [Read more...] about Intel officials reveal the greatest threats to US national security
Ex-DOJ Counterintelligence Chief: Trump Is ‘A Clear And Present Danger’ To National Security
MEDIA 01/15/2019 02:06 am ET David Laufman called Trump's actions "positively chilling." By Ed Mazza The former head of the Justice Department’s counterintelligence unit said President Donald Trump was a threat to the security of the United States. David Laufman said on Monday that he reached a “tipping point” after the Washington Post reported that Trump had concealed details of his meetings with Russian President Vladimir Putin from members of his own administration. “It’s a painful anguishing thing to acknowledge that the president of the United States is a clear and present danger to the national security of the United States,” he told MSNBC host Rachel Maddow. Laufman, who served as chief of the Counterintelligence and Export Control Section of the DOJ’s National Security Division, told Maddow he had a “moral obligation” to speak up when he sees national security undermined by government officials. … [Read more...] about Ex-DOJ Counterintelligence Chief: Trump Is ‘A Clear And Present Danger’ To National Security