Recent reports have revealed that US Election security officials informed lawmakers about Russia’s efforts to undermine and influence the 2020 presidential elections in favor of Donald Trump.
The New York Times was the first to report on the briefing, where Election security official Shelby Pierson stated that Russia’s tactics included hacking, use of social media, and attacks on election infrastructure, all in favor of Trump.
On Wednesday, Trump appointed Richard Grenell, the current US ambassador to Germany and a staunch Trump loyalist, as acting Director of National Intelligence after expressing displeasure towards outgoing DNI Joseph Maguire for allowing the information about Russia’s meddling efforts to be included in the briefing to Adam Schiff and Democrat lawmakers. This was particularly contentious given the Democrats’ use of Russian meddling accusations and the Ukraine-Biden story as a basis for commencing impeachment proceedings against him.
Trump’s anger stemmed from concerns that the report could be exploited by the Democrats, especially as Russia’s alleged interference in the 2016 election, which the US intelligence community believes was aimed at helping Trump win over Hillary Clinton, led to a three-year investigation by special counsel Robert Mueller.
A national security official in the Trump administration told CNN that Pierson may have misinterpreted the intelligence, suggesting that “a more reasonable interpretation of the intelligence is not that they have a preference, it’s a step short of that. It’s more that they understand the President is someone they can work with, he’s a dealmaker. But not that they prefer him over (Bernie) Sanders or (Pete) Buttigieg or anyone else. So it may have been mischaracterized by Shelby.”
“What the (intelligence community) sees as reporting the truth — simple statement of facts in evidence without judgment — the President sees as undermining his legitimacy,” a former unnamed intelligence official told CNN.
James Clapper, who served as the director of national intelligence under President Barack Obama, reacted to the story by telling CNN’s Wolf Blitzer on “The Situation Room” that Russia would again attempt to interfere in the 2020 US Presidential election.
“This is not a big surprise, but it illustrates the tremendous challenge that the intelligence community has where they’re teeing up facts that our President doesn’t want to hear, and with a result that the messenger got shot in the form of Joe Maguire being asked to leave,” Clapper said.
It should be remembered that in July 2018 in Helsinki, Finland, Trump sided with Russia’s president Valdmir Putin’s assertion that Russia didn’t meddle in the 2016 election despite his intelligence community’s assessment to the contrary.
“I have great confidence in my intelligence people, but I will tell you that President Putin was extremely strong and powerful in his denial today,” Trump told reporters as he stood beside Putin