In The Intelligence Community We Trust
The intelligence “community” is popular with the never Trump crowd these days. Former CIA Director and Communist voter John Brennan says Trump’s behavior in Helsinki was “treasonous” and “impeachable.” The president did take Putin’s word over that of his own national intelligence director’s after all. (He changed his mind the next day with the old double negative apostrophe explanation.)
National intelligence directors didn’t always get the last word, though. James Clapper told The Senate Intelligence Committee that the NSA didn’t spy on phone calls of ordinary Americans. But ordinary Americans weren’t buying it and he later admitted, “it was the least untruthful statement he could make.”
Churchill Collusion
It’s true. The great man was Stalin’s drinking buddy.
Churchill Collusion
But back then Russia and Britain were on the same side against the Nazis. Technically, it wasn’t Russia either. It was the communist Soviet Union. And Stalin was its totalitarian dictator who murdered millions more than the mere authoritarian Putin.
Trump Apostrophe
What could have caused Trump to side with Putin against his own Intel director? President Trump claimed the U.S./Russian relationship changed for the better during a two hour closed door meeting without notes. And he denied Russia meddled in the 2016 election.
That set off a national freak out making “Our Democracy” look unhinged.
Score one for Putin.
Former CIA Director Brennan called Trump treasonous. George Will called him an “embarrassing wreck of a man.” Calmer voices said his remarks were worse than Kristallnacht and Pearl Harbor.
Trump Apostrophe
So, within a day, on the 100th anniversary of the murder of Tsar Nicholas and his family, the president caved. He misspoke. He meant to say, “I don’t see any reason why it wouldn’t be Russia,” rather than “why it would be Russia.”
For the want of an apostrophe…
Strzok Grilling
FBI agent Peter Strzok insisted he was able to ignore his bias against Trump while investigating him. But congressional Republicans weren’t buying it during a circus of hearing on Friday.
Strzok Grilling
U.S. Rep. Steve Cohen, D-Tennessee, was so moved by Strzok’s grilling that he told him “If I could give you a Purple Heart, I would.”
NATO Brussels Breakfast Belgian Waffles
President Trump spoke up in his usual way at a NATO breakfast in Brussels. Which is to say overbearing.
He drove home the point, over and over, that all the member states need to pay their fare share. The U.S. pays more than other NATO members by far.
Brussels Breakfast Belgian Waffles
It’s a point often made by Trump opponents. But they were mortified.
